A Natural Woman . . . Reading Beyond The Words

Recently, a reviewer with APOOO gave my novel, A NATURAL WOMAN, 5 stars!!!!! It's always nice when someone expresses appreciation for your work. It's even better when someone demonstrates a real understanding of your work. I think on some level this reviewer recognized that A Natural Woman is more than just a story about a woman’s obsession with her hair or pursuit of a man.

In a A Natural Woman the real story exists just beyond the words on the page, if that makes any sense. Really, if you engage in a close read, you'll discover the story peeking at you from behind the little things, like

**Dante's fascination with Kafka's THE METAMORPHOSIS

**Aliesha’s office in the basement of building called Sojourner Hall

**The lover who tells Aliesha he wants to be her Teacake and wants her to be his Janie

**The blind, bald clairvoyant who can see what others can’t

** Aliesha’s discussion of the “beloved disciple”

**the presence and power of the dead

** Dante’s 40 day disappearance

** The spider Dante spies on the ceiling

Of course, the fact that I didn't think too many folks would "get" A NATURAL WOMAN didn't stop me from writing it. Sometimes you just have to be willing to go there . . .