Maud Martha by Gwendoline Brooks

 

First published in 1953, this is a reprint of a novel that had largely slipped under the radar but is rightly being given a second chance.  Reading it is a bit like flipping through someone's old family photographs where each little scene tells a much bigger story.  The narrative is broken down into small chapters, mostly no longer than two or three pages but by the end of the short book you can clearly see her world and understand what she thinks about it.

Maud Martha is black (too black she says) and she wonders if she will be too black to find a good husband from all the lighter skinned people of her community.  She has her dreams of getting married and moving into a nice little house with pretty children, but she is wise enough to realise that these things have to be worked towards and will not just fall into her lap.

When she does find a man to marry her, she is glad that her Paul managed to see past her dark skin and heavy features, but she constantly wonders how long he will be able to keep doing so.  He is someone who wants to go places and be someone, and there might come a time when he decides he could do that better with someone else, but just now she will be happy.

Maud Martha is an ordinary woman leading an ordinary life in the 1950s but much of what she feels is still relevant today.  She wants to do the best she can with what she has, and the reader can't fail to admire her spirit and her determination to hold her head up wherever she finds herself.  In one scene, she and Paul go to a down town cinema, where all the other people in the foyer are polished white people, but they don't run away or pretend they have gone to the wrong place, they simply buy their tickets and watch the film.  Afterwards they both agree they would go again because it was such a lovely place, but they both know they won't and all their other feelings go unsaid.

Although there is a lot in the book that relates to a black woman's experience, many of Maud Martha's insecurities and internal worries are universal.  Many women worry about husbands, children, parents and food bills, and in many cases they just work through it because that's all you can do.  A lot has changed since the book was written, but in some respects nothing has changed at all.