Third Girl From the Left.Third Girl From the Left by Martha Southgate Houghton Mifflin Houghton Mifflin Company is a leading educational publisher in the United States. The company's headquarters is located in Boston's Back Bay. It publishes textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers Company, September 2005 $24, ISBN ISBN abbr. International Standard Book Number ISBN International Standard Book Number ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m 0-618-47023-9 "Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 45th-largest in the United States. With an estimated population of 382,872 in 2006,[1] it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Statistical Area, a region of 897,752 residents projected to , in 1970 is not a place a smart black girl wants to linger." So begins Third Girl From the Left by Martha Southgate. It is a wonderful "back-in-the-day" narrative filled with biting, perceptive prose that reads in a melodic and thoughtful way and comes out as well-composed sheet music filled with many beats. The fictional story hinges around 20-year-old Angela Edwards, who moved from Tulsa to Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. in the 1970s to begin an acting career. Southgate writes with all of the wit and wisdom of an insider as Angela tries to navigate through life, love and Hollywood--sometimes in a Playboy bunny outfit. The author explores many sides of her main character with titillating tit·il·late v. tit·il·lat·ed, tit·il·lat·ing, tit·il·lates v.tr. 1. To stimulate by touching lightly; tickle. 2. To excite (another) pleasurably, superficially or erotically. honesty, humor and pain. The book is set against the shroud of the blaxploitation blax·ploi·ta·tion n. A genre of American film of the 1970s featuring African-American actors in lead roles and often having antiestablishment plots, frequently criticized for stereotypical characterization and glorification of violence. film era, and the author skillfully incorporates actual people and events, using such real-life characters as Pam Grier, Writ Chamberlain and Huey Newton. True events such as the Tulsa Race Riots add to the credibility of the story. In many scenes of the novel, there is an underlying musical score such, as Sly and The Family Stone playing on a stereo at one of the wild '70s parties. Third Girl From the Left reads like a biography, and that is really what is so impressive about the book. Southgate is wonderful at weaving Angda's memories from the past, and juxtaposing these memories to the present, which is actually the past. This novel is full of honest, multifaceted, tangible characters, and the author intertwines the memories of different characters from different generations in to one solid mass. These characters come across as not forced, and the dialogue is playful and interesting. Southgate does what a good novelist should do: she takes you on a journey to see life through someone else's eyes, allowing you to be a fly on the wall in their story, and just perhaps gives you room to empathize em·pa·thize v. To feel empathy in relation to another person. enough to contemplate on your own journey in life. Southgate is a former magazine editor and newspaper reporter who has written two award-winning novels, Another Way to Dance, (Laurel Leaf, January 1998) for young adults, and The Fall of Rome, (Scribner, January 2003), for adults. She is also a gifted storyteller. Antoinette Dykes is the food and living editor for The Harlem Times and a freelance writer. |
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