Asali Solomon’s highly praised first novel, “Disgruntled,” and her story collection, “Get Down,” delineated with wit and grit young people coming of age in West Philadelphia in the 1980s. Philadelphia is the setting for Solomon’s short, sharp new book, “The Days of Afrekete,” but her heroine has grown up, married a White man and moved north to self-consciously bohemian Mt. Airy. Liselle is still connected to West Philly, however, by her salty mother Verity, who remains ensconced in the old neighborhood and is less than impressed by her daughter’s bourgeois lifestyle. As for the husband Verity refers to as “that Winn,” her pronouncement on her son-in-law as the novel opens is, “They’re gonna put his ass in jail.”
Credit: Source link
