Memphis by Tara M. Stringfellow
Summary
Summer 1995: Ten-year-old Joan, her mother, and her younger sister flee her father’s explosive temper and seek refuge at her mother’s ancestral home in Memphis. This is not the first time violence has altered the course of the family’s trajectory. Half a century earlier, Joan’s grandfather built this majestic house in the historic Black neighborhood of Douglass—only to be lynched days after becoming the first Black detective in the city. Joan tries to settle into her new life, but family secrets cast a longer shadow than any of them expected.
As she grows up, Joan finds relief in her artwork, painting portraits of the community in Memphis. One of her subjects is their enigmatic neighbor Miss Dawn, who claims to know something about curses, and whose stories about the past help Joan see how her passion, imagination, and relentless hope are, in fact, the continuation of a long matrilineal tradition. Joan begins to understand that her mother, her mother’s mother, and the mothers before them persevered, made impossible choices, and put their dreams on hold so that her life would not have to be defined by loss and anger—that the sole instrument she needs for healing is her paintbrush.
Unfolding over seventy years through a chorus of unforgettable voices that move back and forth in time, Memphis paints an indelible portrait of inheritance, celebrating the full complexity of what we pass down, in a family and as a country: brutality and justice, faith and forgiveness, sacrifice and love.
Book Setting: Memphis, TN
Millington, TN: Jax was based here when he first met Miriam.
Beale Street: Known for its jazz and blues clubs, Miriam, Hazel and August all went out here.
Douglass: The neighborhood where the North family has their home.
Locust Street: The street where the North family home is.
Camp Lejeune: Jax and Miriam move here after they get married.
Cooper Street: Miriam worked at a record store here. This is where she met Jax.
Rhodes College: Hazel, Miriam, August and Joan all took college courses here.
Douglass High School: All North girls and Derek attended high school here.
Poplar Avenue: Hazel used to deliver her mother Della’s dresses to the mansions on this street.
Orange Mound: Derek commits a crime in this neighborhood.
Cozy Corner: Tara M. Stringfellow wrote parts of Memphis here.
Local on the Square: Tara M. Stringfellow wrote parts of Memphis here.
Porch and Parlor: Tara M. Stringfellow wrote parts of Memphis here.
Reviews
“Written with the grace of a poet, Memphis is as hopeful as it is heartbreaking. I fell in love with this family, from Joan’s fierce heart to her grandmother Hazel’s determined resilience. Tara Stringfellow will be an author to watch for years to come. . . . A stellar debut.”
— Jacqueline Woodson, bestselling author of Red at the Bone
“In luminous, lyrical prose, Tara Stringfellow sings the song of the North women—and the North men—with wisdom, humor, and deep humanity. Memphis is an American epic, a tribute to life in all of its sorrow and joyful resilience.”
—Chloe Benjamin, bestselling author of The Immortalists
“Readers will come to see that Stringfellow is demonstrating the erratic movements of history, the false starts and reversals and, yes, the moments of progress that are reflected in our haphazard march toward realizing King’s vision for America. . . . With her richly impressionistic style, Stringfellow captures the changes transforming Memphis in the latter half of the 20th century.”
—The Washington Post