This book covers it all - childhood, coming-of-age, adulthood, race, culture, gender... It's a story told by the group - the Girls - they are the main character that brings life to the book. Told as a series of vignettes, a snapshot of the lives of the girls and the New York (Queens) society that surrounds them. There's a rhythm to the words that takes takes the reader along for the ride. There's no plot follow, you just go with the flow.
Leave for that Brown Boy, Brown Girl. Brown other, now grown. Open your eyes, hurry!
We step quickly and board subways that lurch forward and cause us to lose our footing. Enter bars. Wait for them. One vodka and ginger ale, one Riesling, one gin and tonic, one dirty martini, we say. Can you make it a double?
Is the desire we feel palpable, marked clear as day on our faces?
Some of us, however, do not tremble. We are calm. We are the ones who've arrived with no makeup, no creams and pastes to conceal our skin, the wrinkles forming by our mouths and eyes. We are twenty four, twenty nine, thirty two, thirty five, forty one, but sixteen at heart. We've left our lips unvarnished. Let them see it all, we think. We are not here to impress.
They arrive. How did we forget how beautiful they are? We do our best to memorize their movements, the way they gaze at us, the sound of their laughter. We loved them when we were young - some of us realize our feelings have never faded. We drink them in. Burn into our memories; we might not see them again after tonight.
