AIN'T GOT TIME FOR CRAZINESS

A Black woman looks back on her close-knit community in the late 1970s in Maddox’s memoir.

The author begins by relating her grandmother Florence’s stories about their family’s experiences living near Macon, Georgia, before World War II, where they endured the injustices of Jim Crow—Florence’s father was found lynched in the woods, presumably by White men—as well as other bizarre perils (Florence’s sister, Anne Mae, was fed a meal of poisoned lima beans and ham hocks by an unstable friend and survived only because the friend’s 5-year-old daughter unexpectedly took the first bite and dropped dead). Maddox then describes her own experiences living in a Black neighborhood in Philadelphia in 1978, when she was 15 years old. The incidents that occurred there were less dramatic though still colorful: The author recounts her 16-year-old brother’s arrest for stealing jewelry from Gimbel’s department store; a paralyzing snowstorm during which the furnace went out; a catfight with another girl over a two-timing high school boyfriend; a session braiding a neighbor’s cornrows; a visit to Amish country, where she felt like a heathen; an off-the-books job tending bar; and a lazy summer day at a block party barbecue. Maddox’s rambling narrative vividly captures the milieu of the 1970s—the shag carpeting and home disco balls, the newfangled 10-speed bicycles that were always getting stolen, the Charly perfume, the groove of KC and the Sunshine Band’s “That’s the Way” playing at dances—while drawing piquant sketches of neighborhood people, from bus drivers and firemen to church ladies and local lotharios. Her prose is punchy and evocative, building an indelible sense of character from sharply observed details: “Eddie wore a big gold flashy watch on his wrist, double-breasted silk suits, gator shoes, big brim hats, and strong-smelling cologne that would have stray animals approach him when he walked down the street. When he opened his mouth to laugh, he sported a big shiny gold tooth”). The result is a richly entertaining re-creation of Black life in a time of cultural ferment.

A captivating account of a family’s journey from the American South to the big city.