Melody Ermachild Chavis

The run down Victorian house that Melody Chavis and her boyfriend, Stan, bought in the working class neighborhood of Lorin was more than a building to her. It was a rock, an anchor, a permanent home for her and her children after being rootless for so long, and a memorial to her late sister, Skye. But over time, poverty, crime, drugs, and political indifference sent Lorin into a downward spiral, turning it from a respectable neighborhood into a bad one. At first, the answer seemed obvious to show more '70s activists like Melody & Stan: organize. And the Lorin Block Committee fought the good fight for a long time, but found ultimately itself powerless to stop Lorin's downward spiral. Melody writes with eloquence and power about the heartbreak of people trapped in dysfunctional neighborhoods like Lorin where the thugs, drug addicts, and crazy people are not strangers you don't know, but friends, neighbors, and relatives. A compelling and very readable book. show less

Read it because the story of these women needs to be heard, and don't expect a literary masterpiece.

(Three stars only because the writing leaves much to be desired.)

It's an amazing story about Meena and about fearless women fighting for freedom and rights for women in one of the most obscure, backword country in the world, Afghanistan. If there is still hope there, than it is really little, unfortunately.