![]() ![]() ![]() She hangs up on her mother and impulsively dials another number to leave a mysterious one-word message for a woman named Selena. Winn has just lost a primary bid to unseat a longtime state representative, and Liselle has been told by an FBI agent that her husband is about to be indicted on unspecified “irregularities.” She’s ostensibly called to ask whether she should cancel the dinner party for donors scheduled for that evening - “You want to know if you should throw a party to thank these people who had nothing better to do with their money and time than to help you delude yourselves?” Verity responds - but really, Liselle admits to herself later, she calls because “no matter how distant, abusive, judgmental, unloving and useless one’s mother was, one called her when things fell apart.” Verity’s advice, blunt and unwanted, frequently voices Liselle’s repressed feelings she, too, thought Winn was deluded to run for office, and when her mother suggests that, in addition to the dinner party, “you can go ahead and cancel this marriage,” it’s apparent that this is in the back of Liselle’s mind. It is a celebration of our choices and where they take us, the people who change us, and how we can reimagine ourselves even when our lives seem set. Solomon uses a fraught mother-daughter phone conversation to deftly set up the conflicts to come. Asali Solomon's The Days of Afrekete is a deft, expertly layered, naturally funny, and deeply human examination of two women coming back to themselves at midlife. ![]()
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