Major Works
- The Closet Could Not Hold Me (2014) with Jayson Lloyd McDonald
- The Divided House (2012)
- Will The Circle Be Unbroken (2012)
- The Prodigal Daughter (2012)
Biography of Lisa Walker-Cook
Lisa Walker-Cook is from Aberdeen, Mississippi. She attended Aberdeen High School, graduating in 1980. She is married to Lindsey Walker and has two sons, Curtis, and Matt.
Reviews
A Review of Will the Circle Be Unbroken
by Latoya Bishop (SHS)
Latoya Bishop (SHS Researcher)
In the novel, Will The Circle Be Unbroken, Lisa Walker-Cook tells how a woman named Martha Johnson goes through ups and downs throughout her life. From childhood to womanhood, Martha finds out that life can be very difficult when dealing with a husband, family, friends, and money sometimes change people.
When Martha was a child, her parents were the type that would do anything for money. Martha lived in a house where everything went on. It was part bar, part hotel, and part casino; illegal gambling and bootlegging went on there also. Martha and her sister Maudine had to sell their bodies to make money for their parents. making Martha have a deep hatred for her mother, Elnora.
Looking for love, Martha married a man named Russell Adams. With him, she had three daughters; Mikala, Maureen, and Gabrielle. Then one day, Russell told her that he was gay. So they got a divorce, and she married a man named Jacob Prescott with whom she had two boys, Little Jake and Tyler. Her children were like jewels to her. She wanted to treat them better than her mother treated her and her sister as a child.
After the marriage, they moved to a five bedroom, five bathroom house that had a whirlpool, swimming pool and a large backyard for the kids to play in. A little while after they were settled in, her best friend Flossie moved in next door to them so they wouldn’t be so far apart. To Martha, life couldn’t get any better. She had friends, family, a nice car, nice home, and a great job.
Jacob turned out to be a very stern and fierce man. He had a very bad temper that Martha failed to notice during the first part of their relationship. For years, Martha tried to get Jacob to change. He abused her like it was nothing. He finally realized that he was hitting the love of his life. With all the promises from Jacob, it took him a while to finally get some help. When he did, he and Martha became even closer. Everything was going perfectly until Martha awoke one morning and found Jacob dead with a bullet in his forehead.
This day became a turning point in Martha’s life. Her life went in the opposite direction. She went from living in luxury to living in poverty. She was accused of murdering her husband, so she spent all of her money trying to get a good lawyer to stay out of jail. She lost the house and cars. She lost her mother, whom she failed to forgive even when her mother repents; but worst of all, she lost her best friend by sleeping with her husband.
Martha and her kids moved back to the neighborhood where she had grown up and earned a bad reputation. They moved into a small house that had one bedroom, one bathroom, a kitchen and a living room. They all slept in a big bed together from their previous home. Martha’s relationship with her kids changed a lot. They no longer had that bond between them. It was as if her life was going back to the way it was when she was younger. The life she was running from came back.
Martha soon became involved with a man named C.W., who was no good. He got her hooked on drugs, had her staying out all night, and neglecting the people that meant the world to her. Then one day, Gabrielle, her youngest daughter became sick. It turned out that she was pregnant by C.W. This hurt Martha deeply. The tables were turned on her. As her friend once said, ”No wonder you couldn’t forgive your dying mother. You’re just like her.”
I think this statement was very true because in order to forgive, you have to forget. Martha, with her not being able to forget all the things her mother did to her in the past, made it difficult for her to forgive her mother in the end. The story is to be continued with a part ll, but the question is; Will the circle of motherhood and abuse be unbroken?
I would encourage everyone to read this book because Walker is not only an influencing, but an enthusiastic writer. She makes you want to read more when you think you have given it your all. I thought that I would not like the book because I am not the type that loves to read; but if can I read it, I am sure you can too.