Love, Rita - by Bridgett M Davis (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A searing tribute of sisterhood and family, profound love and loss from the acclaimed author of The World According to Fannie Davis.

In Love, Rita Bridgett M. Davis tells the story of her beloved older sister Rita, who knew Bridgett before she knew herself. Just four years apart in age, as the two sisters grew into young adulthood they left behind their childhood rivalry and became best friends.

Rita was a vivacious woman who attended Fisk University at age sixteen, and went on to become a car test driver, an amateur belly dancer, an MBA, and later a popular special ed teacher; in doing so, she modeled for her younger sister Bridgett how to live boldly. And in the face of family tragedy, the two sisters leaned on each other to heal; their closeness grew, until Rita's life was cut short by lupus when she was forty-four. This led Bridgett to ask the simple, heartbreaking question: Why Rita?

Love, Rita is a brave and beautiful homage that not only celebrates the special, complex bond of sisterhood but also reveals what it is to live, and die, as a Black woman in America.

This moving memoir, full of joy and heartbreak, family history alongside American history, uses Rita's life as a lens to examine the persistent effects of racism in the lives of Black women--and the men they love. This poignant, deeply resonant portrait of an unforgettable woman and her impact on those she left behind is essential reading.

Review Quotes

"Bridgett Davis offers an intimate lesson in Black American grief and sisterhood in Love, Rita. Using her family's story to illustrate research that shows how racism ends Black lives early, Davis deftly illuminates how this grim knowledge only sharpens grief's edge--and her loss." - Tracie McMillan, author of The White Bonus

"Bridgett M. Davis has given us an exquisitely rendered look at sisterhood from her perch as the only living sibling from her family of five. Love, Rita mines universal themes of sibling rivalries and shared caregiving duties, but Davis importantly infuses her memoir by investigating the widespread effects of 'weathering', detailing the ways our unequal justice and medical systems disproportionately harm Black bodies. I didn't want this book to end." - Beth Macy, author of Dopesick and Raising Lazarus

"A riveting and often heartbreaking portrait of Davis' beloved older sister... [and] a sober reflection on the impact that racism and the medical establishment have on the lives of Black Americans... By the end, the reader will come to agree with the words Davis wrote in her sister's obituary: 'Rita was unforgettable.'" - BookPage

"Poignant and intense, this book not only explores the complexity of sister bonds but also brings to the fore how living in a racist society can destroy the health and well-being of non-white individuals and families. A powerful tribute to sisterhood and the complex fragility of Black lives." - Kirkus Reviews

"Davis painted a portrait of her mother in The World according to Fannie Davis (2019); here, she memorializes her older sister Rita, a vibrant, protective storyteller who made an outsize impact on those around her during her 44-year life....her heartfelt writing honors her sister's legacy and the many lives she touched." - Booklist

"This is an elegy, a celebration of a life, and a celebration of life itself. Love and grief are themselves sisters, one the proof of the other's existence. Bridgett Davis loves out loud, loves like no one is watching-- bravely with tenderness, vulnerability, and even humor. The complexity, audacity, and tenacity of sisterhood are strands braided into this unforgettable memoir." - Tayari Jones, New York Times Bestselling author of An American Marriage

"Love, Rita is on one level a personal tribute to a lost sister, but its scope is wider, looking at illness as a collective accumulation spanning back centuries. This book made me think in new ways about all we carry in our bodies - those of us who survive and those who don't. Achingly beautiful, truthful and deep." - Danzy Senna, author of Caucasia and Colored Television

"Bridgett Davis is a master at weaving together family history and social commentary. Love, Rita is another triumph in her creative oeuvre. Part love letter, part elegy, it reveals the power of Black women's bonds and joy practices. It hums a soothing numeric melody, even as it wrestles with the aches of chronic illness, grief, and the failures of the U.S. healthcare system. A poignant, tender meditation for our turbulent times. You must read this book." - Tanisha C. Ford, author of Our Secret Society

"Whether you are a sister, a caretaker, or any woman, you will find much that is relatable in Love, Rita. Bridgett Davis's loving tribute to her sister, and their complicated relationship, offers deep insight into the world of chronic illness, intergenerational trauma, and family dynamics -- as seen through the lens of a black woman in America. This memoir is honest, empathetic, and searing. What a gift to readers and book clubs." - Pamela Klinger-Horn, Creator and host of "Literature Lovers' Night Out"

In her memoir Love, Rita, Bridgett M. Davis brings together the sharp eye of a journalist and the tenderness of a sister and daughter to trace the tangled through-line of joy and tragedy that runs through her family. The book is at once a love letter as well as an indictment of the countless ways American society, particularly the health-care system, has failed Black Americans. - Linda Villarosa, author of Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives

"The World According to Fannie Davis is a daughter's gesture of loving defiance, an act of reclamation, an absorbing portrait of her mother in full. Blending memoir and social history, [Davis] recounts her mother's extraordinary story alongside the larger context of Motor City's rise and fall."

"A rich and heartwarming memoir honors a remarkable mother. . . . We need more stories like Fannie's-the triumph and good life of a lucky black woman in a deeply corrupt world." - New York Times Book Review on The World According to Fannie Davis

"Love, Rita is a beautiful and heart wrenching exploration of the relationship between wound, history, inheritance, and disease. In this story of Black sisterhood, familial love and devotion are proven to be the Grace notes of our existence. Everyone who lives with or is impacted by chronic disease should read this book." - Imani Perry, New York Times bestselling author of South to America