The novel, Design, is ruthlessly original in the way it handles the subject of teen pregnancy. Although the plot basically centers on the story of a young African-American woman deceived by her circumstances and her next-door neighbor’s husband, she also gives voice to the unborn spirit of the child she is carrying.
Fifteen-year-old Shivana Montgomery tries to find an answer to her loneliness in the arms of a man, Leroy, who is the husband of the neighbor she is babysitting. Leroy is a selfish drug dealer who has no respect for others. After several months of unsatisfactory sex with Leroy, Shivana becomes pregnant. The spirit of Shivana’s unborn child tells of her other experiences and attempts to be born from her; thus, in doing so, the author, through the voice of the spirit, entertains and informs the reader with stories within the main story. In all conceptions of him by the slave Yoshi, Darlene, and Tawana, the baby’s spirit complains of the rejection of his right to be born; therefore, he wants Shivana to love and accept him. Shivana, on the other hand, wants to get rid of her baby, but she has no money to abort it.
Shivana’s home life with her single mother is a mess. Her aunt Jewel tries to help her, though she is involved with her boyfriend and making a better life for her. An upstairs neighbor, Rasul, takes an interest in Shivana and tries to convince her to keep her baby. Rasul is also a lonely black boy, who is cared for by his uncle’s family. Rasul is studying to finish high school and go to university.
Just as Shivana finds the money needed to get rid of her problem, the baby’s spirit wins and Shivana goes to a home for single mothers. The end of the story is an unexpected shock to the reader. Some readers may feel that the writer wanted a quick ending and came up with a twist of fate instead of making the story end with the evolution of the main characters. Whatever this ending might suggest, this story and the stories it contains are brilliantly told, and the voice of the baby’s spirit is poignant and heartbreaking.
Buckhanon’s mastery of language is in his vivid and gripping images that fit the situation he describes. It’s hard when the situation is hard; it’s deeply moving when he has to be.
Design is published by St. Martin’s Press in hardcover with 288 pages with ISBN-10: 031233270X and ISBN-13: 978-0312332709.
The author of the book, Kalisha Buckhanon, was born in 1977. She has been writing since she was six years old. She graduated magna cum laude and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa at the University of Chicago. She also completed her Master’s in English Language and Literature at the University of Chicago. his first novel Northern it won the Alex Award and the Audie Award, among other accolades and nominations. His articles, short stories and essays by him have appeared in many literary publications.
In Design, a young woman begins to learn to respect herself, but the novel also touches on the secular themes of survival in a cruel world, giving proof to the idea that fiction is more accurate with the truth than the truth itself. This novel is important in the sense that it seems to be a debate about what life really is. Then, it also serves as an observation of treacherous life in the ghetto and what African-American women still endure to this day. In short, this is a book that an avid reader will not want to miss.
