Fabulize Reading: Raised by the Mistress: My Mother, Her Lover & Me By Jamilah Creekmur

Raised by the Mistress: My Mother, Her Lover & Me is a memoir written based on the upbringing of Jamilah Creekmur, who you may know is the wife of Chuck Creekmur, owner of http://Allhiphop.com. This intimate story involves Jamilah and her mother, Valli, was courted and was in love with Wayne, who was a married man. This relationship affected Jamilah and her brother from childhood to adulthood and it also reveals the insecurities that some women have in relationships. Even though Jamilah witnessed the destruction of this relationship and was often in the midst of a storm- she never replicates the same patterns her mother did in her own life. In fact, it seems that Jamilah and her mother were two separate people. Jamilah seems more assertive while her mother (at the time) was a victim to love and alcohol. Despite the tumultuous relationship between these three Jamilah seems to mature early and forgives her mother and later her mother forgives herself and asks Jamilah for forgiveness.

I like this book because it shows how women will do anything sometimes to be with a man, and it also displays how women are their own persona and prefer to live their own lives. Jamilah also talks about her late cousin, rapper and actor Tupac, whom was her inspiration in many ways to reach her potential. I think a lot of us that come from small cities (like Baltimore where she is from) tend to think big and move past their regular surroundings, but are too scared of feel they are reaching too far. When Jamilah was in college she dated a guy who just wanted to graduate and get a job to save for retirement. Jamilah felt she was bigger than that, not in a sense of better but in a sense of growth and I think that is what her mother lacked in the earlier years of her life-growth. I do believe Wayne loved Valli, but was conflicted within his own ethics of being a man and being a husband. Somehow, at times you tend to feel bad for Valli, as she does everything she can possible do to please this married man. Personally, there is noway I could have been his wife and let him stray that reckless for that long- but you have to read the book to see what his wife eventually did.

Like the book? Tell her yourself.