'A Family Gathering' Novel is Featured on iFOGO.com

“ 'A Family Gathering', third, and much-praised novel of author, Gene Cartwright has been added to highly regarded iFOGO.com, as a featured book presentation. Many consider the novel one of the best written in decades. Major publishers: take note. ”

iFOGO.com : Writers and Readers Together

Share on            

Email Friend     Contact Author

(ePrintWire.Org) – Where was God on May 15, 1974.

On May 15, 1974, 12 year-old, Deborah Yvonne Davis lived the last day of her first life.
An innocent ride down Crispus Attucks Road, in backwater Reedville, Arkansas, with the son of the most powerful family in Arkansas, would change her life forever.

Author Gene Cartwright's third, and long-awaited novel, A FAMILY GATHERING, has been fourteen years in the making. It is not hyperbole to say that not since "The Color Purple," published in 1982, has a novel about the black experience, the black family, and society at large, been destined to unleash a whirlwind of praise, debate, controversy, and recognition for years to come.

Cartwright's bold saga, details the 'tragedy to triumph' life of Deborah Yvonne Davis, a young black southern girl, daughter of a rural, Baptist preacher. The saga is no tale of unrequited victimization. It is steeped with realism and vivid detail from the very first paragraph. It takes risks, pulls no punches regarding racism, bigotry, black-on-black conflict, politics, and family. It overflows with rich flavor, texture, detail, and realism.

A major plus is the absolutely gifted and realistic the dialogue in this novel. The truth is, the screenplay literally leaps from the pages. You will think you are eavesdropping.

Some, within the black community, and perhaps others, will likely decry the author's raw portrayals. They will say it reveals too many secrets. But no one will say it is not honest. The characters are so well developed, you will swear, you know these people.

There are no ethnic boundaries here. This novel does not paint one ethnicity as devils, and the other as angels; it is brutally frank. One cannot view this book, and resist examining it further.

But beware. One is quickly drawn into the story of this young girl, separated from her parents and four siblings for fourteen years, and forced to create a new identity. Though later marked for death, she triumphs, confounding those who pray she never returns to Reedville, Arkansas. But she does return, to reclaim her life: past, present and future. And many, especially some in high places, will pay.

One more point: the high school commencement address that is revealed at the end will no doubt be repeated in schools all over the country. You will reach the end of this 512 p. hardcover novel, and want even more. (ISBN:ISBN:0-9649756-2-9 )