Shifting Through Neutral

In order to appreciate what Bridgett Davis' debut novel is, you first should know what it isn't. Is is not titilating erotica or a fun-n-funny beach date. And although Shifting Through Neutral's characters are African American, this is no grimy urban tale. Such genres are respectively wonderful, but one need not expect anything comparable with Davis' work. Set amid the nostalgia of Detroit during the Motown era, Shifting Through Neutral is the stylistically fresh coming into adulthood tale of a fully developed protagonist named Rae Dodson. It is a beautifully written story about family, loyalty, self discovery, and first loves during their most deliciously awkward times. No, in this novel you won't get that coveted urge to rush through the plot to see what happens next, even when Rae must decide to which of her seperated parents she should cling tightest. Instead, what you will find are snippets of life so interesting to read that you will want to pace yourself. You'll want to savor passages, to read sections one deep breath at a time. Sure, you'll look forward to the distance of having read it all, but then you'll close the book and sigh when it's over. And then, hauntingly, you'll find yourself wanting to go back and experience the pains and the triumphs all over again. In so many ways it is a beautiful literary experience.

The trouble with reviewing a book like Bridgett M. Davis' Shifting Through Neutral (HarperCollins 2004) is that Davis' first novel contains such elegance and subtlety that any attempt to analyze it is like explaining the punch line to a joke. The normal business of the reviewer becomes as meaningless and gauche as watching Anna Pavlova dance with Tigger. In looking for themes, for an angle to glom onto and extract, I feel like I am committing the waste observed by Davis' narrator as the auto manufacturers submit their models to corrosion testing, "defacing a thing of beauty in order to see how much abuse it could take". This novel doesn't just tell a story. In fact, it's short on plot and very character-driven. It exposes the soul of a middle-class black family in 1970's Detroit through the eyes of young Rae Dodson. Her father is disabled by crippling migraines and her emotionally-distant mother is popping Valium when her older half-sister, Kimmie, returns from New Orleans where she vanished years ago to live with her father, their mother's one true love. Kimmie's return stirs in Rae a desire to understand her splintered family, to understand the mixed blessings of coming into womanhood, and to find what freedom truly means to her. But, when Kimmie's father comes for them, Rae is forced to confront the price of freedom and define the kind of person she wants to become. Davis' work is all the more impressive given how badly it could have failed. A novel without a strong plot runs the risk of being a phenomenal bore. Yet she combines a beautiful, haunting prose with fully developed characters who are engaging and have depth while making it all seem effortless. The characters are three-dimensional, coming to life off pages of evocative imagery and very little exposition. Davis doesn't describe Rae; she allows the reader to come to know Rae. Subtlety is by far Davis' strongest gift as a novelist. She uses her central images of cars, driving, and the road for the full range of those metaphors without ever manipulating the reader emotionally or, indeed, ever even allowing us to see the mechanics of what she's doing. The impact of Rae's observations about her family, about her job at the GM Proving Ground, about her awkward and tumultuous early love affairs brush over the reader's senses like gossamer cobwebs on sensitive flesh. For this reason alone, Davis deserves recognition for writing important literary fiction and important African-American fiction specifically. Rae's voice as the narrator is undeniably the voice of a Midwestern black girl describing the lives of a black family with a realism and poignancy rarely found in popular fiction. She masterfully focuses on race while utterly transcending it - never portraying black families in the way white readers expect or want to hear, yet never allowing her readers to think the Dodson family "just happens to be black". This is both a black novel and an American novel and to place one over the othe

Told in first person from the viewpoint of Rae Dodson, a nine year old girl who sleeps on her father's back. For me, this was a satisfying read. I loved all of the characters, even the ones I should have disliked, I loved, because the writer did so well developing even the most minor characters. After discovering that this book was set in Detroit, I rushed out and bought it the same day it was released. I was excited about the book because it seemed unique. The story of a daddy's girl also appealed to me because I was never that and secretly longed to be. All of the characters in the book were memorable and interesting. I understood the mother with all of her faults, and I appreciated JD the father and his love for his child. If you're looking for a lot of drama, you won't find it in this book, but there is a hint of mystery involving JD, Rae, and JD's stepdaughter Kimmie that will keep you guessing until the very end.Also, the book was set in the 70's and the writer did an excellent job of placing the reader in that era. Similar to listening to an old song that triggers memories, this book did the same for me as I was a young child who grew up in Detroit in the 70's. If you're looking for beautiful prose and a book with a realistic feel that will thrust you into the story, this is the book I would recommend reading.

Shifting Through Neutral was an awesome book. It was wonderfully written. The story is told through the eyes of Rae, an adolescent, who is growing up in Detroit in a dysfunctional family, to say the least. Her mother due to personal problems, withdraws from Rae causing problems and repercussions that last with Rae into adulthood. Her father, who Rae idolizes, is also dealing with failed health problems and side effects resulting from a lost love. This book was a refreshing read. It's different than other books on the market. It truly is a remarkable fiction novel debut.

An exceprt of Davis's novel is available online, for free, at http://narrativemagazine.com