51 pages • 1 hour read
Crystal Smith PaulDid You Hear About Kitty Karr?
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Elise”
Content Warning: This section includes references to racism, sexism, physical assault, and rape.
Elise St. John is a well-established actress from a renowned Hollywood family. It is October 28, 2017, and Elise is at her family home, the St. John Estate in Los Angeles. The St. Johns’ next-door neighbor, legendary Hollywood actress and Oscar winner Kitty Karr Tate, recently died at the age of 81. Kitty has left her enormous fortune to Elise and her sisters, Noele and Giovanni. Elise, Noele, and Giovanni are Black, and Kitty is white; the fact that Kitty has left her fortune to the sisters, to whom she has no apparent relation, has sparked media attention:
Why had the White Hollywood icon given her fortune to the Black (‘Black’ being the key word) daughters of her costar in a sitcom that first aired almost fifty years ago? Some came right out and asked it, and social media was a cauldron of racist epithets (6).
The movie studio is worried that the news of the inheritance will bring Elise unwelcome attention and ruin her chances of winning an Oscar for her upcoming film, Drag On. Elise attends a meeting at the film studio along with her publicist and childhood friend, Rebecca Owens. The studio executives suggest that Elise formally announce that she is planning to marry her boyfriend, Aaron Oliver, also an actor. Elise realizes that the studio would rather have the movie overshadowed by news of her nuptials than news of the inheritance.
When Elise returns from the meeting, she learns that her sisters, Giovanni and Noele, have arrived. Giovanni and Noele are not yet aware of why Kitty left them her fortune; only Elise and her mother know the truth about their relationship to Kitty Karr, although their knowledge is not yet shared with the reader. Later, it will be revealed that Kitty is the St. John sisters’ grandmother.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Elise”
The narrative continues from Elise’s point of view as she reunites with her sisters. Giovanni is a successful actress, while Noele lives in New York, where she is studying to become a lawyer. Giovanni and Noele are confused about why Kitty would leave them her estate. All three sisters are dealing with unwelcome media attention due to the inheritance announcement. They reflect on the last time they faced media scrutiny. Elise, inspired by Colin Kaepernick taking a knee during the national anthem, posted footage of historical moments of police brutality on Instagram. The video went viral, attracting the attention of both followers and trolls. Giovanni jokes to Elise, “Now people from Montana to Rhode Island know you’re Black” (18).
Elise reflects on the ways Hollywood and fame have forced her to hide or ignore her Blackness: “They wanted Elise’s hair straight and her body stick thin. Publicly, they praised her Blackness, to show their commitment to diversity. Still, they pushed her into roles in which her race was never established, where it didn’t exist, hoping no one would notice” (19). Elise is poised for an Oscar nomination.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Hazel”
The narrative jumps back in time to July 1934, in Wadesboro, North Carolina. Hazel’s family drowns on a fishing boat, so Hazel leaves home, bringing with her only her parents’ $5 in life savings and her great-great-grandmother’s gold ball earrings: “The earrings were her only physical connection to her lineage, her only inheritance—her only offering of wealth to any offspring” (29). At 16, Hazel, who is Black, is raped by the 23-year-old white son of the Lakes, a wealthy family who earned their money through tobacco. Hazel names her baby Mary Magdalene. The baby is born “looking as White as any White child,” giving Hazel hope that her daughter “might escape the life that Jim Crow said Hazel’s dark skin consigned her to” (28). Hazel is too dark to pass as White; however, her blue-gray eyes, a recessive gene, are “proof of forced miscegenation generations before” (29).
Chapter 4 Summary: “Hazel”
Having presented the basic bullet points of Hazel’s background in the third chapter, the fourth chapter dives deep into her background. After Hazel is orphaned, she migrates to Winston-Salem, where she meets Bessie, the elderly cook at the Lakes’ estate. Bessie gets Hazel a job at the Lakes manor. Hazel is happy with her work until Theodore “Teddy” Lakes comes home with his wife to visit his parents. After Teddy violently rapes Hazel, Hazel gets pregnant and confronts Teddy’s mother, Mrs. Nora Lakes. Mrs. Nora Lakes suggests that Hazel can take Bessie’s job when Bessie retires, and she sets up a savings account for the unborn child. Essentially, it is a payoff.
The summer before Mary’s fourth birthday, Teddy and his wife return to Lakes manor for the summer. They bring their daughter, Shirley Claire, who is close to Mary’s age. Mary and Shirley Claire play together, not realizing that they are half-sisters. One day, Mrs. Lakes asks Hazel to take Shirley Claire into town; at the time, Black women were tolerated in white-only spaces when caring for white children. Hazel sees how the white people smile at Shirley Claire while ignoring Hazel. This gives Hazel the idea to start “passing” Mary as white, the term used during the 20th century to describe the practice of concealing a person’s Black heritage so they can enter white social circles.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Hazel”
It is summer 1942. Hazel takes Mary to Charlotte, North Carolina. Since it is a two-hour bus ride from Winston-Salem, they will not be recognized. Hazel instructs Mary to call her “Hazel” instead of “momma,” creating the illusion that Hazel is Mary’s caretaker instead of her mother. Throughout that summer, they go to swimming pools, parks, movies, restaurants, shops, and other segregated spaces.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Elise”
The narrative returns to Elise’s perspective. It is Sunday, October 29, 2017. Elise and her sisters are preparing for Kitty’s memorial. Elise is annoyed to learn that her mother, Sarah, is planning to go ahead with her own birthday party, despite Kitty’s passing.
Chapter 7 Summary: “Mary”
The narrative shifts back to Hazel’s and Mary’s timeline, now from Mary’s point of view. It is August 1946. Mary and Hazel are on their way to Charlotte for their usual weekend excursion. For Mary, Charlotte is a place where she can escape the rules she is normally bound to, like “Don’t look White folks in the eye” (64). Mary does not question the strict race rules, “having learned very early in life that breaking Jim Crow’s rules often meant death” (64). Shortly before Mary started third grade, a high school boy from her neighborhood, Joshua Hunt, was beaten to death because the head coach of the white college baseball team had invited the boy to practice.
On one excursion to Charlotte, Mary and Hazel meet Lillian, a young girl about Mary’s age, and Lillian’s mother, Mrs. Catherine. Mrs. Catherine is Black, while Lillian appears to be white. It turns out that Mrs. Catherine and Lillian are doing the same thing as Hazel and Mary, with the young girls passing as white while their mothers act as their caretakers. Mrs. Catherine and Lillian will become valuable allies for Hazel and Mary.
Chapter 8 Summary: “Elise”
The narrative returns its focus to Elise, who is struggling to come to terms with Kitty’s death. Elise often visited Kitty while the woman was ill and has now been tasked with dispensing Kitty’s estate and cataloging items for auction. On the day of Kitty’s memorial service, Elise tries to convince her mother to cancel her birthday party; Sarah refuses. Elise reveals that her grandmother, Nellie, was close friends with Kitty. According to the official story, the women met at a grocery store in 1968, when Kitty saw Sarah with Nellie and invited the little girl to audition for her new television show. Kitty and Sarah starred together in television’s first interracial sitcom, The Daisy Lawson Show.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Mary”
The narrative returns to Mary’s point of view in August 1946. Hazel takes Mary to Charlotte regularly to meet with Mrs. Catherine and Lillian. Mary and Lillian play while their mothers plan their future. By the time she starts high school, Mary has dreams of moving to LA and becoming an actress: “She didn’t share this fantasy with anyone, knowing it was an impractical goal for a White woman, let alone a Negro one” (86). When Mrs. Catherine and Lillian suddenly disappear from Hazel’s and Mary’s lives, Mary is sad to learn that they moved.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Elise”
The narrative returns to Elise’s point of view; it is still the day of Kitty’s memorial service. Elise discusses organizing Kitty’s estate with her sisters. It is a lot of work. Giovanni and Noele are worried about Elise, who seems withdrawn and burdened by the work she must do for Kitty’s estate. The sisters do not realize that Elise’s burden is mostly mental. The reader is likewise not yet aware of the fact that Kitty’s legacy, and her secret about her race, are in Elise’s hands.
Chapter 11 Summary: “Elise”
Kitty’s friend and publicist, Rebecca, arrives early to the memorial service. Rebecca’s grandmother will also be at Kitty’s memorial service, along with Rebecca’s mother, Alison. Rebecca tells Elise that the movie executives are worried about people boycotting Drag On because of the media furor surrounding Kitty’s inheritance.
Elise reflects on her tricky past with Rebecca. Earlier that year, when Elise posted #blacklivesmatter content on her Instagram, “Rebecca had told Elise to focus on acting. She didn’t understand the responsibility Elise felt, as a Black American woman, to speak out” (96). After labeling the posts “off-brand,” Rebecca revealed that she found Elise’s #blacklivesmatter posts “racist” (96). Rebecca warned Elise about the “real racists in the world” and alluded to the fact that her own family possesses “embarrassing” paraphernalia because her ancestors fought for the Confederacy (96).
The conversation reminds Elise of a moment from Elise and Rebecca’s childhoods, when Elise had been nervous about being the only Black girl at Girl Scout camp, and Rebecca had flippantly suggested, “Just pretend like you’re White. No one will notice” (96). Thinking back to these moments of friction with Rebecca, Elise concludes, “Race was never not an issue for Elise, but for Rebecca, there was always a simple solution” (97).
Chapter 12 Summary: “Mary”
The narrative flashes back to Mary in May 1955. Mary is in love with a young man from her school, Richard Collins, and plans to marry him. Hazel does not approve of the relationship, thinking her daughter can do better. When Mary graduates from high school, Hazel gives her a train ticket to LA as a graduation gift. Hazel reveals that Mary’s old childhood friend Lillian lives out there and that Mary can visit Lillian for a couple of weeks as a treat. Hazel gives Mary her gold ball earrings, suggesting Mary wear them for graduation. Mary does not realize that Hazel is sending Mary out to LA permanently. The earrings are a parting memento.
Chapter 1-12 Analysis
The opening chapters of the novel demonstrate the deep-rooted problems of Race and US Structural Racism. Though the events of Elise’s and Mary’s chapters are separated by seven decades, the juxtaposition of their experiences elucidates the fundamental similarities of their experiences. Both women must disavow their Blackness to gain access to privileges that white people take for granted. For Mary, living in the Jim Crow South, that disavowal is literal. Recognizing that Mary’s fair skin will allow her to “pass,” Hazel takes her to Charlotte, where they pretend she is white to visit swimming pools, movie theaters, restaurants, and other segregated spaces: “Mary’s skin was a cloak of acceptability, and Hazel used it to open the front doors of every space where Negro children weren’t allowed” (47). In her time, Mary must disavow her Blackness if she wants to access simple pleasures. But there are more serious advantages to her passing, as well. As Black women, Hazel recognizes that she and Mary are subject to a constant threat of violence. Hazel has already been sexually assaulted by her employer, and a Black child at Mary’s school was beaten to death for being invited to participate on an all-white baseball team. Effacing her Blackness offers Mary both freedom and safety but at the cost of denying her race and her true relationship with her mother.
Though 2017 Los Angeles is not legally segregated like the Jim Crow South, Elise faces similar pressures to disavow her Blackness to achieve success as an actress. Her body must conform as closely to white beauty standards as possible, “hair straight and her body stick thin,” and she feels “pushed [] into roles in which her race [is] never established, where it [doesn’t] exist, hoping no one would notice” (19). Though Elise does not have to officially pretend to be white, she nevertheless has to look and behave as “white” as possible to be accepted as a Black actress. Her sister jokes about it when Elise finds herself embroiled in scandal after posting #blacklivesmatter content on her Instagram: “Now people from Montana to Rhode Island know you’re Black” (18). Though meant to be light-hearted, the words drive home the realities of the structural racism Elise faces in Hollywood. A famous figure like Elise is “allowed” to be Black only as long as she does not call attention to her racial identity. It is a more subtle but no less pernicious form of passing, demanded by the unwritten Jim Crow laws of the modern world.
Like Mary, Elise faces serious consequences when she fails to conform to the racist expectations of her society. For Hazel and Mary, “breaking Jim Crow’s rules often meant death” (64). The threat to Elise’s physical safety is less direct, but the narrative’s references to #blacklivesmatter and police brutality remind the reader that Black people still lose their lives in the US for simply existing. As a Black woman, even a wealthy and famous one, Elise is also subject to the threat of racist violence. Even without physical violence, however, Elise is punished by the demands of structural racism. When Elise posts #blacklivesmatter content on Instagram, her friend and publicist, Rebecca, deletes it, silencing Elise. Rebecca then warns Elise about the “real racists in the world,” like people who want to uphold the Confederacy (96). Rebecca naively fails to realize that her own actions are racist: She is effectively telling Elise that being Black is unacceptable. The incident reminds Elise of an incident from their childhoods when Elise was worried about being the only Black girl at Girl Scout camp. Rebecca suggested, “Just pretend like you’re White. No one will notice” (96). Rebecca’s suggestion that Elise pretend to be white reinforces that Elise will be accepted by others—including Rebecca—only despite her race. To drive that point home, the narrative refers to other Black celebrities who have been accepted by the world until they failed to “toe the line,” such as Colin Kaepernick, who lost his NFL career when he stood up for #blacklivesmatter, or Meghan Markle, who received racist backlash when she, a Black woman, married a white British prince. When Rebecca warns that taking a stand against structural racism and violence against fellow Black Americans could mean losing her Hollywood career and her chances at an Oscar, she is reminding Elise that her place in the world is conditional upon her distancing herself from her race and her fellow Black people.
The opening chapters also broach the theme of The Implications of Intersectionality, again through both Elise’s and Kitty’s characters. Intersectionality refers to the interconnected nature of social categorizations like race and gender as they overlap to create an interdependent system of disadvantage and discrimination. As a Black woman in the Jim Crow South, Hazel faces the threat not only of discrimination and violence but also of sexual exploitation and assault, an additional burden not shared by Black men. As a teenager, Mary already recognizes the double burden she carries being Black and a woman, particularly when it comes to her dreams of becoming a Hollywood actress: “She didn’t share this fantasy with anyone, knowing it was an impractical goal for a White woman, let alone a Negro one” (86). In the context of the Hollywood machine, Elise likewise deals with not only racist but also sexist attitudes. For example, Elise is stuck in a relationship with her boyfriend, Aaron Oliver, because her publicity team considers it advantageous for her as a woman to be in a relationship with a man. The studio executives even suggest that Elise announce that she and Aaron are getting married to help distract from the news about Kitty’s inheritance, which has brought racist backlash against Elise. To be safe as a Black woman, Elise must be “less Black” and sheltered by the protection of a heterosexual relationship with a man.
Finally, these chapters introduce a symbol that will be carried throughout the book: Hazel’s grandmother’s gold ball earrings: “The earrings were her only physical connection to her lineage, her only inheritance—her only offering of wealth to any offspring” (29). The earrings are a symbol of family legacy, as they will be passed from Hazel to Kitty. The earrings, coming from Hazel’s grandmother, are also symbolic of the intersectional violence suffered by Black women, particularly working-class Black women. Hazel is not the first Black woman in the family to be raped by a white man, as evidenced by her blue-gray eyes, “proof of forced miscegenation generations before” (29). As a physical representation of Kitty’s great-grandmother, the earrings symbolize The Weight of a Family Legacy of violence against Black women.
