On the Rooftop
A mother drills her three daughters toward stardom in 1950s San Francisco, as their Black neighbourhood is razed.
In 1950s San Francisco, Vivian drills her three daughters into a singing group she is certain will get them out, while the Fillmore district around them is being marked for redevelopment. Sexton gives each daughter her own wanting, none of it quite her mother’s plan, and sets the family story against the deliberate unmaking of a Black neighbourhood. The music is the pleasure, the loss underneath it is the point.
Recommended by 1 Person
Reese Witherspoon
An utterly original and brilliant story about learning how to mother children who have very different dreams
Book Club · September 2022
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