Joe grew up without his parents, and learns in adulthood that his mother is now living in the forest and known as “Wild”. Violet grew up in poverty in the Deep South and was raised by her grandmother, True Belle, after her mother Rose Dear committed suicide by throwing herself down a well.
Dorcas was orphaned after her mother died when their apartment was deliberately set on fire, and raised by her aunt Alice. The story is told by a chorus of narrators – sometimes Joe and Violet, but more often by unidentified voices – who reveal more of the love triangle and the troubled histories of the characters. The story centres around a love triangle between Joe, a middle-aged African American door-to-door salesman, Dorcas, his 18 year-old lover, whom he shoots to death, and Violet, Joe’s long-suffering wife, who goes to Dorcas’ funeral and attempts to mutilate the corpse with a knife. What it’s about: Harlem, New York City, the 1920s.
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