3 Review(s)

"Right here, I'm sharing the honest-to-goodness." "I'm gon' reach back, and tell how it all went. I'm gon' speak on it. My way." "Say what you want about the way I'm bringing it. Call my recollections running off at the mouth. Or bearing witness. Or speaking my mind." Loretta, Roly, and Aggie B., members of the Little family, each present the vivid story of their young lives, spanning three generations. Their separate tales--beginning in a cotton field in 1927 and ending at the presidential election of 1968 -- come together to create one unforgettable story of a journey from hardship to hope. Through an evocative mix of fictional first-person narratives, spoken word poems, folk myths, gospel rhythms and blues influences, Loretta Little Looks Back weaves an immersive tapestry that illuminates the dignity and strength of sharecroppers in the rural South. Inspired by storytelling's oral tradition, stirring page-to-stage vignettes are presented in a series of theatrical monologues that paint a gripping, multidimensional portrait of America's struggle for civil rights as seen through the eyes of the children who lived it. The novel's unique format invites us to walk in their shoes as they experience what it means to reach for freedom.