Erika J. Simpson writes a compelling scene in her evocative debut memoir “This Is Your Mother” about how a professor dashed her dream of becoming an actor during her freshman year of college. “Acting is a cheap trick,” her professor says after watching Simpson perform an auto-drama depicting her mother’s arrest in a Decatur Walmart when she was 8 years old. “But writing, some things can’t be taught. And you’ve got it, kid.”
At the time, Simpson wanted to be a movie star and was crushed. But after reading her forthright, heartbreaking and stunningly beautiful exploration of her relationship with her mother, it’s easy to agree Simpson is indeed a gifted storyteller.
Parroting the book’s title, Simpson’s memoir opens in the intimate second-person perspective with the punching directive to: “Imagine this is your mother.”
The author proceeds to summarize her mother Sallie Carol’s life, rapidly conveying the big picture. Within a few pages, it’s apparent that growing up with Simpson’s mother was no ordinary experience. Sallie Carol is a dreamer, a larger-than-life hustler with mental-health challenges who makes frustrating decisions and has a heart of gold.
But she didn’t start out that way. In 1988, Sallie Carol is a young working mother who is diagnosed with a brain tumor and shortly thereafter learns she’s pregnant. Already separated from her husband, he proceeds with the divorce, and Sallie Carol and her baby survive cancer surgery.
That’s when the hustle begins. Sallie Carol interprets her survival as God’s calling on her life and takes that as a sign to pursue her dreams. She leaves her daughters with one of her nine siblings in North Carolina and moves to Atlanta to start her own business.
Teaching high school science by day, she works nights and weekends on Freedom Peace Inc., her organization dedicated to “healing the wounded through counseling sessions and seminars.” Before long, Simpson and her older sister, Samantha, join their mom. But their childhood is fraught with poverty, hardship and, according to Sallie Carol, lots of divine intervention.
Simpson illustrates how miracles, faith and trusting “the Lord will make a way” form the currency of her upbringing. More than a few times, it is the only currency they have. Sallie Carol often has to launch into retelling the “testimony” of her survival to evoke the sympathy of a bill collector or cabdriver she can’t afford to pay. Surprisingly, it works more often than it doesn’t.
While coping with multiple ailments, including recurring bouts of cancer, Sallie Carol prioritizes her ambition over paying the rent. The family is forced to transition from rental house to apartment to motel room as evictions rack up. To pay for extras, they barter with food stamps.
The narrative weaves between two time periods and two perspective voices. The present day begins in 2013 when Sallie Carol’s doctor gives her two months to live. Simpson returns to the gripping second-person point-of-view in these chapters to convey her despair over her mother’s impending death. As an adult struggling to keep herself afloat in Chicago, Simpson’s heartache intensifies when she learns Sallie Carol is living unhoused in Decatur.
The author balances these emotionally fraught plunges in the present with scenes from her past. Moving fluidly through time, they provide a first-person account of the key moments that shape her into an adult. The result is a heartrending portrait of a complex mother-daughter relationship that is brimming with compassion and love.
This is perhaps what Simpson does best — provide a balanced and comprehensive depiction of a wildly contradictory figure. Because it isn’t always a hardship being Sallie Carol’s daughter. There are periods of stability when Sallie Carol is healthy. She is an educated woman with a vibrant personality who oozes charm. They share plenty of love, laughter and tender moments over the years. And when mom can’t come through for her girls, she has nine siblings who take turns stepping up. But once the cancer returns, or her mother’s behavior turns erratic, the hustle to survive starts all over again.
At her lowest, Sallie Carol does things like convince her daughter to use a college loan to pay mom’s back rent, putting Simpson’s future in jeopardy. But what are you going to do when your sick mother is about to be evicted — again?
Simpson plays with form and structure in innovative ways as the narrative advances. Biblical references are lush, from chapters titled Genesis and Exodus to the “Book of Sallie Carol” — a collection of mom’s “commandments” referenced throughout the text in verse form.
One chapter is a series of vignettes that rapidly advance through Simpson’s college years. The paragraphs are separated with a “*camera shutter clicks*” indicating a scene change, enhancing the sense of urgency.
Another section that is particularly compelling includes “scenes” from the Fox TV show “Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction.” In these segments, real-life host Jonathan Frakes describes the miracles Sallie Carol experienced throughout her life and asks the reader to judge if they truly happened. These uplifting passages are brilliantly timed to provide a break from the second-person interludes chronicling the end of Sallie Carol’s days.
There are also entries from Simpson’s diary and lists of things like Sallie Carol’s educational degrees and prescription medications. The scripts of the conversations Simpson wishes she had with her mother deliver a spectacular gut-punch.
All the elements come together to create a stunning composite of a complex woman as seen through her daughter. Raw, lingering and honest, “This Is Your Mother” is one incredible memoir that confirms Erika J. Simpson does indeed have the gift of storytelling. Perhaps it’s a good thing she didn’t nail acting.
NONFICTION
“This Is Your Mother”
by Erika J. Simpson
Scribner
224 pages, $27.99
AUTHOR EVENT
Erika J. Simpson. Author Talks. 7 p.m., May 8. $6 (members), $12 (non-members). Presented by Atlanta History Center. Margaret Mitchell House, 979 Crescent Ave. NE, Atlanta. 404-249-7015. https://www.atlantahistorycenter.com/event/erika-j-simpson/
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