Henrietha

by Joyce M. Johnson

A pair of novellas about friendship and endurance in the face of hardship. In the titular story, Johnson introduces an unlikely pair of friends: Joanna White, a white Canadian journalist struggling to overcome the breakup of her long-term relationship, and Henrietha Browne, a Jamaican woman who has seen her share of troubles. Henrietha relates her history of oppression and abuse as well as her quest to find autonomy in a world beset with racism, sexism and poverty. In the process, Joanna comes to a deeper understanding of her own oppression and how her identity, while playing a role in both her successes and failures, is more of a bridge than a barrier to her communion with women of all races and backgrounds. Waiting for the World to Change, a smaller novella, follows a similar structure as black, Canadian, criminal, lawyer, Susan Ottawa leads the defense team in a high profile murder case while drawing strength from her ‘jural god’ Johnny Cochrane and who seeks counsel with Jamaican housekeeper Anita Kingsley. As they share their feelings about men, religion and racism, Susan sees her life in a new light and slowly opens her heart to Anita’s brand of optimistic spirituality. The mirrored structures of both novellas tie them together.

Joyce M. Johnson

Joyce M. Johnson was born in Jamaica where she spent her formative years. She attended high school and college in Canada which she has called home for over forty (40) years.
After college, her long and checkered career began at Dover Elevator where she worked in main frame computing as Operator and Programmer; later she became Owner/CEO of Johnson Production.
Joyce studied creative writing at Seneca College, Toronto, and has had her material aired on CBC, Toronto.
The years of living in Canada have honed Joyce’s consciousness. She’s led to engage in social dialoguing at the ‘community level’ as to write about and share her wealth of experiences developed in Canada. Shaped in partby her Jamaican past, her sensibility reflects a combined effect – the island past betrothed to a continental existence; this ‘hybrid reality’ is that which Joyce employs to produce what she hopes to be appreciated as ‘universal accounts of the Human Condition’.
Her first novel is "Henrietha” which has proven to be a strong beginner.
Joyce says: “This is an exciting beginning to my writing career, because I do feel this is where my calling lies. “Henrietha” over two novellas “Henrietha” and “Waiting for the World to Change” embodies the indomitability of cosmic spirits that inhabit and influence all.”
The audio-script has been aired in part on CBC radio and the work is poised to survive time as Joyce’s personal treatment of a core of social issues that keep cropping up.
Currently Joyce is composing a sequel to “Henrietha” amongst other literary compositions which include an anthology of poems. Her senses are trained on her experiences and for as long as she can live them her scribal sway and sociological sensitivity constrain her to record them as eye-opening reads.