Book Details
- Date Read: August 23, 2022
- Publication Date: June 2022
- Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
- Format: Audio Book
- Page Count: 224
- Listening Time: 6 hours 6 minutes
- Print Publisher: William Morrow
- Audio Publisher: HarperAudio
Last Summer on State Street Book Review
Last Summer on State Street by Toya Wolfe was a powerful coming-of-age debut that I keep thinking about. It’s set in the southside of Chicago during the late nineties, in the Robert Taylor Homes. We meet Felicia “Fe Fe” who is living with her mother and older brother while navigating friendships with other kids in the high-rise housing.
The story centers on Fe Fe’s experiences growing up there and we get to know not just her story, but her friends’, mom’s, and brother’s stories too. Let me tell you, I ached for her mother. They all experience hardship, intensifying as the kids get older, only to be drastically uprooted when their home is demolished by the city.
My family is from a neighborhood about 5 miles from where this takes place, between Brighton Park and McKinley Park, and I remember that the Robert Taylor Homes were massive. 28 high-rise buildings with 16 stories each, with a total of 4,415 units. It was built in 1962 and in the late nineties, the city began the process of demolishing buildings and displacing residents. By 2005, the homes no longer existed.
This book is fiction but felt real. It is a short read, 224 pages, and each one is used to tell the heck out of this story. I highly recommend this book, especially if you love books that capture the inner dialogue of an adolescent.
Content warnings: Gun violence, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Drug use
