BookBrowse Reviews This Is Your Mother by Erika J. Simpson

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Erika J. Simpson's inventive memoir is a touching tribute to her late mother, who never wavered in her faith despite the challenges of poverty, single parenthood, and cancer.

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"Imagine this is your mother. Sallie Carol. Daughter of sharecroppers. Middle of ten." From its first lines onward, Erika J. Simpson's debut memoir invites readers to get to know and admire her mother, a larger-than-life figure who died in 2013. The dual timeline toggles between the final five months of her mother's life and Simpson's memories of her own childhood in Decatur, Georgia and early adulthood in Chicago. Incorporating various formats and voices, the book has verve and lightness that contrast with the family's struggles.

Sallie Carol taught science and founded her own counseling business, Freedom Peace. Money was always tight, and she and her two daughters mostly lived in motels and subsisted on food stamps. They had to be ready to pack their belongings at a moment's notice in case of eviction. Sallie Carol asked fellow churchgoers for donations and would recount her "testimony" of surviving cancer four times to try to get out of paying bills and cab fare. It worked surprisingly frequently — though sometimes her audacity came back to bite her, as when she was arrested for writing a bad check.

In high school, Simpson felt compelled to help her mother financially. Her youthful ambitions included rapping and writing fan fiction, before she ultimately discovered her true love of acting. When she was accepted into an exclusive theatre program at DePaul University in Chicago, Sallie Carol created a fundraising flyer to help her cover tuition. Despite a scholarship and a personal loan, Simpson barely made ends meet and didn't have enough to cover class trips. Even so, she sent the $1,000 Sallie Carol said she needed to keep her car. The car was repossessed anyway. It was a lesson for Simpson: "I understood now why my sister didn't respond to phone calls for money. Mama would probably need help with rent in another week."

The author makes the canny decision not to reveal until over halfway through that her mother was diagnosed bipolar and borderline schizophrenic. If this information appeared early on, it would inevitably color the reader's reaction. Instead, we relate to Sallie Carol just as Simpson did as a child ("I hated when I didn't have the full story, and I rarely did as an eight-year-old"): We are often confused by her behavior, but also charmed by her pluck.

Simpson writes for the screen, and has a gift for crafting scenes and dialogue. She includes a variety of styles and structures. In one section, the phrase "camera shutter clicks" signals a shift between vignettes. Letters and voicemails give a flavor of Sallie Carol's exuberant speech. Faux television clips titled "Beyond Belief" interrogate controversial moments from her life, such as when she mistakenly accused a student of pulling a knife on her (it was a hair pick). Sallie Carol's piety is clear from the language Simpson uses, with chapters titled "Genesis" and "Exodus" and her sayings presented like scripture: "Book of Sallie Carol 2:7: The money isn't due, due until the fifth of the month. … Book of Sallie Carol 6:6: If you've got nothing else, have faith." One scene is an imitation of a Black church service, with an "Amen" call-and-response.

Although the chronology can be a bit confusing, the recurrent use of second-person narration draws readers in. We find ourselves in Simpson's position, manning an H&M customer service line while waiting for news from Sallie Carol's Atlanta hospice. We feel the devastation that sets in when this woman who has overcome the odds so many times finally succumbs. But we also have space to think about our own mothers, whether living or dead: their quirks, their failures, their struggles, their love that overcame everything and lasts still.

This review first ran in the May 21, 2025 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.