Book Club (FTP Edition): Life is Short but Wide, J. California Cooper

Welcome back to the FTP (F*ck the Patriarchy) List, this group's ongoing effort to make room for the voices Modern Library's Top 100 left out. Thanks to member Brandy for this recommendation. A list of past picks is here.

If you loved spending time with Janie Crawford, you'll feel right at home here. Alice Walker has compared J. California Cooper to Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes. Cooper was a celebrated playwright before she turned to fiction, and her books read like someone pulling up a chair and telling you the truth about life.

Life Is Short But Wide was her final novel. It begins in the early twentieth century, when Irene and Val fall in love in Wideland, Oklahoma, and invite their neighbors Bertha and Joseph to build a house on their land.

Our narrator is 91-year-old Hattie B. Brown, who tells the family's saga with help from her 105-year-old mother. Spanning six decades, the novel takes on cultural change, racial prejudice, and family secrets. Of the daughters, one earns her PhD and moves to Paris, while another stays home to teach poor children.

At its heart, it's a book about women choosing their own lives, and about how wide a life can be, even when it's short.

Whether Cooper is new to you or an old friend, pull up a chair and join the conversation.

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Peace ❤️