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    Promise: A Novel
    Promise: A Novel
    Promise: A Novel
    Audiobook12 hours

    Promise: A Novel

    Written by Minrose Gwin

    Narrated by Adenrele Ojo

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    About this audiobook

    In the aftermath of a devastating tornado that rips through the town of Tupelo, Mississippi, at the height of the Great Depression, two women worlds apart—one black, one white; one a great-grandmother, the other a teenager—fight for their families’ survival in this lyrical and powerful novel.

    “Gwin’s gift shines in the complexity of her characters and their fraught relationships with each other, their capacity for courage and hope, coupled with their passion for justice.” -- Jonis Agee, bestselling author of The River Wife

    A few minutes after 9 p.m. on Palm Sunday, April 5, 1936, a massive funnel cloud flashing a giant fireball and roaring like a runaway train careened into the thriving cotton-mill town of Tupelo, Mississippi, killing more than 200 people, not counting an unknown number of black citizens, one-third of Tupelo’s population, who were not included in the official casualty figures.

    When the tornado hits, Dovey, a local laundress, is flung by the terrifying winds into a nearby lake. Bruised and nearly drowned, she makes her way across Tupelo to find her small family—her hardworking husband, Virgil, her clever sixteen-year-old granddaughter, Dreama, and Promise, Dreama’s beautiful light-skinned three-month-old son.

    Slowly navigating the broken streets of Tupelo, Dovey stops at the house of the despised McNabb family. Inside, she discovers that the tornado has spared no one, including Jo, the McNabbs’ dutiful teenage daughter, who has suffered a terrible head wound. When Jo later discovers a baby in the wreckage, she is certain that she’s found her baby brother, Tommy, and vows to protect him.

    During the harrowing hours and days of the chaos that follows, Jo and Dovey will struggle to navigate a landscape of disaster and to battle both the demons and the history that link and haunt them. Drawing on historical events, Minrose Gwin beautifully imagines natural and human destruction in the deep South of the 1930s through the experiences of two remarkable women whose lives are indelibly connected by forces beyond their control. A story of loss, hope, despair, grit, courage, and race, Promise reminds us of the transformative power and promise that come from confronting our most troubled relations with one another.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateFeb 27, 2018
    ISBN9780062802316
    Author

    Minrose Gwin

    Minrose Gwin is the author of three novels: The Queen of Palmyra, Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick and finalist for the John Gardner Fiction Book Award; Promise, finalist for the Willie Morris Award in Southern Literature; and The Accidentals.  In her memoir, Wishing for Snow, she writes about the convergence of poetry and psychosis in her mother’s life. Wearing another hat, she has written four books of literary and cultural criticism and history, most recently Remembering Medgar Evers: Writing the Long Civil Rights Movement, and coedited The Literature of the American South, a Norton anthology. Minrose began her career as a newspaper reporter. Since then, she has taught as a professor at universities across the country, most recently the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She currently lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Like the characters in Promise, she grew up in Tupelo, Mississippi.      

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    Reviews for Promise

    4/5

    42 ratings11 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Beautifully written. Loved this. The author mixes the historical times, storm, treatment by race and medical needs, documentation urgency beautifully.

      A Book Outlet Clearance (Less than $2), I'm left shaking my head.

      The narrator took the story to a higher level.

      Now I want to read other works by Gwin.
    • 5/5
      I have a love of historical fiction and a fascination with weather so this book caught me on two levels. Promise is a fictional tale about the very real F5 tornado that hit Tupelo, Mississippi, in 1936. Ms. Gwin’s grandparents lived in the area at the time and survived the event. She includes a slew of photos in the afterward from the news coverage of the day and from the historical society that allows the reader to fully appreciate the fury of the storm.The book focuses on two families; one wealthy and white and one poor and black. The white family includes the Judge, his wife, son and daughter Jo. The black family story is centered on Dovey the matriarch but it also features her husband, grandaughter and great grandson who is the book’s namesake. Dovey is the laundress in town and she works for the Judge’s family. It’s a tortured history for a number of reasons. I don’t want to delve into too deeply for the sake of not spoiling plot points.This is a book that forces you to think and to read slowly. It doesn’t read like a typical book and it some ways it’s a bit scattered but these peoples’ world was just blown apart by winds that probably reached over 250mph. The book takes place right after the Depression so race relations place a big role in the story. For example – as Dovey is searching for her family after the tornado she is directed to a certain area but she is warned that no one is writing down the names of “the coloreds” nor are they counting the number of colored dead.Just think about that for a minute. The black people that died LITERALLY didn’t count. To this day they do not have an accurate death toll due to this.White women do not fare much better in the tale. Their purpose seems to be to satisfy the needs and wants of white men. Aaaaah, the good ‘ole days. As I noted, it’s a thought provoking books and some thoughts provoke more than others.I found that the mood was set from the first page and Ms. Gwin carried the mood through the to last page. I can’t say that all of my questions were satisfactorily answered but I don’t think they were meant to be. This was a time that just was not fair to people of color or to women for that matter. I was left with a semblance of hope for the future for the characters which is what a reader wants when they become as invested in them as you do with a book as compelling as this one is. I find myself still thinking about it well over a week after I finished it. Ms. Gwin built her world well and populated it with memorable characters. I can’t wait to read what she writes next.
    • 5/5
      Amazing page turner that is hard to put down. The characters and detail are superb.
    • 5/5
      This book was totally entertaining!

      The story takes place in 1936, in Tupelo MS, and is based on the true events about a tornado that tore through the town, and devastated neighborhoods. The historical aspect, aside from the horrendous damage and loss of life caused by the storm, was the difference in treatment of blacks and whites during this tragic event. The author found out, for example, that the death count of black people was not being kept up with. Overall the death toll was 200 people and hundreds were injured.

      Side note: The tornado, on record as an F5, the strongest one can get, was so powerful, pine needles were embedded in tree trunks. I read this later, after I finished the book.

      The details of how a disaster like this was managed was really interesting. Box cars were used for shelter by those who lost their homes, and because of limitations, I assume, they had to be shared. A theater was set up for managing the injured.

      I loved how Gwin altered the story between Dovey, the black launderess, and Jo, a young teenaged white girl, who knew Dovey because she did their laundry. Dovey knew more about the McNabb's than they realized, because of their clothing she washed. Secrets propel the characters to act in certain ways. Jo has hers, and Dovey has hers, too.

      The creativity that went into the overall story was captivating, and I found each character's voice particularly strong. Dovey is dealing with her anger and disappointment over an act committed against her granddaughter, Dreama. Promise, her great-grandson, is the result of that act.

      Jo hides behind an event she calls the trick, dealt out from the same individual. This person came close to destroying the young girl that was Dreama, and Dovey sorely (righfully) is angered by this. This is the shared secret that neither Dovey or Jo realize they have in common. While this was not resolved in the story, it did not matter in the grand scheme. Life is messy and there isn't always the perfect resolution, or a reckoning, so to speak, to what goes on, right?

      But, it is the baby, Promise, who seems to deliver them from their dark pasts, and his name suits his role perfectly. Because of him, there is the promise of a brighter future.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed a previous novel by this author and wanted to read some of her earlier books. This was the first one that I read and it was really good - not sure how I missed it when it was published. It's a real page turner with some interesting characters. I thought that the middle of it dragged and that it could have been shorter but overall it was great and I plan to continue to read her older books.On Palm Sunday, April 5, 1936, a massive funnel cloud flashing a giant fireball and roaring like a runaway train careened into the thriving cotton-mill town of Tupelo, Mississippi, killing more than 200 people, not counting an unknown number of black citizens, one-third of Tupelo’s population, who were not included in the official casualty figures. This novel is about Dovey, a black laundress, and her family in the aftermath of this massive tornado. After the tornado struck, Dovey woke up in Gum Pond. She almost drowned until she was able to pull herself out of the water. When she finally located her house, it was totally demolished. She sets out on quest to find her husband, granddaughter and Promise - her granddaughters baby. What she encounters is horrific - the town is totally destroyed, there are bodies everywhere and people wandering around in shock. What was really horrible is that despite all of the pain and suffering going on, the white townspeople still showed their racial prejudice in everything they said and did. The black members of the community got less care and concern than the white people and there wasn't even a list of the black causalities. Dovey's goal to find her family is filled with danger and pain because she is suffering from numerous injuries. She tries to ignore her injuries because she knows how important it is to find her family.This was an interesting well written book about how people coped with the aftermath of a disaster. I enjoyed the book and won't soon forget Dovey and her search for her family.
    • 4/5
      Set in the days surrounding the Tupelo tornado of 1936, the story focuses on a black and white family, each affected by the tornado. The black community residing near Gum Pond faced near total loss of property and tremendous loss of life. However, the whites also faced losses. The author incorporates assistance from the Red Cross, CCC, and Salvation Army into the narrative. I don't want to give away too much of the plot. I grew up in a town near Tupelo and heard stories of the tornado's destruction all my life. The author used real business names, and she often mentioned surnames familiar to those from the Tupelo area. The author skillfully weaves in the reality of racism in that time and place. I enjoyed this novel for its setting as well as the story it told.
    • 5/5
      This is my favorite book so far for 2019. Once I could keep track of the characters, I got completely absorbed in the book and couldn't put it down. This was a fascinating look at a terrible tornado in Mississippi in 1936 and how the town of Tupelo was impacted. The novel tells the story of the experiences of both a black washwoman and her family as well as a white teenager and her dysfunctional family. It paints a great picture of life during this event and the racism of the time. This would make an excellent selection for books groups. I highly recommend this book.
    • 4/5
      Historical fiction set in the aftermath of the tornado that devastated Tupelo, MS, on Good Friday, 1936, Promise takes on a lot of tasks. It tells the story of two women—one young and white, one black and older—struggling to find loved ones in an almost apocryphally destroyed town, and Gwin does a good job of conveying the enormous swath of damage wrought by the storm. There are multiple odysseys, and the juxtaposition of age vs. youth but chiefly, as it should be, the ways the characters' journeys and impressions separate (and, as it turns out, are connected) along racial lines. Gwin confronts the systemic racism of the time and place—the black dead were simply not counted, for instance, making their recovery a whole degree of magnitude harder than that of the whites—but this still works better as Story than Statement. There are parts where that story dithers a bit, and plenty of places where it is probably not as hard-hitting as it should be—although I'd also argue that this is not necessarily that book. And it was ultimately an absorbing read—bonus points to the author for some moments of kindhearted foreshadowing beyond the parameters of the book—hitting on a couple of my current interests: natural disasters, and the mindset of service.
    • 3/5
      Minrose Gwin explores the aftermath of a tornado that struck Tupelo, Mississippi on April 5, 1936, through the experiences of two women. Jo McNabb is the sixteen-year-old daughter of a local judge living in a comfortable brick house and Dovey Grand'homme is a grandmother and a laundress who works for the McNabbs. As their paths intersect, the connections and divisions between them become clear and what the path forward might be. This novel is a straightforward historical account based on the stories the author was told by family still living in Tupelo, as well as meticulous research. Gwin has done her homework. There are two very different stories being told here; a coming of age story of a girl who finds her strength in getting her injured mother and infant brother through the crisis and figuring out where the truth lies, and the much grittier story of Dovey and her family and their survival despite the callous indifference and sometime hostility from the white half of town.He fired a second shot. She felt it whizz by her head. The first shot hadn't much to say except get the hell out of Dodge, but this second one sang in her left ear, over the drumbeat in her head, over the sound of the train whistle no signaling the arrival of another Frisco, over all the shouting and crying out in the streets. It sang to her like an opera singer. It sang to her like a blues singer. It sang all the nastiness of white folk, all the ugliness of the world. It sang of dirty linen, the spots that won't come out, the tears in the fabric.While Promise was often predictable and sometimes smoothed over the rougher events, it was nevertheless a highly readable novel about an event I'd known nothing about.
    • 4/5
      Wonderful read. Thought provoking both in the big picture and the small details. Drawing on historical events of the spring 1936 tornado in Tupelo, MS, the author imagines the experience of two families. Even though the subject matter was tough, I thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful writing. The recurring references to one character's "Words to Remember" kept the story grounded in the "every dayness" of family love.
    • 5/5
      I have a love of historical fiction and a fascination with weather so this book caught me on two levels. Promise is a fictional tale about the very real F5 tornado that hit Tupelo, Mississippi, in 1936. Ms. Gwin’s grandparents lived in the area at the time and survived the event. She includes a slew of photos in the afterward from the news coverage of the day and from the historical society that allows the reader to fully appreciate the fury of the storm.The book focuses on two families; one wealthy and white and one poor and black. The white family includes the Judge, his wife, son and daughter Jo. The black family story is centered on Dovey the matriarch but it also features her husband, grandaughter and great grandson who is the book’s namesake. Dovey is the laundress in town and she works for the Judge’s family. It’s a tortured history for a number of reasons. I don’t want to delve into too deeply for the sake of not spoiling plot points.This is a book that forces you to think and to read slowly. It doesn’t read like a typical book and it some ways it’s a bit scattered but these peoples’ world was just blown apart by winds that probably reached over 250mph. The book takes place right after the Depression so race relations place a big role in the story. For example – as Dovey is searching for her family after the tornado she is directed to a certain area but she is warned that no one is writing down the names of “the coloreds” nor are they counting the number of colored dead.Just think about that for a minute. The black people that died LITERALLY didn’t count. To this day they do not have an accurate death toll due to this.White women do not fare much better in the tale. Their purpose seems to be to satisfy the needs and wants of white men. Aaaaah, the good ‘ole days. As I noted, it’s a thought provoking books and some thoughts provoke more than others.I found that the mood was set from the first page and Ms. Gwin carried the mood through the to last page. I can’t say that all of my questions were satisfactorily answered but I don’t think they were meant to be. This was a time that just was not fair to people of color or to women for that matter. I was left with a semblance of hope for the future for the characters which is what a reader wants when they become as invested in them as you do with a book as compelling as this one is. I find myself still thinking about it well over a week after I finished it. Ms. Gwin built her world well and populated it with memorable characters. I can’t wait to read what she writes next.