

This original, timely, and deeply relatable portrait of one American family is essential reading. Living takes guts."Ī daughter's moving homage to an extraordinary parent, The World According to Fannie Davis is also the suspenseful, unforgettable story about the lengths to which a mother will go to "make a way out of no way" to provide a prosperous life for her family - and how those sacrifices resonate over time.


She created a loving, joyful home, sent her children to the best schools, bought them the best clothes, mothered them to the highest standard, and when the tragedy of urban life struck, soldiered on with her stated belief: "Dying is easy. Part III is titled Living Takes Guts, and opens with a photo of Fannie. 2 pages at 400 words per page) View a FREE sample. She ran her numbers business for 34 years, doing what it took to survive in a legitimate business that just happened to be illegal. The World According to Fannie Davis - Part III: Living Takes Guts, Chapter 8 Summary & Analysis. Part bookie, part banker, mother, wife, granddaughter of slaves, Fannie became more than a numbers runner: she was a kind of Ulysses, guiding both her husbands, five children and a grandson through the decimation of a once-proud city using her wit, style, guts, and even gun. In 1958, the very same year that an unknown songwriter named Berry Gordy borrowed $800 to found Motown Records, a pretty young mother from Nashville, Tennessee borrowed $100 from her brother to run a Numbers racket out of her tattered apartment on Delaware Street, in one of Detroit's worst sections.
