And parents everywhere are still asking their college age children, How did you get into this or that?
Although the novel is set in the time period of 1966-69, the themes are not limited to those years. What happens when kids go off to school, apparently of one mind set, but come back with an entirely different one? What influences young folk to act? Well, there are no easy answers and this novel does a great job of delineating the various options open to young and ambitious students. The main character Geniece happens to be attending school around the time that the Black Panter party is taking shape in Ca. Each part serves as a backdrop for that particular year of College, but this is not a novel about education and the university. In fact the book is broken into four parts, Freshman, Sophomore, Junior and Senior. The story of a young Black woman in Bay Area California going through college and not only being schooled academically, but learning street smarts as well. She lays it out for you with this writer, there is no half steppin'." - Susan Straight, author of Between Heaven and Here " A novel so unlike any I've read in years-a little of Al Young's poetry and humor, a little of Toni Cade Bambara's boldness, but Judy Juanita has given us a Bay Area in her own inimitable voice, which is California like no one else. When Huey Newton is jailed in October 1967 and the Panthers explode nationwide, Geniece enters the organization’s dark and dangerous world of guns, FBI agents, freewheeling sex, police repression, and fatal shoot-outs-all while balancing her other life as a college student.Ī moving tale of one young woman’s life spinning out of the typical and into the extraordinary during one of the most politically and racially charged eras in America, Virgin Soul will resonate with readers of Monica Ali and Ntozake Shange.
However, she does all of these things in 1960s San Francisco while becoming a militant member of the Black Panther movement.
From a lauded poet and playwright, a novel of a young woman's life with the Black Panthers in 1960s San FranciscoĪt first glance, Geniece’s story sounds like that of a typical young woman: she goes to college, has romantic entanglements, builds meaningful friendships, and juggles her schedule with a part-time job.
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