By Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond
280 pages
I just love when I have no preconceived notions about a book and delve into and really find myself enjoying it! That was just the case with Brew-Hammond's Powder Necklace.If I were to put it into a category I would call it a "coming of age" story, but it is also a story of the different dynamics that make up a family in our world.
Told from the narrator, Lila's, point of view this international story follows the path a young Ghanaian girl takes as she travels to the homeland of her parents - something she has no knowledge of and back to her native London and then to New York.
Add to this mix the fact that she is prepubescent, sheltered and her parents are divorced and living on different sides of the world.
The writing is conversational,and although written from the context of a very young girl it is not elementary. The writer/narrator is wiser than her age.
Because we have all been children of this age we can relate to some of the issues she faces as she wants to assert her growth, but her parents understand that she still needs nurturing and guidance.
The story is also an eye opener for Americans or Westerners as the narrator presents the harsh realities of life in Ghana.
One scene I truly enjoyed for the written style of bringing the reader into the story was Lila's return to London as she compares the two places "Where everything in Ghana had some red it it - from the soups we ate to the dirt roads we bumped along - everything in London was black, ash or brown."
With passages like this Brew-Hammond draws the reader into her world and you absorb it - seeking to see, hear and feel more of this young girls life.
To learn more about the author and the book, visit here.
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