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There are currently 44 member reviews
for Take My Hand
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Anke V. (Portland, OR)
Take My Hand, a gem of a book
Inspired by true events, Take My Hand is a profoundly moving novel that moves between 2016 and 1973. Civil Townsend is a black nurse in 1970's Montgomery Alabama working at the Family Planning Clinic whose patients were mostly from poor black families. When Civil begins questioning whether India and Erica, just 11 and 13 years old, actually need birth control, she's reprimanded by the clinic's director. She also soon discovers that the non-FDA approved birth control (Depo-Provera) she is giving to the very young girls is controversial since it has shown links to cancer development. Throughout the chapters she worries about the young girls as if they were her own, even when the unthinkable has happens. Many years later, Civil needs to make peace with what happened forty some years earlier and retelling the story to her daughter Anne will hopefully bring it. Take My Hand is a well written, compelling, absorbing and captivating novel, were the protagonists refuse to be forgotten. Thank you Bookbrowse for the opportunity to read and review this advanced reader's copy of this book!
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Susan W. (Berkley, MI)
Take My Hand should be on everyone's "to read" list
This is a compelling read, both because of the subject and the author's fine writing. Having two storylines, one in the past and one in present day, keeps the action moving forward and helps explain a lot, however I was disappointed in the completion of the present day narrative. It did not match the back story's richness. While it answered questions, it lacked emotional clarity.
Take My Hand is sure to generate a lot of discussion for people unfamiliar with this event in American history as well as continuing the conversation about the syphilis study at Tuskegee. While this is considered to be a work of fiction, it is historically accurate.
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Celia P. (Melbourne, FL)
Reproductive Injustice
I love historical fiction and this book rates at the top with the best of them.
Civil Townsend is a black nurse working at the Montgomery (AL) Family Planning Clinic in 1973. She is a dedicated woman and wants to change the world. When she starts out at the Clinic, little does she know how bad that world is.
She finds the federal government meddling in the lives of young black girls and she tries to change what they are doing.
Forty two years later, she is relating her story to Anne her daughter. Civil needs to make peace with what happened and retelling the story will hopefully bring it.
One of the morals of this story is how deeply her acts to change things have affected her.
The book is a compelling read and researched by the author to the nth degree. Extremely well worth the read.
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Wendy F. (Kalamazoo, MI)
Heartwrenching
Take my hand is a heartwrenching and beautiful story of horrible medical experiments being performed on your black girls. Civil is a kind and caring nurse who discovers this atrocity and fights to shine a light on these acts. It's so sad to know that though this was based in 1970, our healthcare system still is full of bias and racism.
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Dotty Sharp
Take My Hand review
Excellent writing, painful true subject matter. Slavery in America is a fact and the history of this country’s founding. White Americans all need to know this fact and accept it. This is a powerful book and I highly recommend it.
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Marilynu
A must read
This was a book I was unable to put down. It is a reality that both shocks me and yet it doesn’t. For women to have to fight for freedom of choice still goes on today. The book is profoundly moving as it is inspired by true events in the south who fought for the freedom of choice. The book is a great reality check.
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Beverly J. (Hoover, AL)
Blistering and Incisive
Inspired by the real life case (Relf v. Weinberger), Perkins-Valdez's richly observed novel is blistering and incisive story of a Black nurse whose young patients' has reproductive injustices inflicted upon them because of their race and class.
It is 1973, recent nursing school graduate Civil Townsend is excited to be starting her job in her hometown of Montgomery, Alabama and do her part to help women in her African American community make choices about their bodies. Civil is alarmed when she is assigned to give regularly scheduled birth control shots to young sisters aged 11 and 13, either who is sexually active. When Civil receives unsatisfactory answers from her boss, she decides to stop giving the girls the shots. Then, without Civil's knowledge, a surgical procedure will forever alter the lives of those involved.
This is an emotional compelling and heart-wrenching storyline that tugged at my heartstrings. As a reader I found that the author's writing superbly drawn characters evoked my emotions and the seamless integration of the meticulously researched historical details provided the outrage that is needed to make sure this does not happen again.
This is a great book club discussion book for groups who like to discuss weighty and timely issues.
A much needed book to understand the legacy of injustice!
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