“She was a mother of two, who wished at that moment to forget her children and live a life with this man, in his dreams, dreams she didn’t know black men even considered.” -Jasmon Drain, Stateway’s Garden
Tracey and his older brother, Jacob, know nothing other than growing up in Chicago’s housing project known as the Stateway Gardens. Surrounded by crime and poverty, Tracy holds on tight to his dreams of a bright future. While some see the building as a symbol of failure, Tracy remembers it as home.
The book is told in separate stories rather than chapters. All of the stories revolve around or are somehow related to Tracy and Jacob.
Overall: Initially, the stories were hard to get into it. I had a hard time reading the first part of this book; it felt choppy and I felt removed from the characters because of the narration style. The only story in the beginning that I liked was “Solane”. I didn’t like any stories again until after halfway. Admittedly, the last few stories were hard to put down. At that point, both Tracy and Jacob were older and no longer children. Things then began to come to life. In the end, I was all in my emotions and completely invested in the characters. I wish the entire book had been that way so I could have gotten to know them better during their childhood.
Stateway’s Garden is Jasmon Drain’s first book. Read more about it here.
More about the Stateway Gardens:
Click here to read short accounts as told by the residents who lived there.
A view of Stateway Gardens First floor:
