Her Own Place.

If you are looking for an imaginative mind that gives an added force to experience, then Dori Sanders is the author you are looking for. In her first novel, Clover, a young black girl comes to terms with a white stepmother raising her after her father dies. In her second novel, Her Own Place, Sanders continue to give ordinary people, black and white, a fresh spin, while shedding light on their lives. The novel can be read as the history of a family - and of a place, a rural black community named Rising Ridge, South Carolina.

Protagonist Mae Lee Barnes gets married in her teens, and soon after her husband Jeff is sent off to World War II. Mae Lee gets a job at a munitions plant where her mother Vergie Hudson already works, and Mae Lee saves her money to buy a new home and some land from Church Granger, a well-to-do white man. Mae Lee's daddy Sam helps with the arrangement and lets her go alone to handle the purchase. Mae Lee doesn't write to tell her husband Jeff about this major transaction. She wants to surprise him when he returns from the war.

Dori Sanders accurately describes Mae Lee's birthplace, Tally County, South Carolina - and its people. She portrays the customs of farm life and country living. She depicts her characters with precision, enabling the reader to see family members and their friends clearly. Although the actions of Sanders's characters are not always predictable, readers know when a character does something out of line.

Jeff Barnes returns from the war only to leave, then return home again and again, until finally he leaves for good. Mae Lee is left all alone to raise their five children: Dallace, Taylor, Annie Ruth, Nellie Grace, and Amberlee. Mae Lee never gets completely over the absence of the children's father:

At age fourteen Taylor was so tall, so much like his father. For a fleeting moment it seemed to Mae Lee that it was Jeff Barnes who was sitting in the chair across from her. The tone in her son's voice cut her heart to the quick. Mae Lee felt the warm tears flood her eyelids. She held her breath, her eyes wide, didn't dare blink. When the hurting within her eased, she drew a long breath, pushed her chair away from the table, and left the kitchen.

This is Dori Sanders at her best, showing emotional attachments in a totally believable story.

Sanders's also deals effectively with race relations. Mae Lee, who volunteers her time as the first black hospital auxiliary worker, handles herself well among the well-to-do white ladies who also work at the hospital. She even becomes a hostess for an elegant party with the help of her children and her old friend Ellabelle. Race relations play an important role in the novel, since the time frame extends from the civil rights era and the integration of public schools on through the 1980s. In this way Her Own Place is more ambitious than Clover, which deals with race relations more narrowly.

Sanders's dialogue is convincing and gives much insight into the characters. I especially like to hear Ellabelle speak her mind. "Just might snare me an old nighthawk," she tells Mae Lee at one point. "He'll be good for the night and can fly off in the morning. This old tired body could stand a little tune-up. My engine's parts have been neglected too long."

Mae Lee never forgets the values and teachings of her mother and father, remaining old-fashioned in her ways. She is, for example, unable to accept the fact that her grandson Thread Wallace wears an caring in his ear, and she doesn't like to see her daughter Dallace wearing "crazy hairstyles [and] spreading layers of makeup on her face, as if she were competing with a seven-layer pineapple cake." Mac Lee doesn't believe in banks, preferring to hide her money in a cotton drawstring bag in the house.

The sense of mystery that pervades Her Own Place also draws the reader in. One example is the Chicago postmark on the envelope that bears the letter which notifies Mae Lee that her long-lost husband has died at the age of forty-nine. We want to know who sent the letter, and how he/she knew about Mae Lee, and knew where to find her. The reader is also mystified by the extremity of Mae Lee's actions when she misplaces her money. Her Own Place gets more powerful as the narrative progresses, finally reaching a surprising, eye-opening conclusion.