“What’s Mine And Yours dips into many genres – part coming-of-age novel, part family saga, part social commentary, it doesn’t shy away from addressing racial tension, the hopelessness of addiction and how sometimes the choices parents make to better their kids’ lives end up doing the opposite.”
NO MAJOR SPOILERS
Just finished What’s Mine and Yours by Naima Coster.
This story takes place in North Carolina that covers the years from 1992 to 2018.
This is the story of two families. A boy named Gee with his mother Jade, who are black, and Lacy May and her three daughters Noelle, Diane and Margarita who are Hispanic as their father is Colombian while their mother is white. Lacy May believes her girls are white.
Both families have their problems. Gee saw his dad shot to death in front of him. Lacy Mays’s husband is in jail, and when he gets out he is still addicted to drugs and alcohol.
When the local white school starts to accept black children from another district, Gee goes and here he meets Noelle. They become involved in the play the school is putting on and they become fast friends. Their relationship and the consequences surrounding their friendship will affect both families. Other problems will then carry the plot the rest of the way.
An interesting look at interracial differences between two families so different, and yet in many ways, almost the same.
The stories of the other sisters of Noelle are also very interesting, and while all three girls have diverse interests and ideas, at heart they are still family, and when families have a crises, they tend to come together.
Recommended.
Reviewed by:
Richard Franco
Added 16th July 2021
