Although there were thousands of people in Central Park, Essie felt as if the fireworks display was being performed just for her. It was as if it was her first birthday, and she was being reborn in the United States. This was both her birthday party and her welcome party, and all the other people were just there to share in her celebration.
The fireworks represented everything that Mrs. Essie Brown believed in, including the right to freedom and the right to a better life. She now had a brand new life and a clean slate in the United States. The sky was the limit, as far as she was concerned.
That night, Mrs. Essie Brown saw more than fancy high-tech lights and fireworks. She saw what it meant to be an American. It meant the God-given right to be—to be left alone, to be loved, to be one’s true self, to be free, to be treated fairly, to be respected, to be strong, to be proud, and most of all, to be all that one could be.
When Mrs. Essie Brown looked around her and saw how the kids were having fun and how the grown-ups were gracefully celebrating a great country that stood up and fought for what it believed in, it brought tears to her eyes. Whenever Mrs. Essie Brown got very happy, she cried tears of joy. (page 214, para. 2)
Clarion Review
GENERAL
The Non-Silence of the LAMB
Berthalicia Fonseca-Brown
Luke A. M. Brown
CreateSpace
978-1-4662-1679-2
"Having kids was her survival tool," writes Luke A. M. Brown and Berthalicia Fonseca-Brown of Essie,… It is a story of love and family, and it is quite nicely, if not artfully, told. The prose is simple and easy to follow.
From its opening pages set in the late 1930s Jamaica to its later pages set in present-day New York City, The Non-Silence of the LAMB (the acronym represents Luke Brown’s initials) seeks to not only chronicle but also explain the journey of the poor farm girl who eventually becomes Essie Brown, matriarch of an extended family that grows to include her eight children,..
At the very least, they have crafted a pleasant, often sweet, and always entertaining novel about an unusual, dynamic woman and the family she built.
Mark McLaughlin