Praise for Mostly White
“Alison Hart’s debut novel, Mostly White, spans five generations and about one hundred years in a family with American Indian, African American, and Irish roots. It is a uniquely American story showing how people from the cultures and traditions of three continents found themselves together in the North American wilderness, sometimes in conflict and misunderstanding but other times in cooperation and love. Their mixed-race descendants are ordinary yet courageous people who survive against the terrible odds imposed by racism and poverty to pass both sorrow and inner strength down to their children and grandchildren. Hart has written a great American epic, which should be read and discussed for many generations to come.”
—Lucille Lang Day, author of Married at Fourteen and Becoming an Ancestor
“In a world clamoring for diverse voices and characters in whom readers can see themselves, as well as learn about people different from themselves, Alison Hart’s Mostly White is a beacon. Through the story of four generations of women, from a mixed-race Native and African American family, our eyes and hearts are opened to a world we may not know, but should.”
—Andrew Weiner, Abrams Books
“The trickle-down effect of genocidal practices and values—many of you have forgotten but our souls bear the costs of your purposely lost memories. Here are some of those soul stories … read and weep for us all. Thank you, Alison, for remembering the ancestors.”
—Abby Abinanti, Yurok, Chief Judge of the Yurok Tribal Court
“There is a genius of the heart, as well as the mind, and this book gives profound evidence that the author possesses both in abundance … Ms. Hart is not only keeping the faith, but she is passing it on to anyone who shares the epic heart-rending and soul-lifting experience of this book … a stunning achievement.”
—Roberta Lee Tennant, Falcon Books
“The immediate trust and bond of spirit meets the eruption of soul-searching prose, poetry, and the history of us all! Powerful and dangerous because these women are so real!”
—Jerry Thompson, co-editor of Oakland Noir and Berkeley Noir, and co-owner of Owl & Company Bookshop, Oakland, CA
MOSTLY WHITE
MOSTLY WHITE
A novel
by Alison Hart
TORREY HOUSE PRESS
SALT LAKE CITY • TORREY
This a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
First Torrey House Press Edition, November 2018
Copyright © 2018 by Alison Hart
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or retransmitted in any form or by any means without the written consent of the publisher.
Published by Torrey House Press
Salt Lake City, Utah
International Standard Book Number: 978-1-937226-95-4
E-book ISBN: 978-1937226-99-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018932561
Cover design by Kathleen Metcalf
Interior design by Rachel Davis
Distributed to the trade by Consortium Book Sales and Distribution
Lucille Clifton, “won’t you celebrate with me” from THE BOOK OF LIGHT. Copyright © 1993 by Lucille Clifton. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc. on behalf of Copper Canyon Press, www.coppercanyonpress.org.
Quote on pp. 168 by Tennessee Williams, from A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE. Copyright ©1947 by The University of the South. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
For my son, Luis
Contents
Emma: Washington County, Maine 1890
Henry: Old Orchard Beach, Maine 1933
Margaret: Portland, Maine 1941
R.J.: Boston, Massachusetts 1958
Margaret: Wayland, Massachusetts 1970
Ella: New York City, New York 1986
won’t you celebrate with me
won’t you celebrate with me
what i have shaped into
a kind of life?
born in babylon
both nonwhite and woman
what did i see to be except myself?
i