Saving Savannah
Savannah Riddle is the daughter of affluent African-American parents in Washington, DC, at a time when poverty is widespread, but she despises the pretense and the ostentation of her world. She feels stifled—in need of a passion, a purpose. Then she meets Lloyd, a young man recently arrived from St. Thomas, and he introduces her to pamphlets, newspaper articles and magazines where she discovers a world outside of the endless couldn’ts, shouldn’ts, and can’ts of her mother’s strictures. She attends a speech by Hubert Henry Harrison and helps out at Nannie Helen Burrough’s school for young women. She tells her parents she wants to do more, but as the street violence builds, the moment arrives for her mother to tell Savannah her own personal history. With these revelations comes Savannah’s determination to use her artistic talents to a more productive end: photography or perhaps journalism, documenting forgotten lives.
Acclaimed YA author Bolden is skilled in bringing little-known periods of Black American history to light. The city is firmly in the grip of Jim Crow, Red Summer, race riots, women’s suffrage, anarchist bombings, beatings and lynchings. The chanting of Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe! Catch a… echoed uncomfortably within me as I recalled the words from my childhood, having been far too young at the time to understand the meaning. Diligent research thrives in this novel, and Bolden uses extensive sources and citations to build Savannah’s world which, for a brief moment, readers can inhabit with this brave young woman. Many of the names here were unknown to me, but it is a privilege to review this novel. As Savannah’s father says, “there has never been a time when there wasn’t misery in the world” somewhere. Sadly, an enduring human theme. Twelve pages of author’s notes add absorbing content.
