Sunaina Luthra ON  Aug 21, 2023, IN BOOK REVIEW, THE HOUSE OF EVE BY SADEQA JOHNSON-FICTION

Rating: 3.5/5

The interplay between circumstances, desires and our personal ambition acts as a foundation to guide us towards a more fulfilling life path. Isn’t an eluctable desire to achieve something acts as an inspiration? Whats happens when we have no ambition? We live like a parasite nibbling on someone else’s privileged occupancies. And, then the hedge hammer of unforeseen circumstances too dabbles relentlessly on our desires. 

‘The House of Eve’ by Sadeqa Johnson accentuates however the situation is; good or bad, it allows us to either propel ahead or sometimes limit our choices. Ruby Pearson and Eleanor Quarles are vulnerable and ambitious black women of 1950’s. They are miles apart but are cocooned in similar vicissitudes; poverty, racism and love navigating the complexities of life.

Fifteen year old Ruby, a brilliant high school student and a gifted painter aims for the stars with grand aspiration to become an ophthalmologist. She lives with an obnoxious mother, and already abandoned by her father during the prime of her lives makes her obligated to reach for the sky with her own triumphant efforts. To surpass the tenebrous music of life, she has to secure a scholarship designated for black students in Philadelphia, and that definitely meant no faltering.

Eleanor Quarles has a life of ease. Raised in a small town of Cleveland, Eleanor has supportive parents. A college sophomore at Howard University, Eleanor works hard to be a library archivist. Despite her efforts, racism remains an unwelcome presence in her life too. She faces rejection by the Premier Sorority on campus, the ABCs comprising of light skinned girls.

Then comes the ‘love-calling’! Both women find recluse and comfort in the terpsichorean of ‘love’. Shimmy, a Jewish boy and William Pride, an aspiring doctor; both with their respective love-interest take the road head-long. However, their love comes for a price. It is met with scruples and stoicism that leaves both the women desolate carrying a papilloma of an infected past.

Impediments in life can be immense concluding a different trajectory; our relationships can turn bitter, we are left with less means to attain our goals or sanguinity can turn into abnegation.  The ultimate outcome could vary significantly.

Ruby gets pregnant with Shimmy’s child. Coaxed by Shimmy’s mother on the pretext of granting her scholarship, she is sent to ‘The house of Eve’; a place for unwed mothers where they are forced to give their child for adoption. Ruby lands to this queer place. She sees herself evolve from an ambition-driven girl to a devastated unwed mother. She surrenders to her circumstances thereby sabotaging her confidence. Eleanor chooses a path of martial happiness with William but yearns for parenthood which looks like a far-fetched dream. Being bereft of producing a child, she finally chooses the path of adoption.

Are Ruby’s and Eleanor lives intertwined?

Is Ruby caught in a bind with no clear way out?

Are their lives meant to intersect and instil a new meaning to their life’s perfidies?

Will they ever be able to reach the pinnacle of their goal?

Sadeqa Johnson infuses her characters with a genuine essence of emotional nourishment that stems from her personal life. The book presents the struggle of women in an era when their respective movements and their deluged empowerment had still not seen the light of the day. But every struggle is a story and every story expounds on an inner turmoil that becomes an experience to live and learn by.

TAKEAWAY

Heartrending emotional story……