The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis

This book surprised me in a number of ways.  It is by a first time author who devised a clever way to tell her story and in the process brought us to appreciate some of the personal struggles that dominated the characters’ lives.  Ultimately, the book is difficult subject matter.  Hattie’s life might have taken a much different turn had she not chosen the man she did to marry.  While in most ways they were total opposites.  Each could have benefitted from some of the other’s traits.

 

 

 

The story follows Hattie’s life through vignettes of her nine surviving children’s lives.  Each had a unique story that reflected back on the way Hattie dealt with her own life challenges – by being steely natured.  It is a story that might bring one to the brink of tears for all of the emotional losses, leaving the reader hoping for a positive turn.  But Hattie’s life story reminds us that you can’t judge a book by its cover.  Under the unyielding exterior is a woman of great love – invisible as it was to everyone in her life.  But to prepare her children for the world as she knew it, she chose to manage things rather than her children and she withheld that precious gift of affection that gives children the confidence to move ahead with light in their lives.

 

 

 

In many ways this book is a cautionary tale.  But it is an extraordinary effort.  Probably the book’s biggest life lesson is about creating balance in one’s life.  Hattie’s children were not prepared for the lives they would lead, just as Hattie was not prepared for her own because she restricted her vision to a very small window made of broken dreams. 

 

 

 

 

Even with the darkness of the story, I think it is an important work and will be talked about for some time to come.

 

 

 

 

Overall our group of nine rated The Twelve Tribes of Hattie at a 4.1/5.0.

 

 

 

 

For November, we are reading The Mistletoe Promise by Richard Paul Evans.  We will meet at Pizza Hut at noon on Tuesday, November 22nd. 

 

From Goodreads.com:

A love story for Christmas from the #1 bestselling author of The Christmas Box and The Walk.

Elise Dutton dreads the arrival of another holiday season. Three years earlier, her husband cheated on her with her best friend, resulting in a bitter divorce that left her alone, broken, and distrustful.

Then, one November day, a stranger approaches Elise in the mall food court. Though she recognizes the man from her building, Elise has never formally met him. Tired of spending the holidays alone, the man offers her a proposition. For the next eight weeks—until the evening of December 24—he suggests that they pretend to be a couple. He draws up a contract with four rules:

1. No deep, probing personal questions
2. No drama
3. No telling anyone the truth about the relationship
4. The contract is void on Christmas Day

The lonely Elise surprises herself by agreeing to the idea. As the charade progresses, the safety of her fake relationship begins to mend her badly broken heart. But just as she begins to find joy again, her long-held secret threatens to unravel the emerging relationship. But she might not be the only one with secrets.