‘Take my Hand’ by Dolen Perkins-Valdez is a profound novel set in post-segregation Alabama about sisterhood, courage and reproductive choice.
We follow our protagonist, Civil Townsend, a black nurse who works in a reproductive clinic funded by the US government in Alabama. She is fresh out of school, doe-eyed and ready to make a change in healthcare by providing contraception and family planning services to the very poor and mostly black women of Alabama. She is soon assigned to India and Erica, two teenage young black sisters aged 11 and 14. Civil is surprised to learn that though these 2 sisters have not even begun their menstrual cycle, they are receiving contraceptive shots from the clinic.
After their first encounter, Civil forms a very strong, and sometimes unhealthy attachment to these girls. She becomes more than their nurse- providing housing, education and grooming. Halfway through this novel, India and Erica are victims of reproductive injustice and this sparks a civil lawsuit that shows the shameful negligence of the US healthcare system towards poor, disabled, black women.
This story is told from a dual POV- the first being Civil at 67 and a doctor, who is returning to Montgomery, Alabama after a long absence to visit India and Erica and close old wounds. The bulk of the novel is told from the past, in 1973, where Civil is a young nurse, and the two sisters are barely teenagers. This way, we get to see how the past affects these 3 characters, and their attempts to move on.
‘Take my hand’ tells the horror of forced sterilization on poor, black populations deemed unfit to have children. Ultimately it raises the questions of eugenics- if poor, disabled people deserve to have children. It teaches about a crime against humanity as this novel is based of a true life story of Minnie Lee and Mary Alice Relf. The Relf sisters were mentally disabled children, 12 and 14 years old, when they were surgically sterilized without their knowledge.
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Our main character, Civil, is a perfect study on how good intentions could be just as destructive as bad ones. She is overeager, and in her desperation to make change, makes mistakes. Her guilt eats her up as she learns to take the right decisions. We also explore a little about her personal life, her difficult family dynamic as she struggles to come into her own. We see her challenges of loving India and Erica, and later her complex relationship with their father.
Set in 1973, this story starts only a year after the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment was shut down. This is significant because it shows the history of institutional racism against black people by the US government.
I loved this book; it was my first 5-star read of 2023 and I highly recommend this. There is so much about this novel and these characters I cannot describe in this review so I urge you all to read this story, immerse yourself in these characters, and learn a little bit about this horrifying history so we may never repeat it again. In the wake of overturning of Roe v Wade, this novel is extremely relevant to the society we find ourselves in.