Sorrell at sixteen is the beautiful intelligent daughter of successful and hardworking Jamaican immigrants Bernard and Mildred Evans. Sorrell lived a privileged life in the West Midlands, provided with everything she desired emotionally and materially.
At seventeen, Sorrell’s life changes dramatically. She meets and falls in love with an idealistic musician Garfield Grant. For the next few years life for Sorrell became the antithesis of her former existence. Home became a ‘sink’ estate in a rundown part of South London full of dealers, pushers and delinquents.
An unlikely friendship develops with Anne Marie, a woman of previously disreputable character who turns out to be her saviour. Together they supported each other from downtrodden victims through to successful women. In addition to a rewarding career, Sorrell eventually meets Lawrence who succeeds in reigniting in her, emotions that had lain dormant for over a decade.
The story explores the relationship between Sorrell and her son Wesley and his change from being a ‘difficult child’ to a ‘malevolent little demon’. The impact of his escalating bad behaviour is threaded throughout illustrating the negative effects it has on the family as a whole; his education; punctuated by a history of temporary and permanent school exclusions. Sorrell’s violent response is borne out of fear of returning to the dark and dismal days of her past and losing control of her future.
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Can a Dead Woman Weep
Olivene Marie Howell
Olivene Marie Howell, July 2013
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