Last Summer on State Street
Autor Toya Wolfeen Limba Engleză Paperback – 2 mai 2023
Subliniem o imagine care persistă mult timp după ce închidem paginile acestui debut: patru fete în curtea interioară a complexului Robert Taylor Homes, prinse în ritmul hipnotic al jocului Double Dutch, în timp ce în jurul lor, cartierul se prăbușește la propriu. În „Last Summer on State Street”, Toya Wolfe ne transportă în vara anului 1999, un moment de răscruce pentru Chicago, când blocurile turn sunt programate pentru demolare, iar comunitățile care le-au numit „acasă” sunt pe punctul de a fi dezrădăcinate. Remarcăm cum autoarea reușește să captureze acea fragilitate a copilăriei care încearcă să ignore zgomotul utilajelor de demolare și amenințarea violenței urbane. Perspectiva narativă este una confesivă și profund melancolică. Felicia „Fe Fe” Stevens ne ghidează prin labirintul loialităților fracturate, unde prietenia cu pioasa Precious și rebela Stacia este pusă la încercare de apariția enigmaticei Tonya. Credem că forța acestui roman rezidă în modul în care Wolfe împletește inocența jocurilor de vară cu realitatea brutală a instituțiilor marcate de rasism și a instabilității locative. Ca și This Side of Home de Renée Watson, această scriere explorează modul în care gentrificarea și schimbările urbane forțează tinerii să se maturizeze prematur, dar o face dintr-o perspectivă mai ancorată în nostalgia dureroasă a unui spațiu care nu mai există decât în memorie. Stilul este unul reverențios față de trecut, transformând o poveste despre pierdere într-una despre reziliență. Nu este doar un roman despre ce înseamnă să pierzi o casă, ci despre cum îți reconstruiești identitatea atunci când punctele tale de reper dispar. Ritmul este așezat, lăsând spațiu pentru reflecție, iar structura care alternează între prezent și trecut subliniază ideea că traumele și legăturile din acea ultimă vară pe State Street continuă să pulseze în viața adultă a protagonistei.
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Specificații
ISBN-10: 006320973X
Pagini: 224
Dimensiuni: 133 x 203 x 15 mm
Greutate: 0.16 kg
Editura: Harpercollins
De ce să citești această carte
Recomandăm această carte cititorilor care caută o proză contemporană plină de sensibilitate, similară cu lucrările lui Jacqueline Woodson. Este o lectură despre puterea prieteniei feminine în condiții de criză și despre modul în care ne definim identitatea prin raportare la locurile în care am crescut. Veți câștiga o perspectivă onestă asupra supraviețuirii urbane și a modului în care memoria poate vindeca rănile trecutului.
Despre autor
Toya Wolfe este o voce emergentă în literatura americană contemporană, originară chiar din Chicago, orașul care servește drept decor pentru scrierile sale. Debutul său, „Last Summer on State Street”, a fost întâmpinat cu un succes răsunător, fiind desemnată una dintre cele mai bune cărți ale verii de publicații precum Chicago Tribune și Publishers Weekly. Experiența sa personală în comunitățile din Chicago aduce un nivel de autenticitate rar întâlnit, Wolfe fiind apreciată pentru capacitatea de a portretiza viețile marginalizate cu demnitate și o profundă înțelegere umană.
Descriere scurtă
“[A] powerful novel.... Tragic, hopeful, brimming with love, Wolfe’s debut is a remarkable achievement.”—New York Times Book Review
Named a Best Book of Summer by Good Housekeeping, Chicago Magazine, The St. Louis Post Dispatch, Chicago Tribune, Veranda, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Publishers Weekly, and more!
For fans of Jacqueline Woodson and Brit Bennett, a striking coming-of-age debut about friendship, community, and resilience, set in the housing projects of Chicago during one life-changing summer.
Even when we lose it all, we find the strength to rebuild.
Felicia “Fe Fe” Stevens is living with her vigilantly loving mother and older teenaged brother, whom she adores, in building 4950 of Chicago’s Robert Taylor Homes. It’s the summer of 1999, and her high-rise is next in line to be torn down by the Chicago Housing Authority. She, with the devout Precious Brown and Stacia Buchanan, daughter of a Gangster Disciple Queen-Pin, form a tentative trio and, for a brief moment, carve out for themselves a simple life of Double Dutch and innocence. But when Fe Fe welcomes a mysterious new friend, Tonya, into their fold, the dynamics shift, upending the lives of all four girls.
As their beloved neighborhood falls down around them, so too do their friendships and the structures of the four girls’ families. Fe Fe must make the painful decision of whom she can trust and whom she must let go. Decades later, as she remembers that fateful summer—just before her home was demolished, her life uprooted, and community forever changed—Fe Fe tries to make sense of the grief and fraught bonds that still haunt her and attempts to reclaim the love that never left.
Profound, reverent, and uplifting, Last Summer on State Street explores the risk of connection against the backdrop of racist institutions, the restorative power of knowing and claiming one’s own past, and those defining relationships which form the heartbeat of our lives. Interweaving moments of reckoning and sustaining grace, debut author Toya Wolfe has crafted an era-defining story of finding a home—both in one’s history and in one’s self.
"Toya Wolfe is a storyteller of the highest order. Last Summer on State Street is a stunning debut."—Rebecca Makkai, New York Times bestselling author of The Great Believers
Recenzii
“This incredible book is about pulling yourself up regardless of your circumstances. I felt this one deeply, and I hope you enjoy it as well.” — Stephen Curry
“First-time novelist Wolfe writes with lacerating precision and authenticity…. In a fictional counterpart to Dawn Turner’s memoir, Three Girls from Bronzeville, Wolfe’s deeply compelling characters, sharply wrought settings, and tightly choreographed plot create a concentrated, significant, and unforgettable tale of family, home, racism, trauma, compassion, and transcendence.” — Booklist (starred review)
“Wolfe’s arresting and atmospheric narrative comes fully realized. This is a gut punch.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Wolfe has written a bittersweet coming-of-age novel set in building 4950 [of the Robert Taylor Homes] in the summer of 1999... A complex and compassionate look at the friends and families, relationships and resistance that existed in that long-gone but not forgotten time and place.” — Chicago Magazine
“A poignant look at growing up in Chicago public housing by a debut novelist who lived in one of the city's most notorious developments…. Wolfe has a wonderful ear for dialogue, deploying pitch-perfect vernacular and slang.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune
"This coming-of-age story is laced with self-discovery and shows how tragedy in childhood can follow us forever." — Good Housekeeping
"Toya Wolfe is a storyteller of the highest order—a wise and compassionate chronicler of girlhood, of Chicago, and of the things that make us human. Last Summer on State Street is a stunning debut." — Rebecca Makkai, New York Times bestselling author of The Great Believers
“Last Summer on State Street is a triumph, a beautiful ode to the humanity, complexity, and compassion of people in a community too often defined by pathologies. You will root for the brave and surefooted Felicia, Precious, Stacia, and Tonya, as well as their families—all striving amid the rubble. What a lovely debut told with warmth, grace, and a piercing affection.” — Dawn Turner, author of Three Girls from Bronzeville
"Last Summer on State Street is a love letter to girlhood, the tenuous bonds of friendship, and the places we call home. As a daughter of Chicago's South Side, this novel took me inside a community I just passed by, but didn't truly see. Wolfe dazzles in this intimate portrait of race, grief, and the times in our lives that shape who we become." — Nancy Johnson, author of The Kindest Lie
“[A] thoughtful snapshot of the end of public housing high-rises in Chicago.” — Chicago Tribune
“Last Summer on State Street is a beautifully observed portrait of family and female friendship. Toya Wolfe is a marvelous writer; her deft storytelling and keen understanding makes her debut novel a great pleasure to read.” — Audrey Niffenegger, New York Times bestselling author of The Time Traveler’s Wife
“[R]eaders who enjoyed Sandra Cisneros’ House on Mango Street will fall in love with this book…. Racism, the power of our own histories, and the regrets that shape our futures are all on gorgeous display in Toya Wolfe’s Last Summer on State Street.” — Manhattan Book Review
“Last Summer on State Street is an ode to Black girls who are often forgotten. Toya Wolfe tells a compelling, warm, and funny story about a group of girls growing up in a Chicago public housing development. Wolfe delves into their lives with tenderness and care. Despite how outsiders may see their community, Wolfe lets us in to see the girls’ innocence—and their struggles.” — Natalie Y. Moore, author of The Billboard
“I can’t stop thinking of Toya Wolfe’s novel Last Summer on State Street. Filled with both tenderness and tragedy, this moving tale of friendship and family pulls us into a corner of America too long neglected and scorned. Wolfe writes with such grace and such restraint, I felt like I was sitting on the front porch listening to a story told by a friend. What a spectacular debut.” — Alex Kotlowitz, author of An American Summer