ON OUR WAY TO BEAUTIFUL: A Family Memoir

Young, a syndicated columnist and Sunday school teacher, draws from both her professions in this collection of autobiographical vignettes about growing up in Shreveport, La., in the early 1970s. Each chapter carries a biblical epigraph, and each tale serves a moral purpose (e.g., "to get a head start in life we needed the same skills that were required to win at musical chairs—intuition, flexibility, and a great deal of stamina"). But it is Young's storytelling skill, her ear for dialogue and her eye for picture that broaden her appeal. Events both momentous and small—summer revival camp, wrapping the maypole, schoolyard scraps, celebrating Juneteenth and the Fourth of July, a tornado, a whipping and more—are rendered vividly. She carefully remembers the people in her life, including her great-grandmother, Big Momma; Honeymoon and Pappy, her grandparents; and her mother, Momma, along with a host of uncles, aunts and neighbors. Occasionally, Young visually recalls moments of ordinary African-American life, as when she describes "the Eastern Stars wearing long white dresses with purple-and-gold, blue-and-white, burgundy-and-brown sashes draped across their chests and small thimble-shaped hats on their heads." Although abusive husbands, racial tension, a murder and even a pedophilic uncle intrude, they do not thwart the march to "beautiful." This is an uncommonly engaging book about learning to love oneself, one's family and one's world. Agent, Linda Chester & Associates. (Mar. 26)