This is a superb memoir: witty, humane and poignant. And after all the turns of the story, and the uplands and lowlands of Jackie's life, that's where the book ends, in a state of pure joy. Jackie the writer, has many other characteristics - humour, warmth, and yes, Joy - her birth name. On the front cover, is Jackie herself, as a 'wee bairn' - challenging, defiant, unsure, proud. For a story riven with people looking back through old family photographs, it's a real shame that there aren't more photos in the book for us to join in with. Amazing people, whom we get a brief visual glimpse of via the old holiday snaps on the back cover of the paperback edition. The two golden threads that run right through this eclectic tartan, though, are her 'life' parents (rather than 'birth' parents) - Helen and John Kay. This is a complicated tale - two sets of parents, two associated extended families, numerous geographical locations, and at times I wondered whether the chronological back-loops helped the reader or not - probably not, as the human strands in the tale have more than enough complexities in them to give interest and variety.
The red road of the title is a reference to the Nigerian part of the quest, but as she acknowledges herself, she frequently feels as though she is on The Yellow Brick Road, as certain key figures in the story fizzle-out under the weight of their own mythology in Jackie's mind, and she is constantly reminded that there probably really is no place like home (Glasgow, not Kansas). Jackie Kay takes us on her amazing journey back in time and across continents and cultures to try to tie together the many strands of her life as the adopted daughter of a Highland mother and a Nigerian father. A remarkable, soul-searching journey' - "Sunday Herald". This is a terrifically easy, evocative, and often amusing read. 'It is Kay's abundant wit that makes Red Dust Road such a moving, spirited work. This is a book with resolution, determination and honesty' - "Scotland on Sunday".
Happiness shines through' - "Sunday Times". 'A clear-eyed, witty and unsentimental account of the push and pull between nature and nurture. In a book remarkable for its warmth and candour, she discovers that inheritance is about much more than genes: that we are shaped by songs as much as by cells, and that what triumphs, ultimately, is love. From the moment when, as a little girl, she realizes that her skin is a different colour from that of her beloved mum and dad, to the tracing and finding of her birth parents, her Highland mother and Nigerian father, Jackie Kay's journey in "Red Dust Road" is one of unexpected twists, turns and deep emotions. Red Dust Road is a fantastic, probing and heart-warming read' - "Independent". 'Like the best memoirs, this one is written with novelistic and poetic flair.
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