#713 Feeling for Life- J. California Cooper

#713 Feeling for Life- J. California Cooper

Christine is a poor black blind girl. Her mother is old and losing her health. Both her sister and brother are selfish and no help. When the mother died, her siblings fought over whatever little money her mother had. When that was gone, the brother left and the sister abandoned her on the steps of the church. Her needs are simple but life is hard. How will she get by?

“I feared and wanted the love of a man. But, I thought, who would ever want me? I knew I would want death when my mother died. Yet! How could I know what I wanted? I had never SEEN anything! Never done anything! Never had anything.”

This story is a touching one of survival, faith and family, with a heavy theme of self-reliance. This is the final story on this collection, Some Soul to Keep.

Notable Passage: “You set your life by what you don’t have as much as what you do have.”

Rating: 8-8-8-7 Total= 31

#685 About Love and Money or Love’s Lore and Money’s Myth- J. California Cooper

#685 About Love and Money or Love’s Lore and Money’s Myth- J. California Cooper

This is a life story told by Bessy. She was a poor black woman orphaned at age eleven. Her father killed her mother and went to prison. She was self reliant and always looked to the future and better days. She used every opportunity to get a leg up to the next one. 

“This the kind of world, if you don’t die, you just keep on growing up and living through everything that comes.”

When she got old enough she came to be a housemaid at a rich black doctor’s house. He became her friend and the wife became jealous. They divorced and the doctor wanted to marry Bessy. Seeing it as an opportunity she became the woman of he house, but only long enough to get her own house and her own life.  She got most of what she wanted, and on her own terms. 

It’s a nice life story, and empowering at times. I found humor in the use of “singing opera” as a euphemism for the sounds made while having good sex.

“I went home to sing the blues and left her there singing opera.”

Notable Passage: “In life you can go as silly as you want to, but don’t go crazy.”

Rating: 7-7-8-7 Total= 29

#656 Red-Winged Blackbirds- J. California Cooper

#656 Red-Winged Blackbirds- J. California Cooper

This is a story about taking control of your own life. A girl is orphaned when her mother and father are killed by the KKK. Her father had just stood up to the father of the boy that tried to rape the girl, and that set their fate.

She didn’t let anyone take her, but lived under the school until she was old enough to get a job. After working for a diner she made herself a proprietor of a boarding house. She had what she wanted, all except a child. She wouldn’t have a child of her own, so she set out to find one that needed a mother.

“I was scared for her, but I was proud of her! I like people who take control over their own life! Don’t just let life happen to them…but fight back to have some say-so of their own, bout their own life.”

If we can choose our own paths, and choose our own jobs, why not choose our own families? The most powerful thing we can do is make our own decisions. 

Rating: 7-7-8-7 Total= 29

#628 The Life You Live (May Not Be Your Own)- J. California Cooper

#628 The Life You Live (May Not Be Your Own)- J. California Cooper

 It took Molly forty-four years, one marriage and a lot of mistakes before she came to love herself. She had been living with lies and lying men all her life. It had nearly ruined her life.

Her best friend growing up, Belle, moved in next door to her after not seeing each other for twelve years. But before they got back together as friends, the husband comes over and tells her that Belle never liked her at all. Taken aback, she doesn’t inquire further, so the two live next door for many years and never talk. After Belle’s husband dies, they both realize it was him that kept them apart.

At the same time as her and Belle reuniting as friends, she thought her marriage was OK, but one day he upped and left. Now the two recently liberated woman find a way to live free and happy without the lies men tell to imprison them. 

I like the female empowerment message, but I find everyone in here to be a bit a caricature. There is little nuance at all in this story, and thus little real emotion.

Rating: 7-6-6-5 Total= 24 

#600 Sisters of the Rain- J. California Cooper

#600 Sisters of the Rain- J. California Cooper

“Some people say with a smile, ‘You write all love stories.’ Well, I say…I try to write about needs…and Love is our greatest need.”

This quote opens the collection Some Soul to Keep, by the wonderful writer, J. California Cooper. I am looking forward to the six stories in this book. Sisters of the Rain is about progress and family. A dying woman, wants her daughter to learn to read and makes sure she gets to school at least for a month a year. On her death bed she writes a note pleading for the teacher to give her daughter a book so she can continue to learn.

That daughter cherishes that book (a book of geography) and names her own children after things from the book, Egypt, Pyramid, Superior and Africa. Like mother like daughter…she dies leaving a wish that her children stay in school. Superior, her eldest daughter takes the wish to heart and takes a job so she can stay in school.

Her struggle is to keep true to her promise, and her family. She fights shame, degradation, jealousy, and desire to pass on to her children the promise she has tried to fulfill.

Notable Passage: “If you ain’t watching life, you won’t know what to do with the life you got in your hands.”

Rating: 8-8-9-8 Total= 33