Sadeqa Johnson has officially become a “read everything she writes” person. I didn’t notice at first that this novel that was making a splash various places I go was by the author of “The Yellow Wife,” a novel I read last year about the mixed race “wife” of a Richmond slave jail owner. The House of Eve story starts in 1948 with parallel stories of two young black women. Ruby Pearsall is a fifteen year old high school student in Philadelphia, raised by her grandmother until she became unable to care for her. Her mother, Inez, reluctantly takes her in but often sends her off to her aunt for a period of time when she decides Ruby, a good kid, has been too horrible. Ruby is smart, an ambitious and good student and one of those chosen from throughout the city to participate in a program that could lead to a full-time scholarship to college. The Pearsalls are dirt poor. Ruby often cannot find twenty cents for bus fare to her Saturday classes. Ruby is artistic. Her aunt is a unique, her own person character who encourages Ruby. Her grandmother supports her emotionally.
Eleanor Quarles, an unsophisticated small town Ohio girl is a sophomore at Howard University in Washington DC. Her well to do roommate turns out to be friendly, despite Eleanor’s modest means. Her only gripe is that Eleanor often has to work at her library job and stays home to study all the time. She believes Eleanor needs to get out sometimes. When Eleanor gets to know William Pride, a medical student who studies in the library and has noticed the pretty student worker, she finds out about class and colorism among some wealth Black residents of DC. William is from a family that expects him to marry a light skinned woman born to other wealthy family friends and to produce light skinned heirs. Eleanor does not fit that plan. She came from a working class family in a small town that did not differentiate among the black population based on color. William is rather unaware of his stature, which has good and bad effects on their chances of being together.
What is fabulous about this novel is the story of each woman. It is fun to see why Johnson was telling us their stories and to get to the ending. One part of the book is amazing and cannot be shared without it being a spoiler. It takes place in a setting that is well drawn and hard to read about. Johnson hits it out of the park and in an afterward, tells us what inspired this novel. The two narrators are remarkably engaging and I thoroughly enjoyed this as an audio book. I think it would also read well in print.
They Called me Bookworm 