Which bring us full circle to Grown Women, a novel about four generations of women, with the story beginning in 1974 when 19-year old Charlotte leaves home after giving birth to her daughter, Corinna. Out on her own, Charlotte struggles to create a stable life for her and Corinna. Despite Charlotte's upscale upbringing, she doesn't reach out to her mother, Evelyn, for support. And she never talks about the reasons she left home for the backwoods of Tennessee. When Corinna turns 18, she conceives her daughter Camille with a man whose life trajectory doesn't include them, at least not publicly. Together, the three generations of women navigate life, often through increasingly contentious moments.
After things between Corinna, her husband Isaac, and Camille come to a head, Corinna turns to Charlotte for help. Seeing that her help can only go so far, and wanting to provide Camille the best possible outcome, Charlotte eventually turns to Evelyn for help, which makes them face their past and reconcile it with the present.
This isn't a story with a specific destination or bad guy. It's more about how life can be good sometimes and bad other times. It's about the decisions we make daily and those closest to us. Amidst the usual struggles of making ends meet, raising a child, and finding a partner, Johnson peppers in the unusual struggles of suicide, homicide, and abuse. She also examines generational trauma and how it spreads for decades in unspoken ways. We experience how these women try to overcome that trauma and stop perpetuating the pain it inflicts, and the messy process that comes with all of it.
I'll be honest, this isn't a book I would normally pick up. It doesn't have a catchy premise or strange twist. But it's about struggles we have all dealt with and is told in an engaging way. And for a debut novel, it makes me curious about what Johnson writes next.
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