Camilla Gibb’s Sweetness in the Belly has a fan in Maya Soetoro-Ng, who happens to be the half-sister of Barack Obama. Hawaii journalist Christine Thomas has posted a “what are you reading” Q&A with Soetoro-Ng, who cites both Toni Morrison’s work and Gibb’s Giller-nominated 2005 novel. She came upon the latter, she says, when she “stumbled across [it] by accident in the bookstore.”
What did you like most about Gibb’s book?
The idea of a woman who is basically an outsider in all of these worlds but ends up through patience and commitment actually being a part of all of them in a very meaningful way. The idea that we can build our identity and that the process of finding our community can be part of this glorious adventure. That we can find community and family in unexpected places sometimes.…
If she’s just a half-sister should we just half-believe her?
[...] If she’s just a half-sister should we just half-believe her? [...]