We rarely, if ever, review self-published books, but not reading Four Women would have been a grave mistake. This book is not without flaws, but they're small (explained below), and it richly deserves a four-star rating. The flaws, too, are things that can be addressed with a strong line edit and do not in any way keep Williams from telling a story exceptionally well. Four Women, by Nikeshe Elise Williams, tells the story of four Jacksonville women in a post-Stand Your Ground world.
It's a sobering and chilling story. I bought the book at the Jacksonville stop on the Southeast Sister Cities Reading Tour last month. Williams did not read, but she did attend, and after the reading she and I chatted for a while. I bought her book and started reading it that evening. Over the past two weeks, I've used every spare moment to find out where the story would go.
Williams paints the story of these four women in bold brushstrokes and is a master of the old writer's adage "show, don't tell." The book shows you, perhaps, what you need to see to understand a sliver of the challenges black women face in a post-Trayvon Martin world. Williams has storytelling skills — and a message — not unlike Tony Morrison's, although Williams's storylines are more straightforward (who else here had to keep re-reading passages of Beloved?). Four Women brings you into the lives of four black women in a country that doesn't see them as having much value, and the craft is such not often seen in self-published books.
There are flaws, but they're the flaws associated with literally every self-published book ever. There are grammatical and spelling oversights. Every writer makes them (including the one writing this review); that's why most conventionally published books go through not only a line edit but a copy edit. One editor will not catch everything. On a personal note — and this is not related to self-publishing — this reviewer wouldn't have minded less-euphemistic sex scenes, but that's a personal preference, not a demerit for the book. Despite the occasional misplaced apostrophe, here are only a few reasons you should add this book to your nightstand.
7. It's well worth your time. We do not review self-published books if we don't think they're worth your time. That's because so many of them are... not good. It's not fair to say a one-star traditionally published book is just as terrible as a one-star self-published book, so we simply don't say anything.
6. There aren't enough books like this. There aren't many books by black women who are writing about middle or upper-middle-class black women whose education, career or income won't protect them from violence and racism.
5. Williams tells one hell of a story. The author is an Emmy-winning news producer for the CBS affiliate TV station in Jacksonville, and her storytelling skills are not confined to television. She wastes no time getting readers invested in the lives of these women, and keeps you turning pages to find out which directions each life will take.
4. The question Williams asks on the book jacket: Is the black woman still the mule of the world? Is. The. Black. Woman. Still. The. Mule. Of. The. World. Jesus. Check my privilege, please, because I had no idea that was... still a thought.
3. It's superb African-American literature. This book is more engaging than others I've read by contemporary black writers. Because of its timeliness and the way the story gets told, I found it a better read than Zadie Smith's White Teeth. Uh-huh, I went there.
2. It's local. Jacksonville may not feel local, but in the sense that racial issues in Florida are unique to Florida and this is a Jacksonville writer writing about themes of race and violence as impacted by the Zimmerman verdict, it's local.
1. You will relate to at least one of these four women and feel their pain. They all come from different places and have a different story, but they're all impacted by the world we live in, and you're bound to relate. Not a woman? Don't worry, Williams has four strong male characters in there, too — even though they're ancillary to these women. Point is, this book will make you see the world through the eyes of at least one of these black women — and it's a different world, indeed.
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