Review: With Every Tragedy There Comes Hope And Love
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 30, 2011
bernicemcfaddenAt the very beginning of KEEPER OF KEYS, we are hit with the disease that Kai must live with for the rest of her life. What the doctor tells Kai shakes her world like an earthquake. Kai leaves the doctor's office and hurries home. She huddles close to her fireplace trying to make peace with the doctor's diagnosis. Her mind runs to and fro. She remembers her mother, Alice, who died of bone cancer. She remembers her mother's love of life. Unfortunately, it's not as easy to remember all of the men who have loved her in the past. There are names and features she remembers, but she can't remember all of her lovers. She can't remember who might not have worn a condom during the intimacy of love making. She realizes one of those times of loving and being loved was now as she says "costing me my life."Kai fears that she will never experience the love of another man in her life ever. "Would this be the only type of affection I could safely allow myself? I would never be loved by another man, ever." While reading the story I realized how swiftly our lives can turn in another direction. I also realized there is always hope and love in every situation. For Kai, there are the memories of her mother, Alice. There is her much loved daughter, Alice, who is staying in Georgia far from her Northern home. There is a man named Journey. Each person in KEEPER OF KEYS will become a part of Kai's new beginning, new Genesis.As always Bernice L. McFadden's story is richly descriptive. She writes about the bells of St. Patrick's cathedral, the black sand, white sand, cocoanuts and pineapples of the islands and the volcanic eruption in the 1800's. She mentions the Masaii tribesmen. I loved the mention of a favorite poem The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes. The author also mentions three Artists, all new to me: Charles Bibb theworldart, Paul Nzalambagemsofafricagallery, and Leroy Campbell, leroycampbelloriginals. The mention of these artists fit so well in the story because Kai's mother, Alice, loved to paint. Alice, her namesake, chooses to one day "cover her daughter's nursery walls with Banyan trees, smiling tigers and juggling bears...." This hope and love springs forth throughout the novel. I thought about it. Death does not have the power to destroy because life is stronger than death. All of us are living legacies of those who have gone on before us to the Great Beyond. When death comes, our deepest concern is how to explain it to our children and ourselves. I think one answer lies in this novel KEEPER OF KEYS."Eternity is not something you lay on a child suddenly. It's a concept that finds its way into their minds with maturity."It makes me happy to end this review with Langston Hughes poem.