Florida Writers Association

Born to a family of relative privilege, Gayla Tyner, "woman of color," is haunted by the South, what it has been, what it is, and is becoming. A professor at a major university in Michigan, wife to a professor, daughter of medical professionals, her southern hometown holds the key to the mystery of herself. She is troubled by relationships with her husband and her father. Nothing is as simple as black and white in this intricately plotted novel of coming home. To be "nigger rich" is to be held up, sometimes, as an achiever: educated, well spoken, at ease in the best of society. It is also to be mocked and envied by ones "own"- juxtaposition of privilege and powerlessness in a world polarized by class, race and gender.