THE TWELVE TRIBES OF HATTIE by AYANA MATHIS
This is a wonderful novel about a family's move from Georgia to Philadelphia, South to the North. AYANA MATHIS helped me keep track of the time in American History by adding the year at the beginning of the chapter. THE TWELVE TRIBES OF HATTIE begins in 1925. The novel ends in 1980. It is amazing how many important issues are covered in the novel: marriage, death, child rearing, Mental health, motherhood, family harmony or disunity. Really, I began to understand more deeply all families are really alike in one way. There is the struggle to understand one another with love while each person in the family reaches out for change. I would add change to the list of issues involved in the novel. Hattie is like a river. Her tributaries, children, branch out and widen. Each branch of the river seems to grapple for away to gain personal strength away from the mother figure. Hattie is portrayed as remote but not hateful. I am use to mothers being portrayed as very good or ve