Author: Joyce M. Johnson

Publisher: AuthorHouse

Published: 2010-09-23

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 145203933X

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"Henrietha" A troubled Jamaican woman of many woesome years and with a history of compulsive abuse, marries into misery as wife to male chauvinist and philanderer Demian Browne who in his treachery around the right to ownership of Henrietha's flesh earnestly evinces- "If I can't have you then no other man will." 'She's white so she doesn't understand my plight as a black woman'. So thinks Henrietha Browne about Joanna White who she met at a Caribana event. "Henrietha Browne is a 'story source' that will feed me the meat of my magazine article on strong women'." "Joe, my ex husband moved in with the biggest bimbo I've ever seen. I suspect they met when I was laid up with a terrible flu." "Waiting..." "Ruby, keeps on insisting she's a sistah when she knows darn well she isn't...!" Such is the conviction of Susan Ottawa a black Canadian lawyer with a staunch belief in self: the will to self-empower without any need for the Almighty God. She draws strength instead from her 'god' Johnny Cochrane as if she 'had caught the hem of his coat as he was leaving this world. "I can see the White House burning back then. I can see Martin Luther King Jr...I see Marvin Gaye." So says Anita Kingsley, an educated Jamaican woman who transitions across the chasm between the physical and the 'spirit' worlds. Through relatable characters "Henrietha"'s two novellas layer the politics of love, hate, race, and sensibility over religion and the paranormal. The storytelling is an unusual, edgy, hopscotch of enticing voyeurism. Questions arise while thoughts kindle around kinship and one's own self-awareness in the breadth of this human experience. It urges the surrender of disbelief as truth entwines fiction like life's pretzel of fantasy superimposing the thought- provoking-roller-coaster dynamic of reality. "This is truly a work of hope and conquest. The beginning is good and it gets better. The flashbacks engaged my mind on a travel through time on what was a journey at the tip of my fingers, and at the edge of my imagination. The young Henrietha is a beam of strength and inspiration for women of abuse."Barbara Mills, Social Activist-Sisters in Solidarity "Great reading ..the Be warned! "Henrietha" is a tear jerker. "Waiting for the World to Change" is a thrill with its rhythm and insightful message"Damian Andre, Musician "I sure look forward to adapting the material into a play and then the screen. It has guts and all 'oomph' of really worthy and watchable material.."D.Haughton, Play-/Screen-Writer


Henrietha

Henrietha

Author: Joyce M Johnson

Publisher: FriesenPress

Published: 2011-03-10

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1770673784

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A pair of novellas about friendship and endurance in the face of hardship. In the titular story, Johnson introduces an unlikely pair of friends: Joanna White, a white Canadian journalist struggling to overcome the breakup of her long-term relationship, and Henrietha Browne, a Jamaican woman who has seen her share of troubles. Henrietha relates her history of oppression and abuse as well as her quest to find autonomy in a world beset with racism, sexism and poverty. In the process, Joanna comes to a deeper understanding of her own oppression and how her identity, while playing a role in both her successes and failures, is more of a bridge than a barrier to her communion with women of all races and backgrounds. Waiting for the World to Change, a smaller novella, follows a similar structure as black, Canadian, criminal, lawyer, Susan Ottawa leads the defense team in a high profile murder case while drawing strength from her 'jural god' Johnny Cochrane and who seeks counsel with Jamaican housekeeper Anita Kingsley. As they share their feelings about men, religion and racism, Susan sees her life in a new light and slowly opens her heart to Anita's brand of optimistic spirituality. The mirrored structures of both novellas tie them together.