The online community for black alternative culture had high praise for Into The Go-Slow. For example:
Bridgett M. Davis’s latest novel Into the Go-Slow is a remarkable tale that powerfully addresses the challenges that arise while on the search for the often hidden and misconstrued answers to life.
Bridgett was interviewed by Ebony contributor Michael Gonzales, and topics included the new novel, her film Naked Acts, and much more!
Here’s the full quote from this site that’s devoted to gender justice in the media:
Set in the mid-1980s, this novel defies genre. It’s a love story, it’s a mystery, it’s social commentary, it’s a coming-of-age story, it’s historical fiction — and it’s fantastic.
High praise from the site run by a Duke University Ph.D student in African literature! Here’s some of what Ainehi Edoro said about Into The Go-Slow:
Stories about African Americans going off to Africa in search of things past and lost have become familiar. But in Into the Go-slow (2014), American novelist, Bridgett Davis, breathes a new life into this classic motif.
And here:
Davis has a thing for space and setting. She is able to capture the spirit of a place with a poetic flair that I found to be a joy to read.
And finally:
As a Nigerian, Davis spoke to me. She took me back to what I like to think of as the weird ’90s. It was the decade of botched democracies, sky-high inflation, psychopathic rulers, and widespread panic.
Davis captures a good bit of what was so unsettling about the political climate, but she also captures the lighter mood of the decade—the obsession with Michael Jackson, American ballads, and what would end up being the last years of Fela’s life.
In Davis’ work, Africa is not this abstract idea. Her Lagos, her Kano bristles with abundant life, around which she weaves a lovely story about those small but lasting redemptions that only a sister’s love can bring.
Here’s what this review site had to say about Into The Go-Slow:
By avoiding a convoluted plot and overwrought prose, Into the Go-Slow effectively highlights the difficulty of understanding the world’s many contrasts and contradictions while remaining extremely approachable. Davis’ coming of age narrative offers a needed contribution to the collection of stories that discuss the challenges of finding oneself amid all those who are already present.
Lit site Read For Pleasure had some wonderful things to say about the book. Here’s a quote:
From Detroit to Nigeria, Davis takes readers on a sometimes painful, yet engaging, journey. She captures the spirit of the late eighties; a Detroit beginning to crumble under Reaganomics, student activists’ newly found awareness of South Africa’s apartheid structure, and injustices around the world. She vividly paints a picture of Fela’s Nigeria as experienced through Ella and re-told to Angie. And she does it all masterfully.
Ebony Magazine included Into The Go-Slow in its September round up of new releases. Here’s what they wrote:
Into the Go-Slow (Feminist Press $16.95) by Bridgette M. Davis is a self-discovery adventure set between Detroit and Nigeria in the 1980s. The nostalgia is all there, from the Detroit that was to Fela-era Nigeria. The main character, Angie, has just graduated college and proceeds to backtrack her older sister’s life path in Nigeria through her letters back home up until the moment of her death via a car accident. The woman Angie was when first going to Nigeria is definitely not the one who comes back. Get into this tale of loss and understanding, and enjoy.
Read about this and other picks for September at http://www.ebony.com/photos/entertainment-culture/steve-harvey-acts-and-thinks-successful-111#ixzz3JuqVKh9T
For the September issue of the newspaper of the Professional Staff Congress/City University of New York, I had an op-ed published. Some excerpts:
And so the basic rights of more than ten million underprivileged African Americans are undermined by the limited resources allocated to them: those deemed worthy by a racist society receive the most, those deemed unworthy receive the least – and have the most exacted from them.
That is the backdrop against which, this summer, water was withheld in one place, a life gunned down in the other. No wonder that out of frustration and necessity, people in both Detroit and Ferguson – and in solidarity protests across the country – have taken to the streets to demand that their humanity be recognized.
Denial of common humanity has always been fundamental to white supremacy, throughout history. We can draw a direct line from the anti-slavery slogan, “Am I Not A Man And A Brother?” in the 19th century to this summer’s protests (“I AM a Man”) to see the pattern.
A life can be taken by the fast, brutal violence of a police bullet or a chokehold. But there is also the slower violence that can kill you just as dead, more gradually and in pieces – through poor health care, unemployment and bad housing, through denying you the resources you need to live.
What a great way to kick off publication date!
Into The Go-Slow was given a thoughtful review on the site run by Dr. Mark Anthony Neal, Professor of Black Popular Culture in the African and African American Studies Department at Duke University. The review on the widely-read site was written by Danielle Jackson. Here’s an excerpt:
Author Bridgett Davis has essentially inverted Americanah’s storyline. While Americanah focuses on a Nigerian-born Igbo woman who moves to the United States for university, stays to make a living and observes the paradoxes of American life, Into the Go-Slow allows us to experience the vast country of Nigeria through the eyes of an idealistic black American with an impossibly insatiable hunger for knowledge and who believes that travel to distant lands will enlighten her. I loved that Davis’ portrayal of Angela is full and that the character feels like a flawed, multidimensional human being on the page. Sometimes you want to shake her, other times you want to comfort her. Because of this careful, artful humanity and stunning, sensual depiction of Nigeria and Detroit in the 1980s, the book is a page-turner.
Here’s what Bookslut had to say about Into The Go-Slow:
The narrative is deeply character-driven and the Mackenzie family, through their momentous joy and devastating heartbreak, showcases a stunning spectrum of the human experience. The communities of Nigeria are drawn with the utmost respect and care. Although the narrative is propelled by the political climate of Nigeria and the desolation of 1980’s Detroit, Davis ensures that the focus is on the plight of the novel’s heroine. Into the Go-Slow is a work that spans across continents, cultures, and time yet the author’s smooth execution makes for a compelling and succinct read.