River, Cross My Heart: Summary and book reviews of River, Cross My Heart by Breena Clarke, plus links to an excerpt from River, Cross My Heart and a biography of Breena Clarke.
River, Cross My Heart
by Breena Clarke
Hardcover: Oct 1999,
245 pages.
Paperback: Oct 1999,
245 pages.
Legends abound that the Potomac River is a widowmaker, a childtaker, and a woman-swallower. According to the most famous tale, the river has already swallowed three sisters--three Catholic nuns. Yet it did not swallow them, only drowned them and belched them back up in the form of three small rock islands. They lie halfway between one shore and the other, each with a wimple made of seabirds' wings.
The Three Sisters is a landmark. When you say the Three Sisters, people know you're going to tell about something that happened on the river to cause grief. And it isn't really clear whether it's the boulders or the river at that spot that causes the grief. Nobody in his right mind goes swimming near the Three Sisters. The river has hands for sure at this spot. Maybe even the three nuns themselves, beneath the water's surface, are grabbing ankles to pull down some company.
--From River, Cross My Heart
A remarkable new writer makes her debut with a novel of tragedy and triumph in the life of an African American family in Georgetown, circa 1925.
Eight-year-old Clara Bynum is dead, drowned in the Potomac River in the shadow of an apparently haunted rock outcropping known locally as the Three Sisters. In scenes alive with emotional truth, River, Cross My Heart weighs the effect of Clara's absence on the people she has left behind: her parents, Alice and Willie Bynum, torn between the old world of their rural North Carolina home and the new world of the city, to which they have moved in search of a better life for themselves and their children; the friends and relatives of the Bynum family in the Georgetown neighborhood they now call home; and, most especially, Clara's sister, twelve-year-old Johnnie Mae, who must come to terms with the powerful and confused emotions sparked by her sister's death as she struggles to decide and discover the kind of woman she will become.
This highly accomplished first novel resonates with ideas, impassioned lyricism, and poignant historical detail as it captures an essential part of the African American experience in our century.
Washington Post Book World - Holly Bass
A sweet read...sweet like homemade ice cream from a hand-cranked machine, and just as rich.
San Francisco Chronicle - John Perry
A warm, graceful first novel...with a host of well-drawn and appealing characters...Clarke brings an affectionate eye and beautifully restrained prose to her fictional archaeology.
Baltimore Sun - Michael Shelden
A genuine masterpiece...full of grace and beauty and profound insights....It bears traces of Eudora Welty's charm and Toni Morrison's passion.
Chicago, Tribune - Sandra Scofield
Seldom do I find a novel that I can recommend to everyone....I'm delighted to say that River, Cross My Heart fills the bill.
Recent Reader Reviews
Rated of 5
by sherri river, cross my heart = fabulous This novel was amazing! I can't quite see how some of you can say it was boring...I thought it was fabulous. I loved the emotional truths and sheer passion seen through Johnnie Mae.
Rated of 5
by cameren
this book was very ok and unremarkable. it was a ice try though
Rated of 5
by melody ware
i think that the book really made you think and i t made you read between the lines. fro example the prejudice and the thought that she has to live with that she was suppose to be watching her little sister and since she didnt she died.
Rated of 5
by Hina Latif
This book was so.....not gettin to the point i dont recommend it to any one!
Rated of 5
by Anonymous
I found this book ok they made it seem so exciting but as i read it, i became slightly confused as to what was happening. It provided great insight to the world of African Americans of the 20's, and it tought me a lot. Even though the book did seem... Read More
Rated of 5
by Angie B.
This book was a great read! I felt as though I was living in the 1920's right with the Characters.
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by cameren
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by melody ware
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by Hina Latif
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