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 Give Me Mine
by Gary Ford
 
Reviewed by: Joey Pinkney
Gary Ford has penned a coming-of-age story that will grab your heart and surprise you with its richness in quality. Why? Because Ford has authored a near-perfect tale of a white girl growing up in the hood minus the stereotypical garbage we see in a lot of the novels flooding the market. The reader gets to follow Janay Nicolay as she slowly matures in the Westlawn projects of Milwaukee. She’s naturally smart, yet vicious because of constantly being attacked because her color. Kicked out of school for a fight she didn’t initiate, Janay quickly switches gears and abandons the idea of going to school. Her mother, Diane, is addicted to crack, so it’s up to Janay to figure out how she is going to eat and scrape up money for the Section 8 apartment they inhabit.
As fate would have it, the same day she leaves school is the same day Scottie sees her walking home. Scottie is Westlawn’s version of Robin Hood—steal from the banks and flood the projects with gifts and necessities. Scottie reels Janay in with sex and money. He eventually trains her to be his getaway driver as he robs banks with his best friend Fonzi. Young and dumb, she blindly does whatever he wants. In return, she gets money, clothes, her apartment renovated and a car. But most of all, she feels respected—something that’s hard for her to come by. Even the calls from various women in the middle of the night with threats don’t bother her.
Scottie disappears for weeks at a time, only popping up for sex, food or for Janay to drive. Janay follows suit and does whatever he asks. All the while, she steadily stacks her money in secret “just in case”. That “just in case” turns out to be a new life. Pregnancy slowly changes her perspective on life. She eventually leaves Scottie to do his dirt by himself and focuses on her daughter, Lashay. Janay gets her GED and tries making a legal living.
She goes from “that white girl” to “that crazy white girl” to “that crazy white girl that can do some hair”. While experimenting with her mother’s hair, Janay finds out that she can do any hairstyle she sees. She spends most of her pregnancy honing her skills by doing free work to whoever needed to get fresh. Her talent as a hairstylist gives her a new direction, and she runs with it. Janay pursues a license in cosmetology. Her talent lands her a job with the most highly respected hair salon in Milwaukee. She even wins a hair competition in New York while at the same time gaining a set of friends that love her for her. While in New York, she also meets a man who is too good to be true—a realtor/DJ who fell in love with her at first sight. She finds a new purpose in life and finally a reason to get out of Westlawn projects. Will her past life with Scottie come back to rear its ugly head, or will Janay finally get to live the life she longs for? You have to read this great novel to find out.
What did you like best about this book?
Gary Ford spent a lot of time making this book a quality effort. His attention to details and nuances of his characters made this book hard to put down. Reading about Janay and her struggles and triumphs was a pleasure to experience.
By the end of the book I felt like I watched her grow up. I was right there when she realized that Lashay was more important than the illegal activities and the fights with people who challenged her dignity based on her skin color.
I also like the twist that was inherent in this book. Usually the ghetto is reserved for African-Americans, and white people are outsiders. Janay, as a white girl/woman in the hood, was a minority and had to fight a kind of racism usually reserved for other African-Americans trapped in the ghetto.
It took a while to figure out the significance of the title “Give Me Mine”. It all made sense by the end of the book. I hope this book continues to develop a strong readership.
What did you dislike about this book?
I have only two gripes with Give Me Mine: the cover and the long paragraphs. When I first picked the book up, I thought, “Here we go, another hood rich story...” The black woman in a fur coat standing in front of a car on dubs had me thinking this book was a dud. I wonder why Gary Ford didn’t put together a cover that better depicted imagery
of a white girl struggling for respect in the hood.
The long paragraphs that popped up every now and again also had me shaking my head. It was real hard to read certain passages when one paragraph covered about 80 percent of the page. I think a little editing was in order to break these long paragraphs into smaller, bite-sized chunks.
How can the author improve this book?
Change the cover to make it a little more interesting and true to the story. Invest in a good editor to tighten up the format of the story.
Other than that, I enjoyed the book a lot. I think other readers who like a good story will appreciate the novel Gary Ford has given to the world.
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oh so many stars as well. I am so proud.
I can't wait for the sequel!!!!
Milwaukee author of DONT' EVEN TRIP and GLITTER GUNS N BUTTER
www.myspace.com/teresaraebutler
He'll be in the Chi this summer to hang-out with the beautiful ladies of the Reading Divas Book Club.
We can't wait!
I love the main character. Now every white-chick in the Mil sware they runnin' somethin'. Great work Author Gary Ford.
Although Gary Ford is a man, he wrote a novel from a female's perspective that is seamless in it's depiction. This book is like a good movie in that it pulls you into it's whirlwind of plot twists and forces you to look around.