Long Gone, Come Home

Description

Birdie Jennings dreams of a big life beyond her small town of Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, beyond her mundane job tying tobacco leaves at Wrights Factory, beyond her position as the baby of the family. Her life changes when she meets Jimmy Walker, a smooth-talker and dreamer. Jimmy makes big promises of a magical life filled with poetry, love, and music, and Birdie is quickly swept off her feet. Birdie’s strict mother warns that life with Jimmy will only bring trouble, but allows them to get married, if only to teach her youngest daughter a lesson. And soon, as Mama predicted, Birdie has two children and Jimmy has disappeared. With no support system, Birdie moves home with her toddlers, where Mama is happy to take the three of them in.

Just as Birdie is settling into her new life, she witnesses a gruesome murder and flees Mt. Sterling to avoid questioning. For the first time, Birdie is truly on her own. She searches for Jimmy while on the road in the hopes of bringing him home and rebuilding their life together. Birdie’s travels lead her to big city nightclubs and backwoods juke joints along the Black entertainment “Chitlin’ Circuit.” Along the way, Birdie meets characters from criminals to saints who help her find the strength to pursue a self-sufficient life on her own terms and truly understand the meaning of home.