Take My Hand
Fiction
Berkley
April 12, 2022
Hardcover
368
Purchased
Montgomery, Alabama 1973. Fresh out of nursing school, Civil Townsend has big plans to make a difference, especially in her African American community. At the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic, she intends to help women make their own choices for their lives and bodies.
But when her first week on the job takes her down a dusty country road to a worn down one-room cabin, she’s shocked to learn that her new patients are children—just 11 and 13 years old. Neither of the Williams sisters has even kissed a boy, but they are poor and Black and for those handling the family’s welfare benefits that’s reason enough to have the girls on birth control. As Civil grapples with her role, she takes India, Erica and their family into her heart. Until one day, she arrives at the door to learn the unthinkable has happened and nothing will ever be the same for any of them.
Decades later, with her daughter grown and a long career in her wake, Dr. Civil Townsend is ready to retire, to find her peace and to leave the past behind. But there are people and stories that refuse to be forgotten.That must not be forgotten.
Because history repeats what we don’t remember.
My review:
How timely is this novel? Well written, inspired by true life events, this book should scare the crap out of anyone living in the time we now find ourselves in. If you think overturning a fifty year old law will be the end of the age old reproductive war, READ THIS BOOK, because this will be next! This book made me sad, but mostly it made me angry (probably more so because of what was going down as I read it). Such a poignant story about two innocent girls (and their family) that put their trust in the wrong hands. I loved the character of Civil, who was trying to do her best for her patients, but never got over her first assignment. This book takes place in Alabama in 1973, the year I would have been 15 years old. To think of girls my own age (or younger) having their lives irreparably changed by "those in charge" is abominable! I would also suggest you read Necessary Lies by Diane Chamberlain, which is also an excellent novel about this same subject in my state of NC.
The last line of the summary of this novel says it all:
Because history repeats what we don’t remember.
Read it!
