Breathing room

Off Our Backs, May/Jun 2002 by Young, Angie

Elam's innovative narrative technique knits the lives of these three women seamlessly by alternating between the third person perspectives of Norma and Moxie and entries from Zadi's diary.

review

Breathing Room by D.C.'s own Patricia Elam is a novel that expertly snapshots the lives of Norma, Moxie and Zadi, three compelling African-- American women, during brief but crucial fuming points in their lives. Norma, whose story the novel begins with, is an unhappily married mother of two children (only one living, however) in her late thirties. Photography is Norma's passion, and at the start of the novel she is beginning to truly blossom as an artist, attaining acclaim and respect in the area for her work. Moxie, Norma's best friend since college, is two years younger and divorced. She is a social worker struggling to help solve the problems of D.C.'s urban youth as well as raise her daughter, Zadi, fifteen, with pride, respect for her culture, and Moxie's own set of values. Zadi is an incredibly intelligent and talented sophomore at a predominantly white, private high school who dreams of becoming a famous ballerina. At the threshold of womanhood, she battles her mother for space as she, unsupervised, begins to explore sex, lies and adulthood. Elam's innovative narrative technique knits the lives of these three women seamlessly by alternating between the third person perspectives of Norma and Moxie and entries from Zadi's diary. This form of story-telling produces an intensely intimate, powerfully honest and emotionally riveting narrative, keeping each woman's point of view at once distinct and connected within the context of the novel.

The story is set in the modern-day Washington, D.C. area, which Elam uses to create a very rich backdrop for the story of these three women to unfold. Elam also creates a very true portrayal of contemporary life through her use of language and descriptive detail, especially through the voice of Zadi, which captures the mindset and vocabulary of a modern-day teenager with incredible accuracy.

In Breathing Room, Elam confronts issues of race, the impossibly complex, interdependent motherdaughter relationship, the ferocious impact of death, sex through the eyes of a mature woman as well as through the eyes of a teenager, class differences within the African-- American community, the never-- ceasing human search for identity, and above all, the fantastic and unique power of female friendship to endure the storms of life. This novel is incredibly rich and beautifully written-a must-read for anyone moved by the dynamic nature of human relationships and the daunting ability of humans to heal and forgive.

by Patricia Elam, Pocket Books, 2001