A house is more than the materials that were used to build the home. It is a place of comfort, love and a shelter from the storms that life can bring.
Sarah Broom is the youngest child of a large African-American family from New Orleans. Her new memoir, The Yellow House, is the story of her family and the house that they resided in from 1961 until 2005 when it was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
Her parents, Simon and Ivory Mae Broom, each had several children of their own from previous marriages when they married. Sarah is child number twelve. After her father’s death when she was an infant, her mother was determined to keep her home and her family together. As an adult, Sarah moved away from her home city, but it kept calling her back, even after her childhood home was no more.
I loved this book. In telling her family’s story and the story of the house that she grew up in, the author speaks to all of us. It is a story of a family, a story of a home and a story of a city.
I also appreciated that the reader is introduced to a part of New Orleans that most of us only knew because of the hurricane. When we visit a city, the natural inclination is to go to the standard tourist spots. We don’t think of visiting the neighborhoods that are not listed in the tourism books or the fliers found in the hotels.
I recommend it.
Writergurlny 