Colored Summer

by Michelle McGriff

Book Overview

Fiction. A young woman, Thea Fairbanks, is surprised and shaken to find out she has a trait for a blood disorder specific to a culture other than the one she identified with when she went for a prenuptial physical. She looks to her family for answers. This is the beginning of a journey she will take as she learns more about her heritage and herself.

• Format: Hardcover
• ISBN: B002679SMG
• ISBN13: 9780739483121
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Urban Books, Deer Park, NY
• Length: 254 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Another great read from Michelle McGriff

Thank you Michelle McGriff for another wonderful read. This time the theme is `passing'. Although not by her choice, Emma, who could pass, was given to a white couple to be raised as their own child. It was a wrong choice by a dying Mother thinking it would be best for her child. Emma's life is tragic, her secret, that she is not white, clouds and affects the choices she makes. The fear of being found out is a constant threat in her life. Emma's journey from home, escaping trouble time and again, brings her into contact with quite memorable characters. Emma's life, written by the very talented Michelle McGriff is one you will not soon forget. The story just has everything, good storyline, great characters, (Molly is quite an original), and a pace, that engages you from the very beginning and you only wish there had been more. Many believe race relations have not really changed so much from the time this book is set, which is in the 1950's. I want everyone to read Colored Summer and talk about `passing', about the practice of keeping secrets, hiding who we really are. You see, Michelle's stories do that, get you thinking and talking and that is why I say again, thank you Michelle McGriff for writing another thought-provoking enjoyable novel, Colored Summer.

A Must Read

I was so disappointed Colored Summer came to an end. This was a great novel. Michelle takes you through the life of Emerald Jackson, a black woman caught in a white woman's body. Because Emerald's mom was Black and her father was Creole, her unique beauty was a curse that led her through a dramatic life. From the time of her birth Emerald had encounter many hardships. This exciting page turner takes you through Emerald's life, a time when it was hard being black, but Emerald's advantage is she easily passed for a white woman. This emotional novel takes you on Emerald's journey and inner turmoil with being her true self (black) or pretending to be something that she isn't (white)and battles in a time when things such as homosexuality and being of mixed heritage was not easily accepted. Overall, it was a well written novel with a must anticipated and very beautiful ending to a story of struggle and a strong mixed woman that overcame all obstacles life placed in her path.

Whoa.... Good Story

Colored Summer begins with the introduction of Thea as she prepares for her wedding. After discovering that she has the trait for sickle cell disease, a disease that is associated with Blacks, she begins to question her family about her ancestors. Things begin to unravel while on an outing with her paternal Grandmother, Emma (Emerald), who recognizes a vendor and a locket. Emerald was born with green eyes, straight black hair and white skin to a Black mother and white father. On her death bed Emerald's mother tells her that she is sending her to live with her white school teacher and her husband so that she can have a better life. Emerald doesn't want to leave her mother and Noah, the only person besides her mother that accepted her for who she was. Her name is changed to Emma as she tries to fit into the white world while desparately trying to hold on to her memory of her life as a colored woman in a world that is changing with the civil rights movement. McGriff does a wonderful job introducing the reader to a variety of colorful people in Emerald/Emma's life and the problems/reason of why people "passed" during that time. The story talks of rape, incest, homosexuality, love, drugs, abortion, politics, faith, prejudices from both black and white, and self discovery. Whoa... a lot of story crammed into 250 pages but a very well put together book. McGriff is a author to definately have to look out for with strong and thought provoking stories. Peace and blessings!!

Colored Summer Internalized

For new fans of Michelle McGriff, Colored Summer is the best introduction to black urban literature. This is a story that goes beyond the life of Emerald Jackson, a young girl with a black soul born with white features. This story reaches past the stereotypes to identify the very essence of what makes us black. Emma's heart-breaking journey from Shreveport Louisiana to California provides us with more than an urban commentary on intra-racial conflicts that blacks still face today. This story helps us recognize in ourselves, the lost child of Africa, finding ourselves isolated in a cold, white world, hoping to be welcomed back into the bosom of our black culture if we can only just prove "I'm black too!" Whether it's because we're too smart, too outspoken, too conservative, too liberal, too white, or just plain too square, we've found ourselves wanting to be accepted so badly by the very culture we were born into. Michelle communicates this poignant message through Emerald's life with accuracy and emotional integrity. Colored Summer has all the elements of a novel that can endure the test of time. We could see this book reach our kids and their kids if we give this book the attention it deserves. Introducing the reader to blonde Thea, who just found out she has sickle cell trait is the perfect ironic vehicle that grabs all readers, regardless of color, taking us into Emma's world together. Michelle gives us all credit by telling the harrowing story of a black woman without falling into hyper-sexualized characterizations of Emma's relationships with the men in her life. This is a book I will give to my daughter when she's ready for it and I will ask her to pass it down to her kids. Colored Summer is without a doubt a book that I believe worthy of literary status. We've all seen the perfectly worded, gilded language of the traditional literary genre. This is how we gained the right to write our own history and tell our own stories the way they should be told. Colored Summer shows us that it is time to embrace the elegant simplicity of an evolving generation of young black minds, who together with everyone who's lives we touch, represent the future of our country. Martin Luther King had a dream that one day his black brethren would be judged by the content of our character. I have a dream that one day my black family all over this country will embrace each other as one. That we will stop forcing each other to prove our "blackness" to be accepted as one of our own. That we will learn to appreciate the many facets of our beauty - whether we have course, short hair and dark skin, or long straight hair and white skin. Emma's pain and the people that she loved so dearly brings us all together, whether we identify with Mary, Lisbeth, Rebecca, or even God forbid- Mrs. Bickle! Ewww! Tell someone about Colored Summer today. Pass it on. Give it to the baby mamma sitting in the chair at the welfare office. Give to your friend. Tell a teacher about it.

Being Black in a White World

Thea Fairbanks got the shock of her life when the doctor informed her about her blood test. Thea was a carrier of the sickle cell trait. After asking her parents, Scott and Tina, if any family members had the disease, they both laughed knowing it was a "colored" disease. You see the Fairbanks were upstanding and respectable members of the "white" community. Thea believes that her grandmother Emerald "Emma" Jackson Fairbanks holds the key to understanding why she has this trait. Emma is proud of her heritage even though she doesn't openly express it. At a young age, she was sent to live with the Griffiths because her mother was dying. Emma suffered through many heartaches and years of mental and physical abuse before she learned to live with the hand God had dealt her. Emma knows all the details of their dark family secrets but she may not live long enough to reveal it. COLORED SUMMER is a dramatic historical romance about how many African Americans lived during the 1950's and 1960's. The characters leap from the page causing you to sympathize with their plight and thank God that it wasn't you. McGriff did her research with this one - she used terminology, dialogue, and believable examples concerning life during the Jim Crow era. COLORED SUMMER is a must read romance that will fill your sunny afternoons with both tears and laughter - both signs of an extraordinary novel.