Getting our Breath Back
by Shawne Johnson
List Price: $22.95
Pages: 224
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0525946543
Publisher: Plume
SHAWNE JOHNSON was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where she lives with her husband and two daughters. She received her undergraduate degree from Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina and completed her master's degree in English Literature at Temple University in Philadelphia.
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Q: What inspired you to tell the story of this family?
SJ: Similar to my characters, I grew up in a family where women were the main focal point. I have uncles and cousins, even a brother, but from an early age I saw women as both powerful and vulnerable. I remember watching my mother and grandmother make choices or fight on behalf of my brother and I. I also remember listening to my mother and grandmother cry themselves to sleep because they absolutely had to make all the decisions. There was no one else. My grandfather died before I was born and my father was simply never around. I became fascinated by the contradictions in my mother and grandmothers lives, two women I adore. I wanted to create a novel that spoke to their reality - women raising children alone, women being bone tired but never giving up hope, women finding and appreciating all the joy in life, women depending on other women (particularly family and friends) because they represent a direct reflection of how to be and thrive in the world.
Q: What issues are you personifying in Rose, Lilly, and Violet? Are these universal issues, or are they particular to the African American community?
SJ: This novel is about keeping secrets, denying parts of the self because it seems healthier or safer or helps ease the fit into someone else's life. All of the characters are trying to come to terms with how to be themselves in the world. These issues are certainly not particular to African American community. They are issues that we all struggle with on various levels, and I think that this gives the novel a universal appeal.
Q: When you began writing, did you know the destinies of these characters?
SJ: I had no idea. I had a general theme. I knew what I wanted readers to experience, and I knew that I wanted the novel to read like a song, the way that we all have music in our voices when we speak. I let the characters develop as I went along. I don't write in a linear fashion. The first chapter I wrote was in Imani's voice. The entire book developed around that one child's voice.
Q: How do you see this family's lives continuing after the end of the novel? Are you still writing their stories?
SJ: For me, the novel was the beginning and the end of their story. But I hope that Rose, Taji and Imani are happy. I hope Violet finds all of herself, and gathers strength in placing the burden of being pretty down. I hope Lilly finds rest. I hope Mama can look in the mirror and say "I did the best that I could and that has to be good enough."
Q: What are you working on now?
SJ: I'm currently working on a novel that tells the history of a small town founded by run away slaves in Ohio. There are a lot of Biblical undertones to the novel, and there is a literal fall from grace that the town experiences and must recover from. It's a novel full of mysticism and the hope of redemption for a people.
Excerpted from Getting our Breath Back © Copyright 2008 by Shawne Johnson. Reprinted with permission by Plume. All rights reserved.
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