Kin by Tayari Jones

Vernice's mother was murdered by her father, who then killed himself when Vernice was six months old. Her aunt tried to give her to someone in their town of Honeysuckle, Louisiana, who would raise her but she got no takers. Aunt Irene put away her life in Ohio and stayed to raise the baby, even though she admittedly was "no good with children." Hattie Lee nursed her baby once and decided that motherhood wasn't for her. She skipped town, leaving her baby Annie with her mother, who had already raised many children of her own. Annie and Vernice were "cradle friends," practically raised together, and they became inseparable. In fact, Annie gave Niecy her nickname when they were almost three. They bonded over not having mothers, but there was a difference-Niecy was an orphan who everyone pitied and Annie maybe still had a mother, albeit with a bad reputation-each envied the other.

Vernice took her studies seriously and was admitted to Spelman College in Atlanta while Annie left with her friends for Memphis, the last place that Hattie left an address. For the first time Annie didn't tell Niecy her plans to leave before graduation which caused a rift between the two friends.

The rest of the novel follows the two girls' disparate paths in life as one learns to be a society lady in the segregated 1950's, and the other finds laundry work in a whorehouse to pay off their broken-down car. As the two find their way back to each other in letters, they rekindle their friendship, and when Niecy is ready to get married, there is only one who she wants as her bridesmaid.

This is a stand-out novel, much like Jones' book American Marriage was, seven years before. The reader is immediately engrossed in both fascinating stories as they unfold simultaneously, and the author carefully notes how both girls grow and change but always return to each other. The careless discrimination that they face is woven into their stories, not with a sense of outrage, but as inevitable in their world. Jones gives us a look back into a time where women exist to please their men, and the deck is stacked against black women in so many ways. The book brings up questions-Who is really kin-the blood relations we have or the ties we seek out and make? Is one more important than the other? You might be surprised at the answers.

Reviewed by Donna Ballard

February 24, 2026

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