The Nature of Things

Jacqueline Woodson's new book is a small treasure. Short enough that it could be called a novella rather than a novel, it still manages to address, as NPR noted in its review, "issues  of class, education, ambition, racial prejudice, sexual desire and orientation, identity, mother-daughter relationships, parenthood and loss." In spare language with no wasted words, she tells a story of a family, of mothers and daughters, that will resonate with anyone who has ever lived in a family. This is actually a story of two families from two very different backgrounds and social classes. There is Iris, the fifteen-year-old daughter of a middle class, upwardly striving African-American family in Brooklyn and Aubrey, son of a single mother barely managing to support herself and her teenage son with a combination of part-time jobs and the assistance of food stamps. The two teenagers come together compelled by their irrepressible sexual desire. Even though they try to be careful and ta...