A nimbly written, alternately dark and hopeful account of dysfunction layered on dysfunction.
A fraught family memoir by the renowned chef and restaurateur.
Just a few sentences into Hamilton’s narrative, and one is instantly reminded of that Tolstoyan saw about every unhappy family being unhappy in its own way. At the start, Hamilton (Blood, Bones & Butter, 2011) is reestablishing contact with her estranged mother: “We haven’t spoken to each other in thirtyish years,” she writes, and now their roles are being reversed, the aged mother being cared for by the child. With a nod to Anne Lamott’s observation that “if people wanted you to write more warmly about them, they should’ve behaved better,” Hamilton dishes enough psyche-wounding tales to fund a battalion of therapists: a father who “did not seem hindered by the possibility of his own mediocrity”; that mother, whose vocabulary was broad and learned but always included the word “no” (“With her there were daily dozens of the regular garden-variety Mom No. But she could hit some thornier Nos in there, too, not quite as mundane”); an adventurous brother whose life spiraled downward into mental illness and suicide; another brother, “the only guy in our family with Reliable Money,” who came to an unhappy end; and much more. Hamilton is unsparing of herself, too: She confesses to having stolen away her sister’s husband in a none-too-secret affair, a turnabout for the sister’s having stolen him in the first place. She is also self-aware in sizing up the toll of injuries and sorrows to conclude, “This is not Art. Nor Anecdote. This is Life. Something to sit up straight and salvage what’s left of.” Salvage she does, in her own way, finally coming to terms with her father’s profligacy, her mother’s eccentricity, death and distance, and her own foibles—about which, on the last page of this memorable book, her mother has the last word, and a mot that couldn’t be more juste.
A nimbly written, alternately dark and hopeful account of dysfunction layered on dysfunction.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9780399590092
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
Some of Avant’s mantras are overstated, but her book is magnanimous, inspiring, and relentlessly optimistic.
Memories and life lessons inspired by the author’s mother, who was murdered in 2021.
“Neither my mother nor I knew that her last text to me would be the words ‘Think you’ll be happy,’ ” Avant writes, "but it is fitting that she left me with a mantra for resiliency.” The author, a filmmaker and former U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas, begins her first book on the night she learned her mother, Jacqueline Avant, had been fatally shot during a home invasion. “One of my first thoughts,” she writes, “was, ‘Oh God, please don’t let me hate this man. Give me the strength not to hate him.’ ” Daughter of Clarence Avant, known as the “Black Godfather” due to his work as a pioneering music executive, the author describes growing up “in a house that had a revolving door of famous people,” from Ella Fitzgerald to Muhammad Ali. “I don’t take for granted anything I have achieved in my life as a Black American woman,” writes Avant. “And I recognize my unique upbringing…..I was taught to honor our past and pay forward our fruits.” The book, which is occasionally repetitive, includes tributes to her mother from figures like Oprah Winfrey and Bill Clinton, but the narrative core is the author’s direct, faith-based, unwaveringly positive messages to readers—e.g., “I don’t want to carry the sadness and anger I have toward the man who did this to my mother…so I’m worshiping God amid the worst storm imaginable”; "Success and feeling good are contagious. I’m all about positive contagious vibrations!” Avant frequently quotes Bible verses, and the bulk of the text reflects the spirit of her daily prayer “that everything is in divine order.” Imploring readers to practice proactive behavior, she writes, “We have to always find the blessing, to be the blessing.”
Some of Avant’s mantras are overstated, but her book is magnanimous, inspiring, and relentlessly optimistic.Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2023
ISBN: 9780063304413
Page Count: 288
Publisher: HarperOne
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
An intriguing but uneven family memoir and travelogue.
An author’s trip to Venice takes a distinctly Borgesian turn.
In November 2020, soccer club Venizia F.C. offered Nigerian American author Madu a writing residency as part of its plan “to turn the team into a global entity of fashion, culture, and sports.” Flying to Venice for the fellowship, he felt guilty about leaving his immigrant parents, who were shocked to learn upon moving to the U.S. years earlier that their Nigerian teaching certifications were invalid, forcing his father to work as a stocking clerk at Rite Aid to support the family. Madu’s experiences in Venice are incidental to what is primarily a story about his family, especially his strained relationship with his father, who was disappointed with many of his son’s choices. Unfortunately, the author’s seeming disinterest in Venice renders much of the narrative colorless. He says the trip across the Ponte della Libertà bridge was “magical,” but nothing he describes—the “endless water on both sides,” the nearby seagulls—is particularly remarkable. Little in the text conveys a sense of place or the unique character of his surroundings. Madu is at his best when he focuses on family dynamics and his observations that, in the largely deserted city, “I was one of the few Black people around.” He cites Borges, giving special note to the author’s “The House of Asterion,” in which the minotaur “explains his situation as a creature and as a creature within the labyrinth” of multiple mirrors. This notion leads to the Borgesian turn in the book’s second half, when, in an extended sequence, Madu imagines himself transformed into a minotaur, with “the head of a bull” and his body “larger, thicker, powerful but also cumbersome.” It’s an engaging passage, although stylistically out of keeping with much of what has come before.
An intriguing but uneven family memoir and travelogue.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781953368669
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Belt Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2023
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
