Red Jacket

May 4, 2015
This is the first full-length work of fiction from Mordecai, a widely published poet, critic, and short fiction author. Beginning on the fictional island of St. Christopher (reminiscent of Jamaica) in the late 1960s, the novel follows Grace Carpenter, the titular "red jacket" (illegitimate) child, through her life as the only adopted child in a large family. This exceptional story of one woman's education, career, and motherhood is written largely in St. Chris Creole, which reads as linguistic "rock-and-roll... crissing and crossing from English English, to Creole Creole, and hitting all notes in between." Mordecai interweaves Grace's narrative with the personal histories of the mother who gave her up but never forgot her, her adoptive family, and two of the most important men in her life: Mark Blackman, the chancellor at the university in St. Chris, and James Nathaniel Atule, a Jesuit whom she meets through her work fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Grace's story of a rise from humble beginnings may feel familiar, but Mordecai never allows it to become clichéd. The novel manages to strike a balance between the bleak awfulness of Grace's life and the lush beauty of it.

March 1, 2015

Growing up on a Caribbean island, Grace Carpenter is a misfit. Her freckled copper-colored skin is not the same shade as the rest of her family. Taunted as a "Red Jacket" by the neighbors, Grace determines to be the best at everything in order to find her place in the world. She excels at academics and wins scholarships to an elite high school and a fine college in Toronto. There she leaves her island family behind and is now a person of color in a white world. She earns a doctorate and works for the World Health Organization, visiting Haiti and Africa. As the reader follows Grace's successes and tragedies, the secret of her birth family is revealed, her own missteps come back to haunt her, and her wrestling with God reveals him to be Anancy, a trickster spider. VERDICT Canadian poet Mordecai's first novel moves from the warmth of the Caribbean to the chill of Canada and then to the deserts of West Africa. Fans of Caribbean literature and readers who enjoy sagas of misfortune may find this book captivating.--Andrea Kempf, formerly with Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Overland Park, KS

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