Clothesline Blues - Paperback

by Allyson Deese (Illustrator), B. Berry (Author)

On the fringes of the Jim Crow era, resources for women living in questionable and sometimes dangerous domestic situations were practically non-existent and many women were desperately compelled to take matters into their own hands. After years of "playing house" with Frank, Hilda has grown weary of his bullish ways and she wants to be free to live in peace. Telling him to leave face to face would be the fair and proper thing to do, and she's even broached the subject on occasion only to find that once again, her fragile mind and deep-rooted anxiety stopped her in her tracks. Her mental illness that lay just below the façade of sanity wouldn't allow her to follow through. As time passed and Hilda's frustration grew, her thoughts took a dark and sinister turn. She concocted a fool-proof plan to get rid of Frank once and for all, but she couldn't carry it out alone. She enlisted the help of her dearest friend, Pearl, and although Pearl struggled with matters of her own as she too, searched for peace I. Her own life, there was no way she could refuse her friend's desperate request. During the sixties, as the Black Movement was in full swing with up-risings nation-wide and the historical turmoil of Bloody Sunday swirling madly around in the background of their world, will Hilda and Pearl find the peace they so desperately seek?