1941. West Mills, North Carolina. The Great Depression has ended and the United States is on the verge of joining the Second World War. Meanwhile, Azalea “Knot” Centre moves from her home in one rural community to another to begin working as a teacher. And from the start, it is clear she is one of a kind.
In West Mills spans the decades from 1941 to 1987, telling the story of Knot along with that of her greater community during this time. Nicknamed by her father due to her strong-willed nature, Knot bends for no one. She knows herself well, trusts this even when others question her judgement, and lives life on her own terms. Knot drinks when she wants to drink. Dates who she wants to date. (Then asks them to leave when she no longer has the tolerance for their interference in her life.) She reads what she wants to read (a lot of Charles Dickens). And she lives her life day to day, minute to minute, with little care for what others may think about her. However, Knot is forced to consider the repercussions of her choices when she unexpectedly becomes pregnant.
Winslow has perfectly built a cast of characters to take watch and support, challenge and uplift, Knot. Essentially disowned by her parents and without any other local family to guide her, Knot’s neighbour Otis Lee takes on this role. He also attempts to nudge Knot in the right direction, often to her dismay; however, he quickly learns you cannot make someone else change no matter how hard you may try. Otis Lee nonetheless remains Knot’s best friend through the years, reserving his judgement without fail and continuously extending a helping hand.
As the storyline jumps forward from the 1940s to the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, the reader is carried along on Knot’s ups and downs. Winslow has a masterful way of making these characters come alive with his words. The complex emotions of Knot in particular are delicately, but convincingly, portrayed. The reader’s heart is forced open, unfolding more and more to let in this unusual protagonist as they read. In fact, Knot is so likeable because, not in spite of, her very real flaws. In many ways a traditional story of how children and adults alike are raised by a village, Knot stands at the center of it all, the unlikely anchor connecting everyone together.
De’Shawn Charles Winslow brings the intimacy and warmth of an African American community in small-town North Carolina to life in his debut novel In West Mills. A generational tale of the bonds of friends and family, this book captures the essence of life in eastern North Carolina throughout the twentieth century. Although West Mills is a fictional community modelled after the rural area near the author’s own hometown, both the setting and the tone of the novel are authentic. With simple, crisp language, Winslow wholly captures the bittersweet nostalgia of looking back on fond memories, seeing the lessons that others warned were coming, and perhaps even simultaneously realising but accepting your own decisions. He explores the delicate nature of keeping secrets and the pain that all too often accompanies setting them free. And he further embraces the surprise that life inevitably presents, both the good and the bad.
I highly recommend In West Mills for readers who enjoy literary fiction with fierce female characters and a rich, regional, community-oriented feel.
De’Shawn Charles Winslow is a North Carolina native, hailing from Elizabeth City. He graduated from the prestigious Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 2017 and also holds a BFA in creative writing as well as an MA in English literature from Brooklyn College. Winlow has been the recipient of scholarships from both the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. In West Mills is his first novel.
In West Mills is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers. Many thanks to the author for the gifted copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
For readers of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie and The Turner House, an intimately told story about a woman living by her own rules and the rural community that struggles to understand her.
Azalea “Knot” Centre is determined to live life as she pleases. Let the people of West Mills say what they will; the neighbors’ gossip won’t keep Knot from what she loves best: cheap moonshine, nineteenth-century literature, and the company of men. And yet, Knot is starting to learn that her freedom comes at a high price. Alone in her one-room shack, ostracized from her relatives and cut off from her hometown, Knot turns to her neighbor, Otis Lee Loving, in search of some semblance of family and home.
Otis Lee is eager to help. A lifelong fixer, Otis Lee is determined to steer his friends and family away from decisions that will cause them heartache and ridicule. After his failed attempt as a teenager to help his older sister, Otis Lee discovers a possible path to redemption in the chaos Knot brings to his doorstep. But while he’s busy trying to fix Knot’s life, Otis Lee finds himself powerless to repair the many troubles within his own family, as the long-buried secrets of his troubled past begin to come to light.
Set in an African American community in rural North Carolina from 1941 to 1987, In West Mills is a magnificent, big-hearted small-town story about family, friendship, storytelling, and the redemptive power of love.
