Book Review: Time’s Undoing by Cheryl A. Head
By Doreen Sheridan
March 28, 2023
In 2019, Meghan Mckenzie is a reporter for the Detroit Free Press, heartsick over the senseless killings of so many Black people just like her by the police who are supposed to protect and serve the community. Part of her beat at the paper is coverage of the Black Lives Matter movement. At a pitch meeting one day, she suggests traveling to Birmingham, Alabama to investigate what happened to her great-grandfather Robert Harrington there almost a century ago. She believes that she can tie it to the ongoing relationship between Black people and police in the USA, a matter of decided interest to the Free Press’ readers.
Her bosses give her the okay, and soon Meghan is soaking up the atmosphere where her southern ancestors once lived. She already has some contacts in the area but makes new ones who are eager to help and support her as she looks into her great-grandfather’s mysterious death. One of these people is a BLM activist named Monique, who gets rid of any lingering imposter syndrome Meghan might have regarding her abilities or purpose:
Monique has inspired and reaffirmed my commitment to my family story. It <i>is</i> important, and relevant. A human tragedy of the past too much like the Black family tragedies of our present. I think about the poverty and despair I’ve seen today. Maybe my story will help at least one reader understand the viciousness of racism. How it props up broken systems and bad policies. Making those who are marginalized mistrustful of authority, and those in authority fearful of, and hateful toward, the people they’re supposed to serve.
Meghan’s main obstacle in reporting on the story is the decided lack of clues she has to go on. All she knows is that her great-grandfather was fatally shot by the Birmingham police and that his grieving, pregnant widow took their young daughter and headed back to her family in Florida as soon as she could. No one in Meghan’s family even knows where Robert’s body is buried. Unsurprisingly, the Alabama police of 1929 did not keep the most meticulous records when it came to the shootings of Black people by cops. Meghan has to work almost as much by instinct as by hard fact as she searches archives and interviews people who might have known Robert or been a witness to events all that time ago.
The further she digs, however, the more she realizes that there are people who very much don’t want her to find out what happened, much less report on it. Meghan can scarcely believe that someone would threaten her life over a nearly century-old crime, but as the threats begin to escalate and even her staunchest supporters begin to talk about backing off, she has to wonder how far she’ll go in order to bring the truth to light.
Interspersed with Meghan’s story are chapters told from Robert’s point of view back in 1929. He was a master carpenter who was proud of his skill, his suavity, his beautiful young family and his excellently maintained Franklin Victoria. Never mind that the car had too often drawn the eye of racists back in Florida. The luxury vehicle was a blessing when it came to transporting his family to Birmingham for his new job:
Anna Kate is just six months along but already big, and prefers to sit in the back with Mae, where she has more leg room and can rest her swelling ankles. There is another advantage of her rear-seat perch. We’re driving through towns that don’t want to see Negroes after dark, and on the open road I’m a pretty big target for the Klan. So to the casual observer, with my light-skinned wife as passenger, I could pass for a chauffeur.
These stark depictions of how life used to be in the south invite readers to contrast them with the experiences of Black people today, especially in relation to the police. Based on a chapter in Cheryl A. Head’s own family tree, it’s a compelling examination of history and progress and how far still we have to go as a nation. With a light supernatural element, Time’s Undoing is a satisfying examination of how the past continues to affect the present, and of how allowing shame and bigotry to fester only continues to perpetuate violence.
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Time’s Undoing by Cheryl A. Head is a novel about a woman who has just been released from a mental institution. She returns to her family but finds herself drawn to the person who had once been her worst enemy. It is a book about the emotional scars we leave on those around us, and how those scars can last for decades. It is also about finding peace in the past and looking toward the future with hope.
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Cheryl A. Head’s debut novel, Time’s Undoing, is a suspenseful and magical story that will have readers turning the pages. At first, it seems like nothing unusual is happening to Jane, a lonely high school girl who lives in a small town in Kansas. However, Jane is not like the other girls in her small town. She can travel back and forth in time as if she has a third eye. She can go back and relive memories and see into the future. This ability leads to many questions, such as how will she ever have a relationship. Jane learns about the power she has, but there are some things she will never know. Things like how she died, how her family died, and how she became who she is. The story follows Jane through her high school years, where she learns about herself and her ability. When her high school ends, she has to decide what to do with the power that has been given to her. The main character of the book, Jane, can travel back in time. She has to decide what to do with the power given to her.