The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi W. DurrowBack-of-the-book blurb: This is the story of Rachel, the daughter of a Danish mother and a black G.I. who becomes the sole survivor of a family tragedy.
With her strict African American grandmother as her new guardian, Rachel moves to a mostly black community, where her light brown skin, blue eyes, and beauty bring mixed attention her way. Growing up in the 1980s, she learns to swallow her overwhelming grief and confronts her identity as a biracial young woman in a world that wants to see her as either black or white.
She is Too Fond of Books’ review: At 250 pages, The Girl Who Fell from the Sky is a short book, but a powerful book. Durrow’s writing is strong as she captures the story of Rachel with chapters from her point of view told in the first person. Other perspectives – that of her grandmother, aunt, a neighbor, and others – are told in the third person, and Durrow gets into one character’s head by using an epistolary format at times.
For being on the shorter side, and for writing that is so well-crafted, I wanted to just keep reading … this is the book that caused dinner to be late on Friday!
But did I like the book? Yes, yes, and … um, no.
Yes: I loved the writing, which struck me most strongly in the first-person accounts of Rachel:
I am light-skinned-ed. That’s what the other kids say. And I talk white. I think new things when they say this. There are a lot of important things I didn’t know about. I think Mor didn’t know either. … They have a language I don’t know but I understand. I learn that black people don’t have blue eyes. I learn that I am black. I have blue eyes. I put all these new facts into the new girl.
… when a person fakes happy it has edges. Regular people may not see, but the people who count, they can see the edges and lines where your smile ends and the real you, the sadness (me) or the anger (Grandma) begins.
I don’t know if the true story about … that day on the roof or about any story you could think of matters. If there’s no one else to tell another side – the only story that can be told is the story that becomes true.
We and lonely don’t belong in the same sentence.
Yes: The central theme is thought-provoking without being a lecture. Durrow explores the issue of racial identity- does a biracial child identify more strongly with one race or another? Can a ‘black’ person take on ‘white’ mannerisms, and vice versa? What makes a person refer to himself as being of a particular race? Is it skin tone? Culture? The way others label him? She also addresses family relationships and shows the many ways ‘protecting’ a child can be interpreted.
Um, no: Rachel changed tremendously over the course of the book; she explored who she might be, taking her cues from her memory of family, as well as externally from others. I felt heavy, a burden, when I closed the book. I wasn’t sure Rachel had found her true self. Maybe that’s the point, maybe none of us really know.
The Girl Who Fell from the Sky is the new winner of the Bellwether Prize, which recognizes fiction that addresses issues of social justice. This $25,000 publication award, founded by Barbara Kingsolver, was last given to Hilary Jordan for Mudbound. The Girl Who Fell from the Sky is published by the Algonquin imprint of Workman Publishing, one of my favorite “go to” imprints for literary fiction.
Talk to me, people! Am I supposed to feel heavy-hearted when I finish this novel? Does that mean Durrow met her goal in me as a reader, and I’m just taking a while to “get it”?!
FTC disclosure: review copy provided by the publisher
I haven’t read this one, but I’ve definitely been seeing it around the blogosphere. I’m sorry you felt heavy-hearted at the end. The book does sound good though, especially the bi-racial aspect of it intrigues me. Thanks for the review!
I haven’t read this book, so I can’t say whether you are supposed to feel the heaviness. Usually, I think it’s a good thing if the author has generated such a strong emotional reaction. Sounds like a worthwhile read.
I started this one and then got distracted by another book —back to it soon I hope. Great review Dawn –glad u enjoyed it.
I didn’t relate to Little Bee, and asked myself the same questions. I decided it was the writing and character construction. (not ME, for heaven’s sakes!)
What Jill (rhapsody) said!
I haven’t read this one, so I can’t say more.
I haven’t read this one so I can’t say. It would bug me though to not know how to feel after read it though.
I haven’t read this one although I’d like to. I usually think it’s good for an author to get some kind of reaction to a book to make it a good one but at the same time I don’t know that I’d like to finish and feel so heavy hearted about it either.
Julie – I haven’t read many review of it (I think I ignored any I saw, since I didn’t want to influence my own reading of THE GIRL WHO FELL FROM THE SKY). I’ll go back and look for them now …
Anna – I agree that an emotional response is certainly memorable!
Diane – I’ll look for your thoughts after you finish it.
rhapsody – LOL! No, it can’t be me (ha ha!). I thought the writing was superb, and Rachel well-developed (the other characters were there for her development only IMHO). So, if it’s not the writing or character development … maybe it IS me! (yikes!) (I haven’t yet read LITTLE BEE)
Beth – Thanks for helping me deny responsibility! I’m looking forward to talking/emailing with other who’ve read this one.
Ti – I’m really wondering if that’s a common reaction with others when they’ve finished THE GIRL WHO FELL FROM THE SKY. I’ll have to look for other reviews and compare reactions.
Darlene – and I wonder if that feeling (which stays with me!) is the reaction the author intended. If so, well done!
I’m excited to read this book! But I’m something like fourteenth on my library’s hold list for it. It sounds like you mostly liked it, so I’m looking forward to giving it a try.
I haven’t read it yet, but it sounds good to me, heavy heart and all. You’ve made me really curious about the book.
I have seen this book all over the place, but yours is the first review on it I have seen. After reading your review of it I am not sure if it would be the book for me. On the one hand, I do like the questions it poses and think that they are very relevant, but the fact that the character shows questionable growth kind of bothers me a little bit. I am not sure if I would be happy with the myriad questions that I would be left with, you know? I did like your review though, and found it very earnest and informative. I guess I am still on the fence about this one!
I wish I could help you out .. but I haven’t read it.
Hmmm…sounds interesting. I just finished Mudbound and absolutely loved it, so I would certainly give another Bellwether Prize winner a try.
Sue
Jenny – I can’t wait until more people read it so we can ‘talk’ about it. Hard to say much now without giving away plot!
Kathy – she captures the emotions/thoughts/questions of Rachel
zibilee – the main character goes thru a lot of growth (changes). The writing is incredible, maybe I’m not in the mood for something so contemplative (?)
Jenners – well, get on it!
Sue – I haven’t yet read MUDBOUND, but it did catch my eye when it first came out; glad to know you enjoyed it so much.
I read this book two weeks ago and I absolutely loved it! I could absolutely relate to Rachel in regards to not fitting in with your community. A lot of experiences she had with how black girls treated her because of how she looked and spoke, I experienced as well growing up. I’m not bi-racial but I was ridiculed for having white friends and for talking “white”. My “blackness” was always questioned by my “peers”. On that level, the book spoke to me. There were many quotes by Rachel’s grandmother that I remember hearing my parents say. There were plenty of times while reading, I shouted out loud YES! There were things that Rachel did to fit in that I’ve done also.
I finished the book feeling unsatisfied. I wanted to know what became of Rachel; did she finally accept herself. Was she able to find peace? I think the subject matter is too heavy to have a nice, happy ending so it’s easier to have the reader left wondering. I do wish the book was longer. I do feel like there should have been more.
Marquetta – Thanks so much for your comment … Yes, the writing is fantastic, and I think Durrow captured Rachel and her struggles (and, boy, did she have a lot going on!). I don’t have personal experience with being labeled or accused of being other than who I am (I’m white, raised in predominantly white area), but I knew the voice was true, even without going thru that myself.
I hesitated to say I’m unsatisfied with the ending. It was definitely effective, if Durrow’s goal is to have us thinking about Rachel and her situation (but, yes, I wanted MORE!)- it’s not a book you can finish and say, “OK, what’ll I read next”. This one has to simmer, then settle before I can pick up my next book. I already know it will be something light and predictable, because I’ll still have THE GIRL WHO FELL FROM THE SKY in my head.
I have not read this novel, but I think in many ways that may be the takeaway that we really never know who we are truly….it takes a long time to find oneself and become comfortable with that person.
Awesome review!
I definitely want to read this one. I think the fact that you weren’t sure she found herself at the end of the book makes me want to pick it up more!
Great review. I’ve heard a lot of really good things about this book. It’s interesting when we feel like the ending isn’t totally complete, as you felt with the character development, but that life still goes on. Maybe she’ll get there eventually?
Serena – I think that’s right, and it was a tough week for me to read a book that ended with a THUD like that. So true that our own lives affect how we interpret a book.
Swapna – It’s very good. The more time passes, the more I accept where Rachel was at the end (like I have a choice?!?)
J.T. – Now’s our chance to get philosophical — are any of us ever complete?!
I’m planning on reading this–it’s nice to know that it might not live up to the exceedingly high expectations I had for it. It always makes me like a book more when I’m expecting less than what I end up getting. Does that make sense?
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I read this book and thoroughly enjoyed it. I think Rachel was still young by the end of the book, and was on her way to still finding herself. The book doesn’t solve all her problems, but begins to see these issues being addressed, and perhaps ‘looked at’. I like to think of it as a ‘coming of age’ novel. For her, it was finding the defining lines of her identity, and for so many others, including myself in that awkward period, it was trying to determine whether I was the prep, the athlete, or whatever it was that helped me to fit in.