Clementine Camille: An American Romance

Ronald Vierling's first novel in the Clementine trilogy, Clementine Camille: Volume One: An American Romance, ends when African-American Clementine Brown and Caucasian-American Tyler Raymond's twin daughters are six years old. Clementine Camille: Volume Two: An American Memoir begins ten years later, when the couple's twin daughters, Josephine and Abigail, are fifteen, which means Clementine and Tyler not only face issues that naturally arise with raising teen-age daughters, they must also deal with those issues that attend their daughters' mixed racial heritage. Thus, while An American Romance chronicles how Clementine and Tyler became adults and parents as well as the story of the family and friends who shaped them, the events that unfold in An American Memoir test everything they have come to believe about love and loss, about race and identity, about ambition and the sometimes contradictory consequences of achievement.

Opening in Tampa, Florida, in the fall of 1980, Clementine Camille is the story of a young African-American girl who at age fifteen falls in love with a young Caucasian- American boy, Tyler Raymond. After Tyler grows up to become an accomplished historian, he decides to write a first-person account of his life with Clementine as his affectionate tribute to the girl and then woman and wife he continues to adore. Central to his portrayal is his account of the ways Clementine and Tyler must face the hard facts of American racism when it manifests itself in subtle aside comments made by strangers as well as emotional confrontations with angry individuals who would wish the young couple serious harm. As a part of his attempt to express Clementine's extraordinary person, Tyler's narration also demonstrates the profound and enduring significance of the wise and sensitive adult family members who stand by their children through every trial and tribulation as affectionately as they do every success and triumph. Thus, Clementine Camille: An American Romance is just that: a joyful and steadfast if at times difficult romance that very likely would not and could not happen anywhere else in the world except the United States.