Title: With You Tonight
Author: DD Sinclair
Publisher: AuthorHouseUK
ISBN: 1524634204
Pages: 178
Genre: Autobiography
Reviewed by: Aaron Washington
Pacific Book Review
Being a middle child the author introduces us to her life by talking about her family describing how her parents were and how she related to her 8 siblings. One can immediately establish that the author loved and admired her parents. “My father was strong, tall, a man to look up to in every way,” she describes her father. I could feel how she highly regarded her father just from this single line. The author recounts her childhood as typical, and from all angles, one can conclude that it surely was. I found one thing interesting from her childhood though, her parents’ arrangement which had her father live across the road from her mother’s house.
I love how DD Sinclair described St. Vincent and how life is at the Caribbean island. I could tell she has a special connection with that place, having spent a good part of her life there. I enjoyed that living with her aunt made her grow fast as she was older than all her cousins. I could relate with a fraction of her story, knowing what it is being an older sibling. The author actually made me reminisce part of my childhood. All of this brought me lovely memories. Life at her aunt’s place was however not easy. Not sharing the same table with her aunt’s family during meals and not knowing what her cousins thought of her was something she loathed. No child wants to experience that when growing up. I admired the author’s resilience and how she gracefully adapted her new life.
I enjoyed reading this autobiography because everything is unfiltered. The author shared very personal details about her life; things that not everyone are brave enough to share. One of the themes that were briefly highlighted as the author narrated her story was our obsession with skin color. I read with a heavy heart how the author got mocked and called names like ‘Aberdee’ or ‘mulatto’ and ‘dry head’ just because she inherited her father’s skin color. The worst thing was that this happened to her even after she changed schools. It goes to show that racism is wild today like it was back then. Getting teased because of your skin color, hair and any physical feature in your body can lead to low self-esteem.
I like how the author arranged her book. Growing up in a village in St. Vincent, moving to England, work, her love life and every other thing that happened later. The events in her book followed a sequence and that made the reading incredible. DD Sinclair’s story is lovely. Her life may not be a walk in the park but she sure has had wonderful experiences. I picked a lot up just by reading about her life. I also got to be exposed to another side of the Caribbean. With You Tonight gave me an insight into the culture on the island. I recommend this book to readers who enjoy reading autobiographies because the author wrote so well.
