Rattlebone by Maxine Clair

 

Hello my lovely readers! Another PHENOMENAL read this month. Let's get into it!

SYNOPSIS
Irene Wilson knows that a “no-name invisible something” has settled over her parents’ marriage and suspects her glamorous new teacher is to blame. Irene is not alone in her suspicions. In the town of Rattlebone, a small Black neighborhood of Kansas City, secrets are hard to keep and growing up is a community affair.

As Irene is initiated into adult passion and loss, her family story takes its place in a tightly woven tapestry of neighbors whose griefs and joys are as vivid as her own. Capturing an entire world through the eyes of its unforgettable heroine, Rattlebone is a one-of-a-kind triumph of American fiction.

MY THOUGHTS
WOW. Is it crazy that I want to immediately re-read this book?

This book was first published in 1994, by the late Clair (she only recently passed in 2025) and had since been out of print. Thankfully, McNally Editions started reprinting "singular, engaging works from off the beaten path," as of the mid 2020s. This book was republished in 2022 and I found it on a random jaunt to the "Blacker" branch of my local library a few weeks ago. (I say "Blacker" because it's in predominantly Black neighborhood and has tons more Black books than any of the other branches.)

I picked it up and found the plot especially intriguing because it takes place in Kansas City and the author was a fellow Black Kansan! Let me tell you, I was again, BLOWN AWAY by this book (as I have been by many recent reads). I finished it and was so close to re-reading it, but I had to return it.

It felt GOOD to read this. I think that's the only way I can describe how I felt reading it and how I feel reviewing it...it felt good and honest and I loved how the stories were grouped together to tell a cohesive story. I'm absolutely going to purchase this for my personal library. But first, I need to look through the rest of McNally's books to see what other gems they have!