This is a fascinating, magical tale of two young women with intertwined lives and histories. One sister, Cassie, black and raised in a cross-the-track laundry business ran by Grandmother. The other sister, Judith, white and poor, living a haggard life without literacy, delivering laundry for pennies to the rich uphill families. They share an oil-worker, white father who ran out on his white wife and children. The tale is from Cassie’s perspective and the reader views her plight, shared with most African-American in the United States of the 1950s. Cassie transforms from a controlled child into a vital young woman through experiences, insight, and understanding of her options in life. Her young mind is full of the tragedies of African-American slavery, the perils of black blood, and the desire to escape the Grandmother, who wants her progeny to have ever whiter children to gain status.

The magic and travel happen simultaneously as the two half-sisters went from overwhelming poverty in rural Mississippi to more stable lives on the east coast, starting in Virginia. Imagine the scenes and landscapes they traveled through while they moved East, first in a junker-car that seemed to be moved by magic and then by train to Virginia. Their travels take them through times of magic when their car is resurrected with gasoline, mules talk, the mystery of Porterville is revealed, and the magic of Blacks turning white becomes clearer. The trip to Virginia is to confront their father and get in on the inheritance, it pulls Judith and her singing dreams towards the possibilities of a different life. In the end the inheritance is worthless in money, but deep in the sense of belonging and family. Cassie’s Grandmother gains her whiteness through Cassie’s acceptance of herself, as a young, independent Black woman.

The story is a projection, an interpretation of the world of racism and the hatred of difference. It speaks to the reader as a reminder of where we have been and where we could return if we travel backwards. The story is hopeful, it illustrates a way to overcome difference. Cassie traveled forward and prevailed, using the confluence of ideas she gathered along the way.
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In their small Mississippi town, everyone knows that Cassie and Judith share a father. Cassie is black, home schooled, and works in the laundry with her mother and grandmother. Judith is white and uneducated, living with her mother and brother in poverty after her father walks out. When Judith decides to make her fortune as a singer in New York City, Cassie goes with her sister. ( )

I won a copy of Absalom's Daughters: A Novel through the Library Thing Early Reviewers Program. This book tells the story of two sisters one white and one black who embark on a road trip from rural Mississippi to Virginia to stake their claim on their father's family fortune. The book is a blend of southern fiction and magical realism which held my interest at times but at other times seemed to drag. Also, I felt like the plot itself wasn't strong enough to be a novel and might have read better as a short story. The author definitely writes well though and I would be interested in checking out some of her future novels. ( )

A quirky and heartfelt journey that will intrigue readers from the beginning. From an early age Cassie and Judith knew they were sisters. Even though Cassie was black and living with her mother and grandmother above a laundry shop and Judith was a white girl living with her redneck family, they knew they were sisters, and so did the whole town. Grandmother was obsessed with getting the family lighter and lighter because living in the Jim Crow south during the 50s was no cake walk for colored folks. In order to whiten the family line, grandmother would push her offspring to get knocked up by white men, hoping that in a few generations, no one would be none the wiser. When their father ran off (although he was certainly no father to poor Cassie and ignored her very existence) and left Judith's mom and siblings up shit creek, Judith has decided that she's had enough and she's going to make her own way in the world. She convinces Cassie to join her and together they dig an old car out of the woods and start a road trip across the south that they'll never forget. A wonderful read that has elements of folklore, mysticism, family, friendship, and heartbreak. ( )