Summary

Pages 300 - 352

One day while visiting with Mrs. Threadgoode, Evelyn mentions that she wishes she had been born black because “colored” people “just seem to fit in with each other” (Page 302). Mrs. Threadgoode agrees that black people make the best barbecue – she would pay any price for the delicious barbecue Big George used to make outside the café – but that black people are always trying to look white, bleaching their skin and straightening their hair. The narrative then jumps back in time to when Naughty Bird falls in love with a man who is, in turn, in love with a “high yellow” woman. She spends months trying to lighten her skin and straighten her hair to no avail. She lives in an alcoholic depression until the man dies and she feels that she can move on with her life.

On September 21, 1986, Evelyn drives...