Book Review
Nov. 26th, 2023 07:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariOn the Rooftop
by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
This retelling of Fiddler on the Roof takes place in the African-American Fillmore neighborhood in early 1950s San Francisco. Vivian has spent the last decade shaping her three daughters, Ruth, Esther, and Chloe, into a skillful singing group and feels that they are close to the big time. However, now that the girls are in their early 20s, they have developed their own dreams. As the gentrification and redevelopment threaten Fillmore, each daughter strives to realize her own vision for her life. Ruth pursues a marriage and motherhood with Gerry, the childhood friend with whom she has found love. Esther finds herself drawn to the struggle for racial equality, as well as a talent for songwriting. Chloe wishes to strike out on her own as a singer. Vivian thus finds herself at a cross-roads as she must redefine her life while a new love beckons.
On the Rooftop is both a story of mothers and daughters and a story about a community facing its dissolution. I very much liked the stories of each daughter and the different ways they each struck out on their own and asserted their independence. I do wish Esther and her involvement in resistance had gotten a little more attention. Vivian's weariness and heavy-handed attempts to guide her daughters was at times hard to take, but her ultimate happiness was well-earned, as was that of Ruth, Esther, and Chloe.
by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
This retelling of Fiddler on the Roof takes place in the African-American Fillmore neighborhood in early 1950s San Francisco. Vivian has spent the last decade shaping her three daughters, Ruth, Esther, and Chloe, into a skillful singing group and feels that they are close to the big time. However, now that the girls are in their early 20s, they have developed their own dreams. As the gentrification and redevelopment threaten Fillmore, each daughter strives to realize her own vision for her life. Ruth pursues a marriage and motherhood with Gerry, the childhood friend with whom she has found love. Esther finds herself drawn to the struggle for racial equality, as well as a talent for songwriting. Chloe wishes to strike out on her own as a singer. Vivian thus finds herself at a cross-roads as she must redefine her life while a new love beckons.
On the Rooftop is both a story of mothers and daughters and a story about a community facing its dissolution. I very much liked the stories of each daughter and the different ways they each struck out on their own and asserted their independence. I do wish Esther and her involvement in resistance had gotten a little more attention. Vivian's weariness and heavy-handed attempts to guide her daughters was at times hard to take, but her ultimate happiness was well-earned, as was that of Ruth, Esther, and Chloe.
