Naima Coster's novel 'What's Mine and Yours' explores themes of race, identity, and belonging through the lens of school integration in North Carolina. The story is told through the perspectives of Gee, a Black student, and Noelle, a half-Latina girl, highlighting the struggles and complexities of their lives and relationships.
Naima Coster's latest novel, 'What's Mine and Yours,' delves into the intricate themes of race, identity, and belonging, much like Britt Bennett's 'The Vanishing Half.' Set in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, the story unfolds as the community grapples with school integration, causing significant upheaval. The narrative is seen through the eyes of Gee, a Black student whose father was tragically murdered, and Noelle, a half-Latina girl whose white mother leads the opposition to integration. Coster masterfully portrays the impact of place and opportunity on the characters' lives, with Gee's father's untimely death and Noelle's mother's struggles to provide for her children serving as pivotal points. The novel's kaleidoscopic storytelling, shifting in time and perspective, offers a rich understanding of the characters and their motivations. At its core, the novel is a poignant exploration of legacy, identity, and the challenges of coexistence in a changing social landscape.
Quick quotes
Gee wedged himself between the grown-up bodies to kneel next to his daddy. He felt his mother lifting him away. He fought and kicked to stay close. She lost her grip on him, and he sank nearer to him, the one he loved. He used his hands to pitch his father’s shoulders, his pretty ironed shirt, his favorite, red-and-pink plaid. Gee shook him, called out to him, but he stayed still. He stuck his hand underneath his daddy’s body, to prop him up, so he could hear. _Daddy_, he said. _Daddy._ When his hand came back to him it was shining with blood.
They’d be decent in some ways; they’d astonish her with how they seemed to keep up with the news, the shifting language around identity and race. Once she’d even overheard Lacey May refer to Alma as _a person of color_. But they’d be incensed, too, by the encroachments they saw on their world — the stars cast in movie franchises they had formerly adored, the people who had the nerve to go to marches and complain and vote in elections. They would guard everything they had, however little, as if their lives were prizes they’d rightly won that others had no right to claim.
They’d never admit how willingly they’d played their parts.