Book Review: Dominoes - Phoebe McIntosh

  “Dominoes” is a book by Phoebe McIntosh, based upon her one-woman (one hour) play of the same name. I did not see the original play, but I think I would’ve preferred that version to this one. I can see the play being more condensed and felt at times that this book had extra information to, well, just have extra background information. I think the overall question posed was a good one - can a Black person marry into a former slaving owning family. However, having done genealogy searching in the past, I immediately thought of the scenario that happened in this book with Andrew’s family. Did Ms. McIntosh mean for it to be a surprise twist? I don’t know, but it wasn’t for me. I also didn’t really like Sera. While I understand her stance and her reasoning, some of her comments and actions seemed way off the mark and it seemed that Sera was really saying “choose me or your fiancé,” which just bugged me a lot. I did, however, really enjoy the main character’s grandfather - loved his view of life, loved how he loved his family, and loved how much he cared about so many precious things in life. Overall, I’d give this book a 3.5 rating - great idea and in a play (or short story) format I think it would’ve been preferred, but as a long story, it missed the mark for me.