A Line A Day: January 2025

The past can be a treacherous place to navigate. My advice/caution. Do not dwell on it to the detriment of progress towards a better future. Do not allow it to be whitewashed, or worse, banned in order to protect the sensibilities of those who think they are suppressing anger, but to the contrary, are stoking it. Do not dishonor the memory of those who went through Hell on earth by attempting to minimize their ordeal. Yesterday is to be learned from, and sometimes atoned for, but never forgotten. We are the descendants of kings, and queens, and enslavers, and the enslaved. Blame and shame are legitimate responses, but do not allow how we treated each us other then to dictate how we view each other now. Break those chains. Onward bound, with the truths of our history left intact so that we may try to heal and move on with our battle scars.

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

An excellent novel that wonderfully blends science fiction with literary fiction. The science fiction aspect is pretty spare for although the concept of time travel is critical to the narrative, the author does not go into much detail about it. It simply happens for reasons that are left unexplained physically (Why bother explaining the impossible anyway? Doesn't make it any more plausible) but make sufficient sense for the reader to easily accept. The main character (Dana, a black woman recently wed to a white man in 1976) needs to keep an ancestor (who is white) from dying on a few separate occassions throughout the course of his life in order to sustain the family lineage that will eventually lead to her. She doesn't need to keep Rufus (who she first meets as a boy) alive to a ripe old age, just long enough for him impregnate the woman who will give birth to the earliest relative that Dana was aware of having. The extremely unfortunate thing for Dana is that the time she is repeatedly transported back to is America's period of mass production by slavery. She has no control over when she'll be called back in time. Rufus summons her subconsciously and perhaps consciously as he grows older whenever he is in grave danger. Dana is able to return to 1976 only when her own life is in immediate peril, something that usually but not always is beyond her control. The amount of time she spends on the plantation does not match the length of time that she is whisked away from her real life. Months in the past correspond to the passage of a couple hours in 1976 on one trip. On another trip, two weeks in the present correspond to three months in the past. So the connection is arbitrary, which is fine, for as I said this book isn't really about H.G. Wells style time travel. It's about the kind of time travel that affects all of us, because reality dictates that what happened in the past impacts our present and shapes our future. And as we learn more about our past and discover what had previously been unknown or misunderstood, our present understanding of the world adapts and generates a different future than the one we were previously headed towards. Bravo to Octavia E. Butler, a fine writer indeed.

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this well written book, the first novel by esteemed writer Ta-Nehisi Coates. It received a great deal of hype including the valuable OPRAH seal of approval. So I went in thinking it would blow me away. Instead I ended up liking but not quite loving it. 3-1/2 stars out of 5. Comparisons to The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead were inevitable since they both tackle the same subject matter. Both books stray from the reality of what the underground railroad was in the telling of their respective tales. In Whitehead's case he made it a literal train traveling underground, so basically the subway. As for Coates, he came up with the concept of conduction which is where certain people (such as Harriet Tubman who is a character in The Water Dancer) possess the mystical power to transport themselves and others along with them over great distances rather than needing to travel in pedestrian fashion by horse or foot. It's kind of bordering on Harry Potter territory. The Water Dancer delves into the life of a man named Hiram Walker who is a slave in possession of the power of conduction, although for much of the narrative he doesn't have full mastery of it or control over when it will happen. But even though he isn't a conduction expert yet, his talent makes the operators of the Underground Railroad greatly desirous of his services. Unlike Hiram and Harriet "Moses" Tubman, most slave escapes are orchestrated by people without magical powers. These ordinary escapes involve strategy, forgery, and following paths that lead to various locations of shelter by abolitionists when perilous journeys from bondage to safe haven in the northern half of the US are undertaken. Hiram, like many slaves, has half African ancestry and half Caucasian. His biological father is also his master. He is treated better than many other slaves, not quite like a son by his father or like a brother by his father's officially recognized son Maynard. But Hiram is certainly treated better than a brute animal, in part because of his talents beyond conduction such as an incredible memory and mastery of card tricks that entertains guests at parties. In blood as well as circumstances, Hiram has a lifestyle somewhere in between that of "The Tasked and that of "The Quality". But neither he nor those he loves best has freedom, and without that precious commodity, time on this earth is just an advance preview of Hell with stolen moments of sweetness all the more cherished because they can be taken away on a whim at any time. I didn't feel as emotionally invested in Hiram and the woman he loves (Sophia) and the woman who raises him after the death of the mother he barely remembers (Thena) as I was in the protagonist of Whitehead's Underground Railroad, or that of the wonderful Freeman by Leonard Pitts Jr.. I wasn't as impressed by the writing as I was by the prose in Edward P. Jones' The Known World or Charles R. Johnson's Middle Passage. I wasn't as absorbed in The Water Dancer as I was by the remarkable Kindred by Octavia E. Butler. Coates has not taken the literary throne from Toni Morrison and her novels such as Beloved and A Mercy. But this isn't to say that I did not enjoy The Water Dancer. It's just that I've read some incredible books that deal with the abomination of slavery. Ta-Nehisi is a very talented writer and I hope he continues gifting us with both his fiction and non-fiction writing on any topic of his choosing.

James by Percival Everett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

James is a brilliant retelling and reimagining of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that is told from the point of view of Jim rather than Huck. Most people are familiar with the original novel, even those who haven't read it. They know that Huck's adventures take place during the days of slavery and that the setting is on or nearby the Mississippi River. The mischievous white boy of Twain's creation rebels against domesticity, often along with his best friend Tom Sawyer. As an African American man in a state of bondage, Jim does not have the luxury of rebelling against anything. Not without paying the ultimate price. His only choice, which comes at great peril, is to escape and hope that he is able to evade capture. However, Jim is a family man devoted to his wife and child. Freedom is meaningless to him without them by his side. He does not seek adventure or fortune or amusement to distract himself from daily boredom. Stakes for him are much higher than they are for Tom or his good friend Huck, even though Huck is not without problems of his own such as an alcoholic father who is quick to anger and acts of violence. Since the plot of James is already set by Mark Twain's novel, Percival Everett starts his novel out on footing that is familiar to us. We're seeing the world through the eyes of an enslaved man rather than an All American boy, but the events of James stay true to what takes place in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. For starters anyway. Huck runs away from home to get away from a bullying father, Jim escapes to avoid being sold away from his family, planning to somehow be reunited with them down the road, perhaps by being able to purchase their freedom with money that he will need to figure out how to obtain. The two of them end up in the same hiding place and decide to team up. As in Mark Twain's novel, Jim learns that Huck's father has died but keeps this knowledge from the boy. As they alternate traveling on the Mississippi by raft or whatever else they're able to obtain that will float, and moving about by foot when necessary, they make the acquaintance of various characters who are known to us from the original version of this story. And as with Twain's version, there are times when Jim and Huck get separated from each other. This is where Percival Everett is given the most freedom to invent his own story, since rather than sticking with Huck at these times, here the narrative remains with Jim. Among the differences between Twain's and Everett's novels is code switching. Jim speaks the way he is expected to when white people are around, but his true language is proper English that is spoken when the coast is clear. Jim can also read and write. Language is a critical aspect of the story, which makes sense since in the days of slavery Black people had to find ways to communicate with each other that was undetectable to white people. In a way, that tradition carries on to this day. The person named Jim in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a slave. That defines who he is and what he does. It is his motivation and the limitation imposed on him by society and also by the author. As for Percival Everett's James, he is a man that happens to be enslaved, but "slave" does not define him. He is also a husband and a father and intelligent and curious and shrewd and caring and angry and optimistic and vengeful and cynical and a dreamer and sympathetic and wise and wary and a variety of other things. James is multifaceted as written by Everett because he is not merely a vehicle for Huck to learn how he feels about a society that permits and enforces slavery. James is not there primarily for a boy to realize what type of man he wants to become and avoid becoming. James is a fully realized fictional character who acts not how Twain's plot dictates he must, but rather, one who behaves how a man in his situation might when push comes to shove. There are plot elements that I won't reveal because I don't want to play spoiler. Instead I will urge you to immediately obtain a copy of this fantastic novel in order to find out for yourself what happens. The only clue I will give is that I could see a movie adaptation of James being directed by Quentin Tarantino. Or Spike Lee. I said it upon review of his novel Erasure and I will repeat it here. Percival Everett is a great writer. Give him his flowers. I can't wait to see what he gifts us with next. If you're one of those people who has not already read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, you might want to pick up Twain's classic first.

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This novel is magnificent. A truly extraordinary achievement and an absolute pleasure to read. The plot is perfectly simple. A family tree gets split into two branches in Africa. Two sisters who never get to know each other are separated, one married off to a white slave trader and the other ending up as one of the slaves held literally beneath their feet. Subsequent chapters bounce back and forth between descendants of the two sisters. Each chapter gives us a slice in the life of a character. It picks up at what seems like a random spot in a person's life, gets us absorbed in that story, and then abruptly abandons it. The next chapter introduces us to a new character who falls in the other half of the family lineage. Reading Yaa Gyasi's wonderful novel is like watching a literary tennis match, our attention drawn to one side of the net and then pulled to the other and back and forth the narrative goes. We reach the end of each chapter with a tinge of regret because it was a riveting tale unto itself and we are naturally curious to follow it further. But we are equally anxious to dive into the next story from the other side of the net. Homegoing is a novel that very much has the feeling of an anthology of short stories. Each story is a sequel to the one that we read two chapters back, introducing us to the son or daughter of the father or mother we previously read about. Inevitably the two family/narrative lines will meet up, or so we hope and expect. Ultimately it is a single family and story divided up into various segments that contain varying amounts of joy and tragedy and hope. Homegoing is the story of the atrocities of the slave trade, and colonization, and segregation, and Jim Crow, and the Great Migration, and the war on drugs, and mass incarceration which is basically full circle back to slavery in modern society. It is a story of family, not just this particular fictional one but the real world African American family. Splintered into pieces that may never reconnect. Like the characters who populate this book, each of us have entirely different and unique stories. Yet we all share the same, single path. We are each other's brothers and sisters even if fated to never cross paths. Trace back far enough and we can find where the connection began. And if we cannot, we still know that the connection is out there somewhere, and so we should relate to and treat one another with this understanding. Decades ago Alex Haley gave us the masterful Roots and now Yaa Gyasi has given us the brilliant Homegoing. The latter is a work of pure fiction but feels like truth as the best of fiction does. Put this book immediately into the literary canon. Homegoing should be mandatory reading for all students of African American history, and Black Literature, and English Majors. If you're not a student in any of those classes then read it anyway because it's a wonderful novel that you will be glad to have read. It is a story for everyone as the best of fiction is, but will resonate particularly with the souls of black folk. Bravo, Yaa Gyasi. Bravo!

Middle Passage by Charles R. Johnson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What a wonderful, powerful, thought provoking, surprising read. The first two attributes are on account of Charles Johnson's mastery of the written word. His prose grips the reader from first sentence and doesn't let go for a second. It goes by so quickly that I found myself wishing it had been padded to last another 50 pages or more. Why was it surpising? Well, I expected it to focus primarily on the horrific middle passage in which people were enslaved and transported in barbaric fashion from Africa to America. And the bulk of this book does in fact describe such a voyage. But before we get to it we are introduced to the protagonist, a fascinating character who is a freed slave that ends up on the ship basically by accident as he flees to avoid a forced marriage to his impatient girlfriend, a seemingly mild mannered lady who has taken matrimonial matters into her own hands in rather brutish fashion. Once Rutherford Calhoun is aboard ship and particularly once it has monstrously taken on cargo, which includes not only members of an ancient African tribe but also their god, the narrative is so intense and perilous and chock full of life and death double dealing on the unpredictable high seas, that the early part of the novel is mostly forgotten. But without giving too much away, as Middle Passage reaches its conclusion suddenly we are back in the world of the original cast of characters. The physically battered protagonist is much changed mentally and emotionally due to his adventurous ordeal. But he has one last dangerous set of circumstances to navigate before he can be fully saved. Ironically, being saved means opting for a degree of monogamy and commitment that his avoidance of got him into so much trouble in the first place. Freedom has an entirely different definition to him from beginning of the story to the end. So yes, this book as expected was about the atrocities of the slave trade. But slavery is more of a backdrop than focus of the action packed tale. What it ultimately ends up being about is the lengths a man goes to live a carefree existence, and what he must go through to learn that caring for people other than himself is a far superior way to live.

The Known World by Edward P. Jones
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Bravo, Edward P. Jones - Bravo! Finished this masterpiece with about 20 minutes left to go in the year 2013. Looking forward to quite a few more great reads in 2014 but they'll need to be magnificent to share a bookshelf with this one. Reading The Known World put me one step closer to my goal of reading all of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction award winners - http://lineaday.blogspot.com/2009/03/...

Is the question "how (morally) could there have been black slave owners who were formerly slaves themselves?" a predecessor to "why is black on black crime so prevalent?" or "why do some black people (Michael Jackson being an especially well known example) seem to be trying to escape their blackness by cloaking it in what is commonly accepted as whiteness?" or "is the survival Darwin spoke of primarily achieved by looking out for yourself, even if the most effective method of ascension is using your own people to reach and remain at the top?"

Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The excellent film adaptation of this novel, which I watched after keeping a promise to myself to read the book first, was more melodramatic and pulled on heartstrings to greater effect and purpose than Solomon Northup's telling of his life story which was written without consideration of Hollywood retellings in mind. He writes in somewhat stilted prose, his style academic rather than evocative. Unlike a movie director years later in a world that Solomon never could have imagined, Solomon is not trying with the telling of his life story (or a portion of it anyway) to draw out our tears. He is not attempting with every stroke of the pen to stir up emotions. Solomon Northup is simply telling us like it was - straight no chaser. No need to exaggerate the brutality or the tragedy, no reason to willfully demonize people whose monstrous acts and barbaric attitudes speak for themselves. Is the reader outraged, astounded that people could casually treat others in such a manner? Only if the reader has a soul. Solomon Northup doesn't place his words on page to move us the way his violin playing moved the people who heard it. He is both impartial reporter and the subject of this piece of journalism that required no investigation because it happened to Solomon directly. Years later we may need to remind ourselves that no matter how dramatic the cruelty of stealing people away from their homes and loved ones for profit may be, this is a work of non-fiction, not make believe. Solomon doesn't ask us to feel sorry for him, or to hate his oppressors. What he does is recount what it was like for a man to suddenly find himself in bondage and servitude, endure it for over a decade, and then somewhat miraculously find himself free again with a most amazing and devastating tale to tell. He reveals the truth to us in as unbiased a manner as possible and allows us judge it for ourselves. How did any man ever convince himself that it was okay to treat another this way? How did people ignore the humanity they surely saw in the brethren that they stole from another continent? How was a single one of them able to look in a mirror? Twelve Years a Slave asks these questions but is unable to answer them, nor does it bother to try. Nothing can adequately answer them. The mystery of such heartlessness has not revealed itself over a couple hundred years. This is what our country was founded on, inalienable rights unevenly dispersed with extreme prejudice. This is what America needs to atone for and move forward from. This is the stain that will never fade. Yet quite tellingly, those 12 years are not what made Solomon the extraordinary man that he was. Those 12 years happened to him but did not become him. Otherwise he probably would not have been able to write his book. The past brought us to this present, but it need not define any of us. In even the most suffocating of circumstances, we have the freedom to do that for ourselves.

Freeman by Leonard Pitts Jr.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

FREEMAN is a fantastic book. Readers will highly empathize with the well developed characters. History buffs fascinated by the Civil War time period will be enthralled. Those who take great interest in this nation's troublesome history of race relations will be deeply drawn in, and on numerous occasions will shake their head at the realization that centuries old truths stubbornly remain valid to this day. Those in eternal search for bittersweet love stories should immediately add Freeman to their reading list. The only bone I had to pick with it is that in order for certain events to go the way the author intended them to, there were a couple instances of characters leaving incriminating evidence lying conveniently around, allowing for trails that otherwise would have gone cold to remain hot. I temporarily felt the presence of Leonard Pitts Jr. directing the narrative when this happened. "No way she doesn't toss that newspaper in the fire immediately" I may have said aloud at one point near the end of this riveting story. This is probably the only thing keeping me from going with a 5-star review, but please don't let it prevent you from following up on my recommendation to read this wonderful novel. From its first sentence to the last, it packs a powerful emotional punch. Bravo to a job well done.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is especially near and dear to my heart. I don't suppose there are too many readers who are not already familiar with it. I wrote a blog post on Huck Finn in 2011 http://lineaday.blogspot.com/2011/01/... due to the decision to put out a new edition with all instances of "the N-word" omitted. The reason why this decision was made and the reason I was opposed, despite its good intent, says all that needs to be said about why this book is a classic. The brilliance of Twain's novel is that it shows how basically good people can be conditioned to have reprehensible attitudes and not even realize their wrong doing. We forgive Huck Finn's ignorant beliefs because we recognize that he is a good person at heart. This makes us wonder what sins by others in real life we should perhaps be more forgiving of, and which ones we ourselves may be unknowingly committing. How many of us would be willing to do what our conscience says is the right thing when society says such behavior will result in banishment to Hell?

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This novel is a grand literary achievement, well deserving of its accolades and the Pulitzer Prize. It is a story of American slavery, and of daring to dream of freedom. It depicts the shackles that physically held people in bondage as well as mentally chaining them to the inescapable past. Slaves who did not have their spirits broken by enforced servitude had one chance to claim a life worth living. They could run and hope to make it to the underground railroad. Colson Whitehead makes the interesting choice of depicting it as an actual railroad running beneath the ground, giving the story somewhat of a science fiction feel. But for the most part the narrative is a gritty, realistic one. A woman named Cora is at its center. She escapes bondage much as her mother, who was never heard from again, did before her. Freedom is fleeting. Just as Cora has grown comfortable and believes she has found a permanent place for herself, she ends up imprisoned in an attic, hiding until found and recaptured. Once again she escapes and this time she finds a utopia, a community of black people living prosperously and independently. But paradise found is only a sweet respite until it is lost. A slave catcher named Ridgeway relentlessly pursues Cora even after the man who hired him to find her has died. His determination to return Cora to bondage is a match for her desire to live on her own terms rather than those dictated by a barbaric society. Yet Ridgeway can hold Cora captive to no greater degree than one can grasp the wind. Once again she escapes and goes on the run, riding the subterranean rails towards a future that is beyond the reach of slavery. The story is told at a pulse quickening pace, with quiet moments interspersed that resemble freedom and present the possibility of Cora choosing a lifelong home, until she finds herself being hunted again. We hope for Cora's fate to be merciful, knowing that the railroad's journey to a better tomorrow is mighty long, continuing in certain ways to this very day.

Last but certainly not least, I could not leave out Toni Morrison from a list of books that have explored the abomination of American slavery. Beloved is one of her better known masterpieces, so I will instead use this platform to shed light on a lesser known gem that she gifted us with. Additional Toni Morrison praise can be found by taking this link to Roy's Book Reviews.