The Snake in the Garden

Book excerpt: The Snake in the Garden is an explosive depiction of racism in twentieth-century Arkansas, seen through the lens of interracial relationships over four generations. Starting in 1926, and paying homage to Kate Chopin's "Desiree's Baby," the story moves to the turbulent night of the Kennedy assassination in 1963, the Hollywood music scene of the 1970s and '80s, and the still-troubled racial attitudes of 1993. Written by two women, one Black, one white, the novel depicts racism from the point of view of both Blacks and whites - racists, non-racists and victims, alike. The setting is the fictional town of Jefferson Springs, Arkansas, during the Jim Crow era. Lucille Day, a Black woman, worked as a domestic for the family of judge Reuben Whittier in the 1950s and early '60s. Her children, Regina and Clarence, were forbidden to be friends with the judge's daughter, Karen. In 1963, when Regina, Clarence and Karen were teenagers, bigotry prevailed, and it was illegal for Blacks and whites to have relationships or marry. The night President Kennedy was assassinated, three days after a stopover in town, all hell broke loose in Jefferson Springs, with tragic results, including a lynching. Clarence was jailed, and Regina was exiled to California to live with her Aunt Violet. There, she won a singing contest and became a pop star. Karen, meanwhile, was forced to stay home under the cruel thumb of her father. She longed for a true father-daughter bond, but in his eyes, she could do no right. She consoled herself in her boring and barren life with chocolate and English romance novels. Regina had vowed never to return to Arkansas. But when her mother died, she knew she had to attend the funeral. She dreaded going back where she had felt nothing but humiliation, anger and fear. Can the two women now unite to uncover the truth about their families, and finally make things right for Clarence? The Snake in the Garden is a powerful story of transcendence over scars of the past, and the healing that can come when the truth is finally faced.