What happens in The Days of Afrekete, the second novel by Asali Solomon (Disgruntled), takes just an evening: Liselle Belmont prepares for and hosts a dinner party to thank her husband Winn's loyal supporters, despite a failed political campaign. But Solomon deftly expands the defining event with background stories enhanced with sharp insights on race, class, privilege, shifting identities. Her cutting humor especially stings.
Liselle and Winn have been married for almost 15 years. She's West Philadelphia Black, he's Connecticut white; they met in New York but settled in Philadelphia. She's been teaching history at a private school, but is taking a break, ostensibly to help Winn's run for state representative. Xochitl (whose name Liselle can't pronounce) arrives to serve the gathering, replacing Liselle's usual help; aging bad-kneed Jimena has sent her Ph.D. student/immigrant rights activist daughter instead. Winn seems clueless, but Liselle is expecting a surprise guest and shuttles their teen son off to the house of "forced-family friends." Meanwhile, another uninvited someone is en route.
Solomon, an English and creative writing professor at Haverford College--ready with well-aimed jabs and nods at academia--chooses her native Philadelphia as background as she did with her previous two titles. Her obvious familiarity with the setting grounds Liselle as she moves effortlessly through neighborhoods and situations, code-switching to adapt to her surroundings. Solomon's writing is a showcase of incisiveness: "She felt her ever twoness as the Black mistress of a tiny plantation"; "He was unfailingly polite but not thoughtful." In a brilliant collage, Solomon's skillful sentences, paragraphs, chapters coalesce into formidable storytelling. --Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon