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There is something that Bernice McFadden does with her main characters that just clenches at every emotion I cycle through while reading her novels. She lets them live on the page, and by live, I mean she lets them experience all the grit, grime and gore the beautifully flawed world she paints offers. Her characters are honest while allowing their truths to expose the reality real life has set out before them.

In Glorious, McFadden's Protagonist Easter cycles through life battered, worn, and often broken, but always getting up, and standing even more erect than before. One might question the appeal of such characters and stories, but those that would question fail to understand the resilience that continues to nourish those who face injustice and inequality on a daily basis. We need McFadden's stories to remind us of a past too easily swept under the rug of fear and complacency. McFadden won't let us forget the untold stories, the invisible people and a world cloaked in forgivable shame.

Easter, a fully realized character, is also a representation of a creative soul longing to have its voice, not only heard, but, remembered, long after it's put to rest. Easter's story is familiar to anyone who has ever wondered what happened to a vanished heroine. Spanning a lifetime, Glorious tells the story of one woman's search for a place to belong. Who does she belong to, where does she belong to and when does she belong to? Time and place are explored so vividly from the south to the north.

McFadden's research is extensive, as well as extremely informative. For those who are fans of Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, and the Harlem Renaissance, this is a must read.