AIN'T NO SUNSHINE

A debut novella focuses on a Southern family upended by the death of its patriarch.

In her book, Roe introduces Champagne “Champ” d’Argent and her daughter, Bunny, part of a struggling Creole farming family led by hardworking husband and father Big Hank. Though Champ believes her best years are behind her, she puts a great amount of stock in her daughter, particularly wishing Bunny would leave their bucolic hometown of Rabbit Hash, Kentucky, and become immensely successful and prosperous. This hope even extends to Bunny taking advantage of the area’s gentrification through an influx of wealthy, gay men. Ever sassy and outspoken, Champ advises her daughter to “flip a rich gayboy” to ensure financial stability through a unique marital arrangement. But upon the devastating death of Big Hank, mother and daughter become legally locked out of the farmstead and are forced to relocate to Newark, New Jersey, in 1976. Champ is intent on collecting a somewhat dubious debt owed to her husband by Jackie Russell Jr., a retired military buddy of Hank’s from their time together in the Navy. Bunny falls in love with her new home but is well aware of the city’s current state of “urban blight,” a fallout from the 1967 four-day Newark riots. She promises to “rebuild my city” with advocacy and volunteer work to fully utilize “the power to change the face of things.”

Because of the story’s modest length, Bunny’s ambitious vision of activism never materializes any further than her verbalized intentions to enact a new, people-forward revolution in Newark. While the tale is engrossing, it feels unfinished. Sometimes the personality disparities between mother and daughter become so wide that they feel implausible. This is most apparent when Bunny takes the soapbox on sophisticated issues of financial inequality and politics and speaks to her befuddled “backwoods Kentucky country momma” on the necessity for “more lanes for opportunity and financial successes in this country than there are right now.” Despite this, Roe does an admirable job of creating a sweeping timeline embedded within her novella. The action is confined to a single day when Champ asks her daughter to go to the local grocery store for her, where Bunny invites Jackie to dinner. Bunny then meets Jose, a dangerous stranger, who holds her fate in his nefarious hands. The author leaves her story on a sad and open-ended note, which is an intriguing choice for such an engrossing tale that truly finds its footing in the final third. Still, Roe’s moving, character-driven book is compelling, well written, and decorated throughout with authentic Southern Creole vernacular, which creates a distinctively unique tone and atmosphere. Both Champ and Bunny are spirited, captivating characters to behold as they transcend cultures and restart their lives after Big Hank’s death. The backstory in the form of charming anecdotes and humorous country-folk foibles fills in the gaps in Champ’s and Bunny’s histories as a restless wife and her impulsive daughter as well as detailing how Hank enlisted in the military. Overall, this reads like an impressive work in progress with lucid characters searching for love and meaning. The cliffhanger conclusion will leave engaged readers wanting more.          

A trim yet potent tale about familial bonds and how tragedy can devastate and inspire.