Reviews
"A haunting, engrossing portrait." -- The Washington Post "A tinderbox of a novel." -- The Boston Globe "Poignant." -- The Riverfront Times , St. Louis, "A haunting, engrossing portrait." — The Washington Post "A tinderbox of a novel." — The Boston Globe "Poignant." — The Riverfront Times , St. Louis, "A haunting, engrossing portrait." —The Washington Post "A tinderbox of a novel." —The Boston Globe "Poignant." —The Riverfront Times , St. Louis
Synopsis
"A haunting, engrossing portrait of two families - one white, one Black - whose lives are woven together and then shattered" ( The Washington Post ) by the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Oil-boom opulence, fear, hate, and lynchings are the backdrop for this riveting novel about one of the worst incidents of violence in American history. Althea Whiteside, an oil-wildcatter's high-strung white wife, and her enigmatic Black maid, Graceful, share a complex connection during the tense days of the Oklahoma oil rush. Their juxtaposing stories - and those of others close to them - unfold as tensions mount to a violent climax in the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, during which whites burned the city's prosperous Black neighborhood to the ground. The massacre becomes the crucible that melds and tests each of the character in this masterful exploration of the American race story and the ties that bind us irrevocably to one another., Set during the tense days of the Oklahoma oil rush, Rilla Askew 's Fire in Beulah is a mesmerizing story that centers on the complex relationship between Althea Whiteside, an oil wildcatter's high-strung wife, and Graceful, her enigmatic black maid. Their juxtaposing stories--and those of others close to them--unfold against a volatile backdrop of oil-boom opulence, fear, hatred, lynchings that climax in the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, when whites burned the city's properous black community. Askew's award-winning first novel, The Mercy Seat , was praised for its astute diepiction of family bonds and the beauty of American landscape. Now she explores the American race story with the same perception.
