Night Talk

Sisterly love is not always simple and steadfast. Disturbing in its portrayal of tolerant blindness to race as part of the problem of racial hatred, Night Talk traces the friendship of two girls, one white and one black, as they grow up in the same environment but in different worlds. Janey's mother is the housemaid for Evie and her mother. Evie accepts Janey readily into her world and as her roommate, a secret that must be kept from the neighbors. Yet Janey begins to view Evie's acceptance of her as blind to the issues of society and race. The rift between them reaches a critical test when Janey, as an adult, is accused of murder. At night, under the same roof, under the same moon, nothing divides the girls, Evie and Janey Louise. Talking in their beds they discuss their mothers, Agnes and Volusia; their absent fathers, one dead, one on the other side of the country; and their brothers, one fighting polio, the other fighting in the U.S. Army.

Their closeness blinds Evie to the divisions of daylight-- that she is white and her best friend is black; that it is her family's house they live in; that Janie's mother is the housekeeper for Evie's family. For years the inequities of race so permeate their lives that they remain invisible to Evie. It is only later in life that a startling series of events forces Evie to ask Jane for forgiveness.

With elegance and compassion, Elizabeth Cox charts the course of two unlikely friendships, between two daughters and their remarkable mothers. Largely set against the backdrop of the Civil Rights days of the fifties and sixties, Night Talk also confronts the unexpected challenges of the present day. Throughout the novel, Cox exposes the insidious and persistent barriers that prevent us from being honest with each other.

Night Talk is a compelling novel by a passionate writer who cares deeply for her characters and for our world.


Genre: Literary Fiction