Author Rosa Guy, is not as well-known as Toni Morrison or Alice Walker,  but she is just as talented.  Known more for her young adult novels, Ruby, Friends, and Edith Jackson, Guy has written adult novels as well.   A Measure of Time is one.  It is a superb novel that follows the life of Dorine Davis, from her childhood in Alabama through her life in New York City; from being raped by her white employer to being a big time booster, living high while others struggled to survive; from Lindberg's historic flight, through the Great Depression to the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960's.

Rather than being a victim, Dorine triumphs over the turbulent times, reaches back and helps her family.  She lives in style, loves passionately; what she sees and wants, she gets sometimes to her regret.  She gives her boyfriend money to get away from the South and to go to Harlem so that he can settle and prepare a place for her.  When she joins him in Harlem a few years later, she discovers Sonny has another life, one that doesn't include her.  Nonetheless, she hooks up with him and becomes an even bigger booster than him.   A booster is a slang term for a shoplifter.  Dorine, Sonny and his gang are not just ordinary shoplifters; they manage to raise the level of shoplifting to an art. Boosting allows them to live well while most other folks in the country search for their next meal. 

Another man Dorine becomes involved with is Big H. He is a big time Harlem racketeer.  Dorine prides herself on getting whatever man she wants even if that man belongs to someone else.  In the case of Big H, he is involved with Monica, a well-educated lady who seldom leaves his side.  But Dorine knows how to satisfy Big H in ways Monica doesn't.  When mobster Dutch Schultz moves into Harlem and takes over, the community changes forever.  Whereas the Black criminals had class, once the white mobsters took over, murder became the order of the day.

Though Dorine doesn't have a formal education, her mother wit allows her to survive.  In fact, she feels she's too old to learn to read beyond the most elementary level.  However, impacted by the tremendous changes going on not only in the outside world, but also in her community, she yields with reluctance to the changes.  Well up in age, she becomes conscious of the power of her people to change society's attitude towards African Americans and the African American's commitment to the struggle for civil rights regardless of the cost. 

Guy presents historical facts made more vivid as seen through the eyes of her characters.  The novel is unpredictable, fresh and insightful.  Her protagonist, Dorine, is gutsy, funny and unapologetic. This novel is one of my all time treasures.