Eola Road Book Discussion

A Kind of Freedom by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

Drop in! This group reads a variety of fiction and non-fiction and meets once a month in person for discussion. February's selection: A Kind of Freedom by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton.

Contact discussion leader Elke Lange-Lalos at 630-264-3437 for a copy of the book.

A Kind of Freedom by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

A 2017 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD NOMINEE
A New York Times Notable Book of 2017
A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice

"This luminous and assured first novel shines an unflinching, compassionate light on three generations of a black family in New Orleans, emphasizing endurance more than damage." ?The New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice

Evelyn is a Creole woman who comes of age in New Orleans at the height of World War II. Her family inhabits the upper echelon of Black society, and when she falls for no-account Renard, she is forced to choose between her life of privilege and the man she loves.

In 1982, Evelyn’s daughter, Jackie, is a frazzled single mother grappling with her absent husband’s drug addiction. Just as she comes to terms with his abandoning the family, he returns, ready to resume their old life.

Jackie’s son, T.C., loves the creative process of growing marijuana more than the weed itself. He was a square before Hurricane Katrina, but the New Orleans he knew didn't survive the storm. Fresh out of a four-month stint for drug charges, T.C. decides to start over?until an old friend convinces him to stake his new beginning on one last deal.

For Evelyn, Jim Crow is an ongoing reality, and in its wake new threats spring up to haunt her descendants. A Kind of Freedom is an urgent novel that explores the legacy of racial disparity in the South through a poignant and redemptive family history.

Upcoming events