A Review – Gathering of Waters, A Novel by Bernice L. McFadden

 

        I begin by saying, this writer, Bernice L. McFadden, was new to me, and Gathering of Waters was my first experience reading her work.

I am blown away by her prose!  I am blown away by this story!  Her words simply blew me into a world of beauty, heartbreak, hate, but most of all love.

From the first page, I was hooked, and the cliché is always, “I couldn’t put the book down”.  Well, I couldn’t!

We talk about words, and how they are just black letters on white pages, but while reading this writer, McFadden, she does something extraordinary with those letters....they are feathers and clouds strung together with magical string, one following the other, and softly flow around you and caress you, until you feel part of these people, and the town of Money, Mississippi.

Money narrates this story, yes, the town itself tells of the people who come and go, which live and die, and survive.   I laughed at times; I cried at times, I was haunted and humbled by these people who told me their stories. Gathering of Waters is poignant; it comes alive by this author’s hand, and should (I hope) live in the hearts of all America.