“Crystelle Mourning is a nostalgic tale, filled with descriptions of an urban street lined with row-homes where old folks sit on porches, little girls jump double dutch, and boys play ball. Crystelle describes the old women who swept the fronts of their homes as having flab that hung and “wobbled to the beat from arms fattened by the same tradition of genius that turned the feet of a pig into a culinary classic,” (It is the wonderful quotability of Crystelle Mourning that makes reading it twice worthwhile).

“Crystelle Mourning is an urban story with an inner-city setting, gun violence, murder, and African-American characters.  It has many of the typical qualities of urban fiction and yet it is anything but typical. Ulen has written this story as literature.  It was not written to be consumed quickly and then discarded, leaving only a faint memory that is later confused with the plots of urban novels read before. Crystelle Mourning was written to leave an indelible impression on the reader, not unlike the impression Jimmie leaves on Crystelle.”

~ Smart Black Books