Sweet Pea (publication day November 3, 2027) by Kit de Waal is a sweeping character study of a Caribbean British woman, Paulette, who came from St. Kitts with her grandmother in the 1960s, but stayed in Birmingham after her grandmother went back to the island. As the novel opens, she is working as a nurse’s assistant, has her own apartment, but her life revolves around her man, Denton, and the times he can make time for her. She’s planning on getting married, and a baby, and then life will be grand.
But all of that changes when Garfield, Denton’s best friend, shows up with news that there has been a car accident and Denton was killed. Not being able to publicly grieve him weighs hard on Paulette, but she finds solace in Garfield’s arms and soon there is a baby after all, a son she names Bird. But Garfield will never be Denton, and they part, though Garfield is a good father to Bird, taking him every weekend and building that relationship.
Meanwhile, Paulette confronts the man who killed Denton in the accident, and it turns out he is grieving too, as his daughter was seriously injured, leaving him with a grandson, Cornelius (Nellie), who he doesn’t know how to take care of. Paulette can’t turn away a motherless child nearly the same age as her son, so she invites him to spend time with her and Bird, and as Bird spends more time with his father, she and Nellie spend time together, as she teaches him to cook.
Given that Nellie and his grandfather are white, and Paulette and Bird are Black, there are some difficult situations with people’s assumptions. The author handles it very well, though. Paulette also befriends her neighbor, another single mother, who is Irish, and they often drink together.
Overall, it’s a quiet novel, exploring Paulette’s inner life over the decades just before she becomes a mother all the way through the time she has to let him go and be his own person. But the writing is beautiful, and portrayal of dependence on alcohol and likely depression is unflinching. Although most of the novel centers on different phases and types of grief, it ends hopefully. I will definitely search out Kit de Waal’s other books.
There is some mild anti-fatness and diet culture in Paulette’s self-descriptions, but these instances were few and not frequent.
