Cinnamon Girl
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Published by: Livingston Press at the University of West Al
Release Date: September 8, 2023
Pages: 316
ISBN13: 978-1604893564
Synopsis
When her beloved guardian dies in 1970, 15-year-old Eli Burnes runs away with a draft-dodger, thinking she's on the road to adventure and romance. Instead she's embroiled in a world of underground Weathermen, Black Power revolutionaries, snitches and shoot-first police. Eventually Eli is rescued by her father, who turns out both more responsible and more revolutionary than she'd imagined. But when he gets in trouble with the law, she finds herself on the road again, searching for the allies who will help her learn how to save herself.
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Praise
“As MacEnulty portrays Eli learning to shoplift (useful in the destruction of capitalism), falling in love, and interacting with members of the Weather Underground, she is careful to avoid heavy messages. The young teen’s naive, first-person narrative gets behind the slogans to confront the big issues of racism, feminism, peace, and love, with a wry take on the hippie culture (from drugs to the Grateful Dead). Of course, those fascinated by the late 1960s will enjoy this atmospheric tale, and so will today’s peaceniks and rebels!”
— Booklist
"MacEnulty does a wonderful job of capturing the dichotomous cultural forces at work in Eli's Travels, which are set mainly in the '70s. She portrays the warmth and hospitality of the South alongside the escalating tension and violence of race relations there. She captures the hippies, ideals of love and Peach, but doesn't shy from the bitterness of their resistance against the government and the war. Throughout, Eli provides a wide-eyed yet remarkably sage witness to race riots, Woodstock, and political turmoil."
− Feminist Review
"MacEnulty writes with a concrete grace, deftly skirting pitfalls that might have tumbled the narrative into sentimentality ... Eli is a Winning character – imagine Harper Lee's Scout as a teenage runaway, or maybe Huck Finn as a girl. More than a compelling story, it's a time-machine visit to a particular American moment, and MacEnulty gets the details just right.”
− Chauncey Mabe, Palm Beach Arts