QUEENIE

Blog: awalkingdelight

Books of Interest
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“Queenie”

By: Candice Carly-Williams

Candice Carly Williams story will trouble every parent of conscience about their behavior when raising children. Williams adds an extra dimension to her story because it is about a woman of color.

Queenie, the heroine of Williams’ story, is a college educated writer for a British newspaper. She is the first person in her family’s history to have graduated from college. Queenie is in the midst of a breakup with her white boyfriend. She is pregnant but loses her pregnancy soon after her boyfriend decides they should take a break from their relationship. Her boyfriend keeps the flat they are renting by saying she cannot afford the rent so she should be the one to move out, either to her family or to a boarding house that she can afford. Queenie chooses to rent a room in a boarding house with other women. This is the beginning of Queenie’s journey down a Rabbit Hole of a psychic/neurotic breakdown that nearly destroys her life.

Queenie appears to use the break-up as license to exploit unattachment. She goes through a series of male acquaintances who capitalize on her vulnerabilities. Her sexual liaisons are for pleasure and pain, not affection or what might be considered love. Her ethnic beauty is shown as a curse and attraction to the worst nature of men. The men she chooses have little to no interest in who she is or why she allows them to treat her as a sex object. To Queenie, it is a matter of personal attention, pleasure, and pain that motivate her choice of mates. Queenie finds there are consequences for her behavior that range from hurting her women friends to diminishing belief in herself as an independent and competent human being.

However, Queenie’s sexual adventures and exploitation are applicable to many women in a misogynistic world. Being a woman in this world is hard but “Queenie” shows being a woman of color is even harder. The history of Queenie’s childhood is explained after events of her adult life are told. Childhood history is the base upon which the story of Queenie’s life has value to a reader/listener.

After being suspended from her job for an unjust stalking accusation, Queenie is compelled to move in with her grandparents. Williams offers a backstory of Queenie’s childhood. Her mother is in an abusive relationship with a second husband. She has no contact with her natural father who abandoned Queenie’s mother. Her mother re-marries. She is turned out of the house by her abusive stepfather when she is eleven years old. To a person of such a young age (despite help from grandparents) her stepfather’s rejection is unconscionable. It makes Queenie untrusting of everyone she meets but particularly men who have their own motives.

The “Queenie” story makes one think of what it is like to be raised in a broken family and how it impacts a child’s adult life. In Queenie’s case, she feels she can trust no one. Her many hook-ups are just a way of connecting with others to feel something other than being alone.

Self- control is a power one can choose to use or ignore. Respect of every person is an ideal one strives to achieve but rarely accomplishes. When we lose self-control or when we fail to respect others, we diminish ourselves and society. Queenie grows to learn how to cultivate self-control with the help of therapy and the support of her friends, her grandmother, grandfather, and mother.

The implication of “Queenie” is that who we become is highly influenced by how we are raised and treated as children. This is not revelatory but bears witness to western cultures’ 21st century dysfunction. The conclusion one may draw from William’s story of Queenie is that western parents need to do a better job of raising their children. “Queenie” shows there is hope for all those who become ensnared by the effects of bad or absent parenting.