Inventing Victoria
Essie’s life with her mother and “aunties” in the saltbox house on Minis Street is tough, with “uncles” coming and going at all hours of the day and night—though nowhere near as tough as the days of slavery. Essie yearns for a different life, a safer life. Momma has little time for Essie and less understanding. It is Ma Clara, the house cleaner, who takes Essie under her wing, encourages Momma to allow Essie to go to school, and who gets Essie a job as a housekeeper at a boardinghouse across town. There Essie meets Dorcas Vashon, a wealthy, prominent black woman who offers to take Essie away and help her earn the life she’s always wanted.
Essie is given a new wardrobe and an education in the classics and mathematics, as well as the rules of etiquette. Transformed, Essie becomes Victoria and is welcomed into black society in Washington, DC. But just as she is on the verge of achieving the life of which she’s always dreamed, she is plagued by the guilt of abandoning her past for her future. Imagining a life and future for a minor character from Crossing Ebenezer Creek, Bolden firmly places readers in 1880s black society in Savannah and Washington DC.
Victoria is a strong character with palpable desires and fears. The second half of the novel is littered with significant historic African-American figures, deftly showing the success those once enslaved achieved in the years following the Civil War. But not all is pretty in high society. Bolden honestly portrays colorism as well as the pettiness of social climbing. While this is a quieter story than Ebenezer Creek it is no less important and compelling. For readers ages 13-18.
