The Unsettled is a novel published in 2023 by Ayana Mathis that traces a powerful story of what it means to be Black in America through dual narratives taking place in two different parts of the country in the mid-to-late 1980s.
Ava Carson could not escape her small hometown of Bonaparte, Alabama fast enough. She leaves her mother, Dutchess, behind and settles in Philadelphia with her young son, Toussaint, after leaving her husband in New Jersey. While not regretting the escape from the bleak future promised back in rural Alabama, living in roach-infested shelters in Philadelphia is only barely an improvement. The narrative shifts back and forth between these two settings to reveal how both are unsettled for African Americans even after progress and social revolution. Bonaparte is a small town run and owned by its Black residents, but by the 1980s it was facing potential devastation as a result of rich white developers. Meanwhile, the radical past of the Civil Rights movement is rising again to make an impression on Toussaint. The biological father of the boy is a man named Cassius Wright, a charismatic leader of a Black liberation movement seeking to upset the power balance in Philadelphia just as the developers are threatening to do in Bonaparte. The two storylines merge thematically as mirror images of each other in a book that explores the elements of self-determination, prejudice, and the limitations placed upon the empowerment of minority groups battling against majorities of equally inequitable levels of power.
The novel features interesting characters placed within interesting scenarios but its power is primarily gained through thematic metaphor. The division of narrative focus between a small town in the American South and a major urban center in the North symbolizes an essential part of Black history. Although taking place half a century afterward, Ava’s flight from south to north is a metaphorical representation of a historical movement known as the Great Migration which shifted the racial demographics of the population not just geographically but also from being primarily a scatted rural base into an electorally influence urban base.
The story of Bonaparte is another reflection of the actual history of racial segregation following Reconstruction. Although rarely historically documented in textbooks for most of the 20th century, the reality of self-determination in Bonaparte by its Black residents is rooted in historical fact. Throughout the south and as far west as Oklahoma could be found many small incorporated townships and communities in which business and government were left entirely in the hands of Black residents. The story of Dutchess and her attempts to retain that control of destiny as the town she grew up in faces extinction is juxtaposed against the growing power and influence of a movement founded by Cassius and Ava called the Ark. The two storylines eventually converge as the darker side of the Ark’s agenda powered by the increasingly unsettling monomania of Cassius ultimately intervenes in Dutchess’ attempts to keep Bonaparte as it has always been.
Setting the story in the 1980s allows the novel to reflect upon how the Civil Rights movements of the early-to-mid 20th century turned out and to offer commentary on whether the results met any of the expectations. By that decade, most of the revolutionary movements to transform the racial balance of power had already been implemented. The novel is thus focusing on its metaphorical eye on the actual reality that arrives in the wake of revolutionary dreams. That Dutchess and Ava, mother and daughter separated by the Mason-Dixon line must equally deal with lifestyles mandated by lower-level social status distinctly related to their race in a story being told nearly forty years later suggests the dreams of the Civil Rights movement remain unsettled.
