2025 #26 Children of Anguish and Anarchy (Legacy of Orïsha, no. 3)

 

Children of Anguish and Anarchy by Tomi Adeyemi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In my review of Children of Virtue and Vengeance, the second of the Legacy of Orïsha trilogy, I wrote: "I am still invested. I want to know where they are headed. I want to be invited back to the world of purples and golds. But I hope that the third book will let me stay awhile before the fighting begins. There's more to say about what lies behind the strife. There's more to tell us about what will be lost before we actually lose it. "

I'm sad to say that the long-awaited book did not fulfill this wish. If anything, there's even more fighting, and less substance. We have new enemies: King Baldyr and The Skulls and new allies: New Gaians. We barely get any time on Orisha to even care about what is happening in healing old wounds. There's a formula applied to the four main characters: Zelie, Tzain, Inan, and Amari -- each has regrets, each thinks about those who have passed, each cuts down and fights enemies...but there's not a lot else that is happening. We see hints of the deeper character studies present in the wonderful first installment, Children of Blood and Bone, particularly with Zélie teetering on the edge of her power being usurped for evil or for good, and there is one particular scene with Tzain, who is going through a similar struggle, that invests in the deeper themes. The book is too short to really get into too much world-building, so the net effect is one of a passive interest in the mythologies and theologies that seemed so crucial in the first book.

I don't know what it is to write a trilogy, and I imagine the creative commitment is immense. Is it still a good read? Sure, and if anything one might benefit more if they haven't read the other two (although I also want to recognize I probably should have gone back and reread the other two books because I was a bit iffy on some of the details). Adeyemi's descriptive writing is a pleasure, and her skill with it enlivens this particular book, especially in how she captures the Green Maidens, Mae'e, and Zélie's transformation(s).

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2025 #15 Kindred (Butler)

 

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

NB: I read the Kindle Anniversary edition with the foreword by Janelle Monae

Kindred is a powerful novel in many ways, particularly in the understated pragmatism of its protagonist, Dana. It seems surprising initially that Dana should be so accepting of her temporal quandary, but Butler seems to know that the surprise is best left to the reader. This leaves Dana to her "travels" and foregrounds instead, the shifts of identity and multi-faceted and nuanced problems of race, in a narrative that exists both then and now (relatively speaking). The reader may find themselves probing clear-cut binaries and assumptions, and struggling to understand some of Dana's choices--this is what makes her very compelling.

In Butler's antebellum south the metric is constantly shifting for what is "kinder", and enslaved persons are given dimension beyond their enslavement. In the Reader's guide, Robert Crossley notes, "One of the protagonist's--and Butler's--achievements in traveling to the past is to see individual slaves as people rather than as encrusted literary or sociological types." And later, "In a Butler novel the black protagonist is there, like the mountain, because she is there." Crossley's point is well-taken --particularly in the more speculative aspects of the fiction.

The ending might seem abrupt, because it is, but it also seemed fitting. The narrative isn't really about the "when" and the plot, as much as it is about how connected things can be across time and space. We see enough to understand, in two temporal contexts, and are left with an unsettling notion that the past, present, and future may be far more intertwined than we admit. The epilogue does actually need to be there (for once), not to tie up loose ends, but instead to loosen up the ends as such, to weave them into our understanding of where our imaginations might lead and how they might serve us in living a present that is much more conscious of the past.

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FTL2025 4B challenge KindreD ------->DEI Deconstructed (Zheng)

2025 #11 The Between (Due)

 

The Between by Tananarive Due
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

With excellent voicing by Kevin Kenerly, The Between manages to be chilling, touching, and thought-provoking. Hilton James is a bit of an Everyman figure in that he loves his family deeply, works hard, and is loved in return by friends and family. He survived a drowning accident as a small child, and that survival was both magical and tragic. In adulthood, Hilton's wife, the only elected African American judge in Dade County, Florida, becomes a target as she receives threatening and extremely disturbing hate mail. Hilton's dreams began to blur the line between fantasy and reality, and he is torn between the "shoulds" and the "coulds" of living life on two planes of existence.

Due expertly shapes Hilton's character , and we feel incredible tension between Hilton's lived experiences and how they are perceived by those around him. Hilton is an empathetic character, even at his lowest, but there is plenty of compassion for those in his orbit as well.

It would not be fair to say the ending is predictable, because that implies a sort of easy out, and this is not the kind of book where that matters much. It is very much about the journey, but there were moments when I could feel myself growing impatient (much like Hilton!) and wanted to get moving. That said, while the narrative has its slower moments, there are also times where the plot picks up speed and you can hardly put it down. It is truly a wonderful read and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading about contemporary issues intertwined with a dose of magical realism and even a bit of thriller.

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2024 #46 The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store (McBride)

 

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Honestly a 3.75 for me, but with some really strong sections between 4-5 stars. That's my biggest issue with the book--unevenness. Some of the characters are so well written: Moshe, Chona, Dodo, and even "Monkey Pants." There are everyday heroes and everyday criminals and that seems to be a lot of the point. In a small town in Pennsylvania people are living their stories as they intersect with ethnic and racial tensions that range from making assumptions to violence. The book dragged in places for me--I did not find Fatty and Big Soap as compelling as Nate, Paper, and some of the other sundry personalities. McBride town-builds (as opposed to world-builds) and does so very effectively. I just struggled with being teased by one thread only to have it supplanted by another less interesting one.

What is important, however, is that the book really drives home that the world (and race relations) is NOT black and white. People have intersectional identities that both enrich and complicate their narratives, and McBride zooms in on a town that acts as a microcosm of this more general truth. The "guy next door" is always going to be a lot of things, and how we bear witness to each other things makes (and sometimes breaks) a community.

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2024 #38 Rest is Resistance (Hersey)

 

Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto by Tricia Hersey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It is necessary to take Hersey at her word that this is a manifesto. That can help clear out the discomfort of the lack of structure and repetition--at least a bit. The message is crucial and important, but a how-to book it is not. And that feels a bit frustrating at times. We know what we need more of: love, care, therapy, dreams, DreamSpace, naps, etc (from the list on p. 124). She gives us examples of what "resting can look like": meditation, slow dancing with yourself, not immediately responding to texts and emails". She suggests we begin by detoxing from social media, work on our trauma-informed boundaries, listen more...All of that seems do-able, but does NOT seem to be the ultimate goal of the manifesto. Resistance against and liberation from white capitalist grind culture is crucial, we understand. She clearly says "The time is up for any shallow wellness work that doesn't speak about dismantling the systems that are making us unwell. We must blame and interrogate the systems. They are the problem." (133) That message is repeated over and over again with passion and drive.

What's missing is how our choosing to stand for rest will perhaps impact those who are not empowered or are without agency to do the same. As a privileged white woman, I read her words carefully and thought about how grind culture disproportionately impacts Black women. I thought about how I might be upholding capitalism's reliance upon white supremacist models. But I am forced to wonder what happens when I say NO. Perhaps it is my role to say NO differently, or to different things, than the Black women who are reading the book. But what about the collateral damage? I'm not talking about losing my job--I'm talking about labor. Is it not an act of (white) privilege to decide to "rest" when there is so much work to be done to dismantle the very systems she cites? It is hard to believe that my "no" won't create labor for someone else--possibly someone already disenfranchised by capitalist systems.

Hersey extolls the value of sacred community. And certainly it echoes the proverb "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." But when she said "Individualism is leading us to the path of exhaustion and death," even though I know what she meant, I wanted more discussion of what "individualism" means there. Creativity, which she honors, could be argued to be very much tied to a concept of "individual." And I'm not looking to parse every word. I want to "stand in the gaps for each other" (189) and "be relentless in [my] support and witness" (189) and I didn't come away from reading the book with the strongest sense of how best to do that. I believe that rest will come in to play, yes, but I was struggling with how to reconcile that with activism.

This is an important message, and despite my struggles with the delivery, it is sitting with me. I'm looking for the best way to "spiritually disconnect from the shenanigans of grind culture while physically still living in it" (136). I think it is incumbent upon those of us with privilege to hear her message and think about how we strengthen and support "rest as a reimagined way of life" (136).

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2024 #13: Half of a Yellow Sun (Adichie)

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a beautiful and difficult book. Difficult because of the painful narratives of the Biafran War, but beautiful in the characters who are so vivid and real in their flaws, their hopes, and their lived existence. We meet Ugwu, a thirteen year old boy from a small village who works as a servant for Odenigbo, Professor of Mathematics at Nsukka University. Odenigbo's girlfriend, then wife, is Olanna, daughter of the influential Chief Ozobia, and more significantly, twin sister to Kainene, who was one of my favorite characters in the book. Not blessed with Olanna's commonly-accepted beauty, Kainene is fearless, acerbic, and honest (especially in the latter half of the book when war reaches her heart). Kaynene takes up with Richard, an English writer who comes to Nigeria to write a book about the art. Adichie artfully uses Richard to express the more subtle racism (whereas his ex-girlfriend is outright and obviously racist). For example, in Chapter 6, Kainene says to Richard: "...it's wrong of you to think that love leaves room for nothing else. It's possible to love something, and still condescend to it." This powerful statement is made after Richard is called out at a party for going on and on about the amazing details and complexity of some African bronzes, not realizing the implication of his surprise--why would they NOT be amazing and complex? Richard is one of the three main narrative voices and the way he grows, partially due to his love for and relationship with Kainene, is really thoughtful and not a single narrative. None of the main characters are unidimensional. Odenigbo moves from idealist to grieving son. Ugwu moves from innocent to war-worn and morally compromised. But perhaps it is mostly the story of the two sisters, Olanna and Kainene where this book touched me most. The horrors of war have their own narratives, but Adichie does not lose sight of the human story that perseveres -- love, betrayal, friendship, enmity--everyone with a heart that has to question some of the time.

Adichie does not sidestep some of the particulars of the Biafran War, however. The book is an opportunity to understand better (particularly for those of us who were not taught about the Igbo and the Hausa) the complex politics, racism, and global manipulations/voyeurism that brought about between 500,000 and two million Biafran civilians dying of starvation.

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2023 #23: Wild Seed (Butler) - The Patternist Series, Book I

 

Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It was difficult not to give this five stars because as with so much of Butler's oeuvre, there are parts of it that are simply extraordinary. Butler's capacity to create worlds within worlds that seem simultaneously urgently relevant but also extraterrestrial is spellbinding. The protagonist, Anyanwu, is an immortal who can alter herself at the cellular level to heal herself, change identities, and in some cases, species. Much like Lauren Olamina in Parable of the Sower, Anyanwu is a multi-faceted, sometimes ambiguous, incredibly strong protagonist. Her antagonist, Doro, is a megalomaniacal spirit who has lived for thousands of years, who prolongs his life through cruel and terrible means. Fixated on forming his own society, his humanity is so deeply buried as to be thought lost.

Themes of community and kinship made this an important contribution of Afrofuturism when it was published, and it remains so today. It takes a multi-pronged approach to engaging with colonialism and in turn, postcolonialism. While much of this is transparent, Butler does not every lose sight of the storytelling and her characterization. This is where it is necessary to give Robin Miles, the reader of the audiobook, absolute accolades. Nuances in accents and intonation abound and each character, major or minor, shines through her portrayals.

Where I struggled with the book was near the ending. I found some of the plot directions difficult to reconcile, and while I generally like that Butler does not feel it necessary to explain all contexts for all events, there are several significant events that happen toward the end of the novel that were uncomfortably dissonant with the characterization. While Butler is making a case, perhaps, for transformation, the changes seemed rush and disproportionate to the major narratives that take up the book.

Aside from that, however, it is a book that, while it shares similarities with works here and there, manages to blend social commentary, speculative fiction, and fantasy in a seamless and organic way.



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2023 #21: Life On Mars (Smith)

 

Life on Mars: Poems by Tracy K. Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The title of this collection, Life on Mars seems almost tongue-in-cheek as the collection is VERY much about life here on earth, in a very visceral, beautiful, and sometimes intensely difficult, way. Poems like "Everything That Ever Was" manage to dance with the universe without overly lofty ambition, keeping our feet on the ground. "The Universe as Primal Scream" marries biblical storytelling with the everyday tedium of our existence. Occasionally Smith packs a huge punch with just a few words (your mileage will vary, based on personal experiences). When I read, "Tonight, I'm at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. I don't know where I end" ("They May Love All That He Has Chosen and Hate All That He Has Rejected"), I was transported to that exact state of being. Prior to reading the collection I had been at an event where Tracy K. Smith spoke about her father, and many of the poems in this collection revealed much about that relationship--in particular the one dedicated to his memory, "The Speed of Belief".

At that same event, Smith said, "When you read a poem you become humble." In humility there is great wisdom and beauty and it is woven throughout this wonderful collection.

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2023 #20: Undermining Racial Justice (Johnson)

 

Undermining Racial Justice: How One University Embraced Inclusion and Inequality by Matthew Johnson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I started this book in 2020 and have read it in fits and starts since then, but truly I cannot imagine a better book to have returned to in the last few weeks as the Supreme Court erodes justice. While the book could have used more judicious editing, the major takeaway here is about co-optation of diversity initiatives. This insidious behavior infects many companies and institutions of higher learning, partially because it is often done in the name of "DEI." This carefully researched book details the ongoing saga of co-optation at the University of Michigan, but the lessons apply to many different institutions. "Diversity" is often more convenient and aligned with maintaining classist infrastructures than "inclusion", and Johnson chronicles the history of how such programs develop and undermine actual justice for those who fight for it the most. Racial retrenchment is sustained by propaganda and programs that masquerade as restorative of justice. Johnson's epilogue is prescient:

"As I write the final words of this book, anti-affirmative action cases against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill make the urgency for disruptive change even more pressing. It's possible that the Supreme Court will ban affirmative action in all American universities, public and private, in the next five years. It's a sobering thought. It's even more sobering when you consider that affirmative action in higher education has been a tool of co-optation that preserved the institutional values that continued to privilege white middle-and upper-class students. If anti-affirmative action forces put this much effort into challenging practices that preserve racial disparities, imagine the forces that will coalesce to resist efforts to disrupt institutional values and create a truly fair and equitable system."

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2023 #3: A Particular Kind of Black Man (Folarin)

A Particular Kind of Black Man: A Novel by Tope Folarin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had to keep reminding myself that this was not a memoir -- at least in the first part of the book, all narrated in the first person. This isn't really (just) a coming-of-age story, and this is beneficial as it allows the author to keep the deeper themes as a through line. There's a lot here about identity and particularly, agency--agency to define oneself (outside of and inside of categories), agency to grow, to move. It is a book about distances, both metaphorical and geographical. The story is multiple stories, although Tunde is the protagonist. It is a story of many lives and the choices that shape them. As Ravi Howard describes it, the books shows the "deeply personal geography of migration." That's a beautiful description. What happens when "home" constantly moving, shifting, and perhaps absent or wholly constructed from fragile memories?

There is a brief interlude that switches to an altogether different style to relate Tunde's first experience of falling in love. Because of the impact and deeply insightful narration up to that point, these passages (often one or two sentences to a page) felt forced--as though I was reading a different book. Perhaps that was the point, but as a reader I found myself engaging less and moving quickly to get back to Folarin's full and deep writing. And finally, in a (potentially comic) turn that seemed to come out of nowhere but ends up leading us to one of the most beautiful (yet heart-wrenching) moments, Folarin tells us what home truly is.



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2022 #39 We Travel the Spaceways (Black Stars #6) - LaValle

 

We Travel the Spaceways by Victor LaValle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Of the Black Stars series, this might have been my favorite. More magical realism than sci-fi given the proportions of the story, it is easy to fall in love with "Grimace", the protagonist. There's a pretty essential "plot twist" that moves the story into a new world, and the only real regret is that we never get to see it play out. This is one story that could benefit from being the length of a novel. We don't have enough time to recover from the reveal to invest in its meaning. But that's a small criticism. This is a worthy listen, tinged with humor (both sardonic and not), and a story that will stay with me for awhile.

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2022 #36: Parable of the Talents (Butler) - Earthseed #2

 

Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

While there were aspects of this book that I did not enjoy as much as Parable of the Sower, in some ways this sequel is absolutely necessary. In it we discover the true costs paid by Lauren Olamina, and see multiple perspectives. As with Sower, it is a tough read and Butler does not sugar coat the violence and destruction. I found the voicing of Larkin on the audiobook left me rather unsympathetic to her character, although as Larkin's narrative becomes more balanced and experienced, this changed a bit. As with the first book, this one is frighteningly prescient--so much so that I double-checked to make sure the book was completed by Butler herself, not someone ghostwriting after 2016 (Butler died in 2006, and the book is from 1998). The character of Andrew Jarret will be familiar to many modern readers in the U.S--although again, this book was published in 1998.
Butler leans in to her descriptions of enslavement, and a lot of the hope of Earthseed seems replaced by a battle for survival. This is not altogether a bad thing and drives home a larger point about how hope can easily morph into something else. Butler isn't doing it for shock value, but instead to throw into high relief the tension between humanity and humanness. Everyone manipulates, and we as the readers are left to try to fathom the many reasons behind those manipulations.


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2022 #33 A Small Place (Kincaid)

A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm not sure I've ever come across a voice so forthright and beautiful at the same time. Jamaica Kincaid manages to reveal the underbelly of colonization (specifically in regard to her birthplace Antigua) while writing with blurry metaphor (blurry in the sense that things seems like metaphors and also not metaphors), wry humor, and a telling of political history in an almost folk-style narrative like a parable, but in reference to specific people. She unflinchingly deals out critiques yet manages to convey a sadness at the same time:

"And it is in that strange voice, then--the voice that suggests innocence, art, lunacy--that they say these things, pausing to take breath before this monument to rottenness, that monument to rottenness, as if they were tour guides; as if, having observed the event of tourism, they have absorbed it so completely that they have made the degradation and humiliation of their daily lives into their own tourist attraction." (69)

In eighty short pages, Kincaid shares a truthful experience of a land, the likes of which few get to see or experience when caught up in the "unreal beauty" of a tourist destination. Kincaid describes beauty as a prison, and in so doing, changes our understanding of that which might deserve a deeper look beyond the blue of the ocean and the colors of the sky.

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#AroundTheWorldChallenge: Antigua & Barbuda

2022 # 30 Clap Back (Hopkinson) - Black Stars #5

Clap Back by Nalo Hopkinson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a trip--and I mean that in the best of ways and not to imply it was frivolous, either. With a touch of Garcia Marquez-style magic realism, it occupies an interesting space that does not fully occupy sci-fi or fantasy. There is a bit of fragmentation that I found frustrating in such a short narrative, but the points are clear. I liked the clear familial connection and illumination of heritage and legacy, as well as the subtly acerbic humor. A performance artist facing off against a haute nanocouture fashion designer makes for all sorts of interesting subtexts. The next logical steps are brought into the plot, but here is where I wished it had been a novel instead of one story, because it seemed too hasty a retreat from the ramifications of it all.

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2022 #27: These Alien Skies (Rwizi) - Black Stars #5

 

These Alien Skies by C.T. Rwizi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This started off a bit slowly for me, so I think I detached from some essential details at the beginning, as well as other less essential details (I didn't realize Msizi was he/him until three quarters of the way through). That said, it picked up speed and I very much enjoyed the plot twist, which opens the door for much deeper questions than could be contained in a short story. It is an interesting blend of disaster/stranded scenario, with an expansive look at technological evolution and mythologies that have deep connections to African spiritualities. I enjoyed it, but felt the flow was a bit uneven at the beginning--although I respect very much Rwizi's focus on character development through limited narration. Indya Moore's performance is solid, particularly in giving voice to Msizi's anguish, when it is finally fully revealed. As with other works in the Black Stars series, galactic Africa is a close reality, using themes of love, loss, and homeland, not to suspend our disbelief, but to speak truths if we choose to listen.

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2022 #25 The Visit (Adichie)

 

The Visit by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As is true of anything, this short story will land differently with different readers. Going in, however, you need to know that it is dystopic (but not by much), and definitely satirical (not funny, but satirical). I didn't read it as a condemnation of matriarchy, but I can see how the role reversal might not sit well even with those sympathetic to the message of the book. On that front, I didn't feel it did enough--it was too simple and binary. That said, I think it teases out some important issues and lays bare how much goes unsaid in our legislation and the assumptions that shape governmental power. And while the general gist might seem a bit binary, the characters are interesting and kept me engaged.

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2022 #10 Parable of the Sower (Butler)

 

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Remarkable. It is a word that is over-used, and yet, can also say absolutely nothing. But truly...that is the word that first came to mind. Not when I finished the book, but within the first hour of listening. Lauren Olamina is one of the best adolescent female characters in all the fiction I've read. Her "sharing" (hyper-empathy) is a disability (invisible to most) and for Lauren, an identity, that very much informs her worldview and arguably crafts her mission of Earthseed, as told both in the quotations from "The Books of the Living" and Lauren herself. She describes one woman as "housebound and squeamish," and notes without sanctimony: "...and that's what I would've become if everyone had known about me." It is hard to say what this book is NOT about. Written in 1993, and taking place in 2024, the book is remarkably prescient, but also makes a larger point about cycles of humanity. Slavery and colonialism are not just of the past, but of a future built on a present that relegates patterns to the past. And yet, some of the past is also celebrated as holding answers for the future.

Lauren's character is written with so much personality, yet without hyperbole or sentimentality. She just is. She suffers betrayal and loss, yet walks forward with an almost gentle ferocity, which really only makes sense for her character and the context of the book.

And yes, this is dystopic sci-fi, but it is also a "coming-of-age" novel. And a declaration of faith. "Embrace diversity or be destroyed." "God is change." Butler celebrates the power of poetry--no matter the source. And she even recognizes the limits to her protagonist's agency, as Lauren must disguise herself (figuratively and literally).

So, yeah, the book is remarkable. And I certainly wish it had been available to read when I was in high school, because I'm certain it would have resonated far more with me than Lord of the Flies or Catcher in the Rye. Definitely one of my top ten books.

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2022 #2: The Cooking Gene (Twitty)

 CW: enslavement/trauma

Cross-posted

The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W. Twitty
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A "journey" is an apropos description for this book. I won't even attempt to quantify the percentages of history, memoir, documentary, and food writing. Twitty manages to intertwine his personal story with a history of foodways and people that inextricably connects ancestry, personhood, and food in ways that left me contemplating my own complicated feelings about food and culture. As an adoptee, with two parents who have died, I've not cared to search too much into my own genealogy--I suspect in fear that somehow the cultures and stories into which I was adopted will become "less than." If fear is in the mix, I am even more humbled because this book is at times gritty reckoning with both Twitty's own ancestral history, and this country's foundational story of exploitation and abuse. There are many passages in the book that make it obvious that our narratives about food, crops, and foodways are never isolated. Culinary history is American history. Or African history. Or European history. You get the idea.

Instead, cotton ensured the growing and complete racialization of what it meant to be of African descent. African ethnic groups became the early Afro-Creole culture that began African America. If King Cotton had never reigned, we African Americans might be like an other ethnic group --stories might be passed down; names remembered; song, words, religions, prayers, perhaps, even on might say, a sense of pride. Instead, names were changed again and again and again, as people were sold, further commoditized, dehumanized, and abused. (357-8)

Twitty tells us: "My food is my flag" and his quest to to "regain...a heritage denied" is filled with pain, joy, curiosity, and tremendous beauty. There are multitudes of lessons here, and at some point I will give it a re-read, because I'm certain I'd find even more layers. One of my biggest takeaways, however--and this is coming from my historian's soul--comes from this passage on the last page:

I mistook the past for a landscape to be managed by the learned mind but I was wrong. The past is not to be conquered or conveniently cinched in neat lessons and sound bites. It is a territory that will absorb you almost against your will. (425)

If you aren't interested in culinary history or genealogy...READ THIS BOOK. You owe it to yourself. Michael Twitty allows us to glimpse this "journey" and understand the true meaning and depth of that Carl Sagan quote that is too often blithely offered as inspiration instead of an invitation for reflection and exploration: "We are, each of us, a multitude."


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2021 #16: The Ways of White Folks (Hughes)

The Ways of White Folks by Langston Hughes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

These may be short stories, but they are not short reads--nor should they be. Langston Hughes gives us a multi-dimensional look at racism through vivid characterization and writing that can be both acidic and tender. "Slave on the Block" looks at fetishization. "Home" and "The Blues I'm playing" should be required reading for music students--especially those studying the classical tradition. The final and longest story, "Father and Son" exposes the workings of classism and colorism, and is one of the most powerful short stories I have ever read. Throughout the book, questions of "home" and what that means seem to surface time and time again. This is one of the most important short story collections of the twentieth century, and is an essential inroad to understanding race relations in the U.S.

2021 #14: Clay's Ark (Butler)

 

Clay's Ark by Octavia E. Butler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Reading this book was uncomfortable both in its 1980s sci-fi ethos and in reading it during a pandemic. That said, Butler's exploration of a tension between parasitism and symbiosis is really intriguing. I did find the character arcs to be on the weaker side, although the jumping between past and present is artfully done (and not gratuitous). The final showdown takes too long and seems sensationalist in its rampant violence, although I supposed there is a point to be made there. The humanity question is explored fairly well through some of the main protagonists, but one of the better aspects of the novel is that it redefines the protagonist role altogether. A worthwhile read, but I could have used more interrogation of the larger themes, and a little less sexual and bodily violence.