Review of KIN by Tayari Jones (New Release)

 4 Stars

This novel focuses on the lives of two black women growing up in segregated America in the 1950s and 1960s. Vernice (Niecy) and Annie are motherless girls born in Honeysuckle, Louisiana. Niecy is raised by her maternal aunt after a murder-suicide. Annie is abandoned by her mother Hattie Lee shortly after her birth and so is raised by her maternal grandmother.

As girls, they are inseparable, but afterwards they end up on very divergent paths. Niecy attends college in Atlanta where she ends up joining a sisterhood of powerful women. Marriage into an affluent family seems inevitable. Annie is fixated on finding her mother and just before her high school graduation runs away with friends to Memphis to find her. Despite being separated by distance and eventually by their socio-economic status, their connection is not broken.

The two girls are foil characters. Niecy is guided by reason; cautious and sensible, she has a desire for stability. Annie, on the other hand, is more a wild child guided by passion. She is totally single-minded in wanting to find her mother; it’s almost as if she lacks control of her emotions. Despite their differences, their love for and loyalty to each other is unbreakable.

The novel examines the meaning of kin and argues that a kin is not necessarily a blood relation. Annie states, “Me and Niecy weren’t sisters, and nowhere near twins. I didn’t have what she got nor the other way around. What you have the same isn’t what binds you. Hearts grow strings because of what you know that’s the same, what happened to you that’s the same.” What binds the girls is their sense of abandonment because of the loss of their mothers. Though both have other women who step in to raise them, that sense never leaves them. Annie and Niecy’s actions clearly indicate that they regard each other as their closest kin. The poignant ending is indeed a powerful testimony to friendship.

The book is narrated by both girls in alternating chapters so the reader is privy to their complicated internal lives. Both emerge as authentic characters; they’re human with flaws. Both make choices with which I disagreed but understood and so I hoped for the best for both of them.

The novel is primarily about mothers and daughters and about friendship, but it touches on other topics as well. Racism, poverty, sex work, abortion, sexual orientation, and gender roles are examined.

I very much enjoyed this book. It has beautiful prose, engaging characters, and thematic depth.

Note:  I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley.