Family Love and Hate

The Love and Hate of Family

I originally reviewed MiMi’s Heart by Olvia R.Wallace in October of 2018, for a now defunct book review club called Paperback Pushers. An associate of mine, April Freeman, desired to lead the group like an up-and-coming organized drug ring. But instead of moving crack, we moved dope reads. Instead of stacking money, we stacked free books. We were mostly satisfied with this arrangement.

However, being part of this group, I felt I had read one too many urban novels from inmates low-key reliving their glory days or local slang so coded that no one outside a 20-mile radius understood what was being said. I had also had my fill of half-wit dramas with plot holes big enough to fall in

I began to petition April for better-quality books, a more diverse range of topics and most importantly better writing. MiMi’s Heart was one of the first that she offered.

The cover and the title led me to believe I’d be reading a love story—and it is—but not just romantic. It’s more about where and how we learn to love. The main character, Tomeika “MiMi” Johnson is living her best life in Houston when she is summoned to her childhood home in Arkansas by the untimely death of her brother. Suddenly all the big things that made her feel successful in Texas- the salon, her social life and her lover- and have to be placed on the back burner to address issues she had left behind.

When we meet the place and people who personified love for her, we gain a new dimension of our character. We understand and appreciate MiMi’s attitude and outlook as we encounter the people who laid love’s foundation in her life. We watch MiMi wrestle with mourning a person you’re mad at. Wallace really captured the nuance of loving and hating a person simultaneously. She eloquently scribed the special hurt that can only come from a loved one’s hands.

The story takes place in the South where customs and traditions are worn like a uniform of pride. I was immediately intrigued because my family is scattered across the South as well. I know the heat of the Texas sun on the back of my neck while BBQ beef ribs fall in my lap. I know the unhurried pace of the Memphis drawl where I grew up and got knocked downplaying streetball. Most significantly, I know the pull of the soil that my mom and all her siblings call home in West Helena, Arkansas. The same soil I spent summers sowing the seeds of a literary dream I carried into adulthood.

Like the main character, I grew up and sought refuge from the hurt and the naysayers in the anonymity of a new city still not too far from familiarity.

MiMi's Heart captivates from the beginning. The drama-filled tale touches on the conflicted relationship that often exists in families and goes unaddressed. The plot unravels and we see threads of deception, delusions and dangerous revelations as the characters uncover dark truths within themselves.

Harsh realities of social injustice, mental health, toxic masculinity, challenging gender roles, and other ugly truths are often for a more presentable rendition of events.

If you ever left home only to realize that you take you with you everywhere you go, this story is for you. Since I read this novel in 2018, I moved my family back to the South where I am continuing the healing work of my childhood issues. Some of them were mirrored and triggered in this novel and some of them were fresh perspectives, but each line of Wallace’s writing was pivotal to my personal growth.

I’m looking forward to reading more from Olivia R. Wallace.

Review by The Book Doctor

Review by The Book Doctor

https://linktr.ee/Jymyaka