How a Mother's Strength Became a Daughter's Purpose
Starred review from July 15, 2024
In this powerful autobiography, Orange Is the New Black actor Aduba traces her path from Medfield, Mass., to Hollywood, paying particular attention to her relationship with her Nigerian immigrant mother, Nonyem. Growing up in a close-knit Igbo family in the 1980s and ’90s—in one of suburban Medfield’s few Black households—Aduba spent Sunday afternoons watching movies and late nights striving for academic excellence. “My American Dream is for you people to be able to live your dream,” Nonyem often told Aduba and her four siblings (two of whom were born to a different father than Aduba’s, though Nonyem raised her children with “no half brothers or step anything”). For Aduba, that dream manifested in a modestly successful stage career in New York and California before she landed the role of Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren on Orange Is the New Black, which won her two Emmys. Throughout her career, including her stint on FX’s historical drama Mrs. America as Shirley Chisholm, Aduba drew on the determination her mother modeled. In 2019, she returned to Massachusetts to care for Nonyem, who was dying of pancreatic cancer. With wit, insight, and heart, Aduba constructs a captivating self-portrait that doubles as an ode to her remarkable mother. Even readers unfamiliar with Aduba’s acting work will be spellbound. Agent: Albert Lee, UTA.
