Review-The Personal History of Rachel Dupree, by Ann Weisgarber

THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF RACHEL DUPREE
by Ann Weisgarber
Viking Penguin
978-0-670-02201-4
$25.95
336 pages
August 12, 2010





 Why is this little girl suddenly about to be lowered to the dark bottom of their well attached to a plank, while her mother stands above praying for Jesus to stay by her daughter’s her side?  The Personal History of Rachel Dupree opens with a disturbing image, frightening details of a six year old child conjure a number of possibilities as to why she is strapped to the plank. Weisgarber sets a foreboding tone with intense dramatic tension from the onset.  Questions bombard your metacognition with a compulsion to read on for answers. 

The story is about Rachel, a worker in a boardinghouse, who becomes smitten by the owner’s son.  Isaac Dupree,  an African American, is from a socially prominent family in Chicago.  His dream, to the disappointment of his domineering mother, is to own land out west and acquire a spread with considerable acreage. Isaac believes landownership will guarantee status and respect among his predominately white neighbors.  To Isaac, land makes the man, it means everything.   Isaac agrees to marry Rachel, in return, she will deed her allowable 160 acres to him. They make a pact to stay married one year as they journey to the Badlands of South Dakota to stake their claim. To Rachel love is the force that drives her, with a determination to make her marriage last beyond one year. 

The Badlands, a desolate and harshly brutal environment is not an easy life for most women.  The isolation can be miserable and lonely with the proximity of neighbors a distance away.  Yet, it is breathtakingly beautiful with majestic panoramic landscapes that appear infinite. Isaac is quite successful and his quest to acquire land has made him one of the largest landowners around.  

In 1917, after surpassing their one year anniversary by thirteen years, they are still married and a severe drought is threatening their world. Rachel is pregnant again and her family means everything to her. Survival in the Badlands is not easy for anyone, but Isaac Dupree has something to prove, he is on of the few African American ranchers around, and to him land earns him respect.  Rachel sees more opportunity for her children, wanting them exposed to city life. A fissure begins to widen between the two that threatens to fracture the family.

Weisgarber’s story is a moving memoir-like read of a pioneering women with tremendous strength and wisdom who faces tough choices. The dialogue flows with a natural rhythmic cadence you would expect to hear at this time. 

The Great Plains offered little support for the supplicant role of women, or the displaced Indians. You will embrace The Personal History of Rachel Dupree, a rich affecting read that will endure.

Disclosure: This book was a free copy sent to me by IRB for review. The review posted is my honest opinion and free of bias.


© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2008-2011]. 

The Secrets of Newberry by Victor McGlothin

THE SECRETS OF NEWBERRY

by Victor McGlothin
Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Group
$13.99/$16.99 Can; 373 pages
ISBN 13 :9780446178136
2010

Full Description from the Publisher:

"For Ivory Bones Arcineaux and Hampton Bynote, life in 1950s New Orleans couldn't be sweeter. Friends since they met in an illegal gambling house in Newberry, Louisiana, they have their pick of all the fine women, good food, and hot nights they can handle. They seem to have it made-especially Julian who begins to make a new life for himself after meeting the beautiful, classy Magnolia Garbo at a social. But both men are about to find out that letting the good times roll can be deadly when a simple robbery goes wrong and Julian witnesses Bones murdering a man in cold blood."

Review: The Secrets of Newberry

Just when you think you have everything figured out, this story will take an unexpected turn to keep you engaged as you can’t help but turn to the next page. Pearl Lee works as a supervisor in the washhouse, delegating soiled linens and underclothes among the other black women who work on the Delacroix Plantation. The women share a secret, a secret agreement between the white men in this powerful family and the black women who serve and live in the rows of slave shacks next door. They all know and suffer with the agreement. Their husbands are in the dark, the secret is unspeakable and unseemly, but all agree it is necessary to keep their men safe, so they endure.

Characters who comprise this complicated story are unforgettable. Magnolia and Pearl Lee are strong women who demonstrate the depth of their emotions when they back it up with actions. Hampton struggles to provide a good life for his family. He lives on a tightrope intent on staying straight with the law, but his balance is not always steady.

Are there some secrets worth dying for? Is murder ever justified? Suspense, mystery, racial inequality and the backdrop of Jim Crow Louisiana in the 1950’s accompanied by a superb realistic story with intrigue will more than satisfy historical fiction fans. Victor McGlothin’s storytelling will force you to ponder life questions of faith and belief. Masterfully told and highly recommended.


Disclosure: This book was sent to me at no cost from Hachette Book Group. This review is my own unbiased true opinion of The Secrets of Newberry, by Victor McGlothin.


© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2010].

Review-Scottsboro by Ellen FeldmanScottsboro

Scottsboro
by Ellen Feldman
978-0-393-333527
2009






When you read Ellen Feldman’s book Scottsboro you savor each page like a vintage wine. The story is so mesmerizing tendrils seem to wrap around your chair. The story is so chillingly real you become frozen it its truth. The story is so poetically lyrical you have no doubt that you are hearing the cadence of the colorful Southern speech. Unfortunately, color in the Southern world is only black and white. Unfortunately, the truth in Scottsboro is always grey.

This historical fiction novel is based on the famous Scottsboro case in Alabama in 1931 and The Scottsboro Boys who were accused of a crime they didn’t commit. It is the story of nine black boys who were on a freight train. Unfortunately, for them, that same day two white girls, dressed in overalls, were also riding the same train. What they shared in common was poverty and riding the rails, as they all tried to get from place to place.

At an unscheduled stop the train slowed down and the two girls looked out to see a mob of forty to fifty white men brandishing pitchforks, shotguns, and at least some kind of weapon in their hands. A furious angry chase ensues as the mob is hell bent on capturing “niggers.”

Victoria Price and Ruby Bates are scared as dogs in a thunderstorm. They know a white woman being caught with a “nigger” is worse than being one. When the men discover that they are female, Victoria begins to invent her story accusing the nine captured boys of raping her and Ruby. Ruby is the younger of the two and follows along.

Blacks in Alabama in 1931 could just as easily been strung up by a rope, but the mob, feeling a sense of duty and fairness decide to bring them to town to be tried. Truth be told, they would rather that they die in the electric chair for their alleged crimes.

What follows is the story of Alice Whittier, a New York reporter, who persuades her boss to let her find the story. Alice takes on a quest that covers several decades as she digs for the truth. Her personal life and relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt becomes part of the story. Anti-Semitism is pervasive during this era and the story covers this theme as the lead defense attorney in the second trial is Samuel Leibowitz, a Jewish lawyer from New York. The importance of the Communist Party involvement in the case is also brought out in the book.

Class divisions are blurred as the white community in solidarity condemning the nine try to purify the image of the two girls, who are anything but virtuous. On the other hand, the defense tries to discredit Victoria and Ruby as a prostitute and white trash.

When Ruby Bates decides to alter her testimony, there is a ray of hope for the defense, but will it be enough to break down the walls of racial hatred that are embedded in the community and southern culture? Will the defense have a fair trial instead of the previous trial that was a travesty of southern justice?

Ellen Feldman’s writing is so deeply rich, her dialog begs to be read aloud. The voice of Ruby is brilliantly written and a treasure to savor. Not since Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird, has the southern dialect been so artfully written and emulated with such poetic craft. Ruby is a complex emotional character in flux. Yet, her speech is always entertaining and genuine, down to earth and charming with a plethora of witty unforgettable similes.

This story may surprise and shock some who read it, but should it? The ugly truth is that Jim Crow did exist and still does today. This division of race was unfair, unjust, and hopelessly unbeatable. Books like Scottsboro are necessary to bring the truth forward as we continue to see racial and ethnic hatred in the global arena. The greatest fear is burying the past in ignorance. Ellen Feldman’s hypnotic historical fiction novel is destined to become a classic. Highly recommended.






Cross-posted on blogcritics.org

Review-Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead

Sag Harbor
Colson Whitehead
9780385527651
Doubleday
288 pages,$24.95/C$27.95






Sag Harbor is Colson Whitehead’s fourth book. It is a coming of age novel where Whitehead harvests personal experiences to shape the story of two brothers, Benji and Reggie, in the summer of 1985. Sag Harbor is an interesting place because it is a summer haven for African American professional people and families to “come out.” When someone “comes out,” it means they are in Sag Harbor.

Some of the homes are handed down and have been in families for generations, and it would be unheard of to sell your spot in paradise. Reggie and Benji spend the school year as the only two black students in a prestigious prep school in New York City. Sag Harbor and Manhattan are worlds apart.

Colson Whitehead’s style of writing is so free and appears to be effortless. The dialogue flows naturally and his descriptive phrases move like the lapping of the ocean waves breaking on the beach. Sentences flow over and over with a metered cadence of lilting lyrics. Sometimes paragraphs are written so well they are too good to only read once:

The sunset made it appear that the sun and the sky were not separate things but different states of the same magnificent substance - as if the sky were a weakened diluted form of the sun, the blue and the white merely drained-away elements of the swirling red-and-orange disk sitting on the horizon.

Benji provides the narration for the author’s autobiographical story. The characters are different, but the streets, houses, and community he grew up in are the same. When the story begins, Benji and Reggie are inseparable, but as the summer unfolds they drift apart in many ways.

Sag Harbor the shipping port, the town in Moby Dick, the summer vacation spot, and now the book. Sag Harbor is a keepsake of memories as two boys have a summer of fun and awareness of their racial identity. As they prepare to leave their vacation and head home, they look to the future with a better understanding of who they are.

Colson Whitehead’s Sag Harbor is so funny, genuine, and passionate he takes us beyond the limits of racial boundaries.


Thanks go to Barnes & Noble & Doubleday for this
ARC. Sag Harbor was a discussion book for the First Look program in March.

Don't forget the contest Time to Party with Wisteria

Wisteria Leigh

Soul Enchilada by David Macinnis Gill

A copy of this book came to me to read and I had to share my review with you.
The book is intended for young adults grade 9+, but don't let that prevent you from picking this book up to read. If you can stand the heat. I highly recommend this spiced up "can't touch this" surprise debut.

Soul Enchilada, by David Macinnis Gill,Greenwillow Books/Harper Collins.978-0-06-167301-6

Soul Enchilada: The Devil is in the Details is a riotous, rip roaring ride in a 1958 Cadillac Biarritz about to be repossessed by Mr. Beals, otherwise known as Beelzebub. The current owner is Bugs, a struggling young teen, who can barely make rent, and barely make it to work. She has title to the car, because she co:signed for her grandfather, who without her knowledge, had made a side deal with the devil before his demise that included giving him his soul if he could just have this beautiful Cadillac.

The problem now is that sitting on her passenger seat is Mr Beals, invisible to all but her, and he wants payment. Papa C, her grandfather, skipped out on his last payment, his soul of course. When Bugs finds out that when she co-signed the loan she was next in line to pay up, the joy ride begins.

The setting is El Paso, Texas and Eunice “Bug” Smoot is thirteen. She is the fastest pizza delivery person in El Paso, but not fast enough to keep her job and so this story will deliver a plethora of comedic scenes and dialog that will have you rolling along with Bugs. You just can’t imagine the trouble she encounters trying to run from the devil.

David Macinnis Gill is a brilliant conversationalist accurately synthesizing the natural flowing cultural dialect, speech patterns and slang of the streets. Believable, humorous and age appropriate make the dialogue just right.
Hilarious moments as the story unfolds will grab you with chuckles, belly laughing and outright hysteria from beginning to end.

I enjoyed this book so much, I can’t wait for another adventure by this debut author. This is a must have on library shelves and will be enjoyed by all readers in high school.


David Macinnis' Website

Review-Lima Nights, by Marie Arana

Lima Nights,by Marie Arana, The Dial Press,pp,246pages,978-0-3458-2,
Release date: December 30, 2008

Lima in 1986 is a pluralistic society of race, economics and social class. Carlos Bluhm, white, married and father of two sons, comes from money and lives in a mansion. Maria Fernandez, a marginalized member of the city is a Peruvian with dark-skin who lives in the slums. She struggles to survive by working two jobs. At night, Maria works in a tango bar, where she is hired to dance with the male customers. The salacious dance club is in a seedy section of the city and Carlos happens to be there one night when Maria is working. After meeting Maria he becomes obsessed with a monomaniac drive to be with her. He even goes so far as to make a comparative checklist to weigh pros and cons between Maria and his wife. The game begins as Carlos wonders what can he be thinking? In his mind he knows they are diametrically opposed in all ways.

My favorite character was Maria who demonstrated a vivacious spirit and tenacious will, with a personality full of contradictions; complex yet simple, young yet wise, childlike yet mature, poor yet rich.

This book had me flipping pages frantically expecting a great finish, as the author crafted increasing suspense. As the story ended, I felt like I ran into a brick wall. Lima Nights is a wonderful sensual love story depicting racial and class prejudice and society’s intolerance. Arana’s obsessive lovers, have an allure and chemistry that will steam glass with their passion.

Mudbound, by Hillary Jordan

Mudbound by Hillary Jordan a Bellwether Prize winner for fiction is a disturbing novel of racial hatred and historical importance. This award is given to a novel that addresses social justice and after reading her book, it is obvious why she deserves this prestigious prize.

Henry McAllan moves his wife and children to Mississippi, where he has bought a cotton farm on the fertile Delta to fulfill a lifelong dream. The time is late 1940s and the rules of white and black society are clearly delineated. Everyone knows their social places and gender roles, segregation is assumed and seemingly second nature as blacks and whites coexist in the community as long as the unwritten law is followed. This is the southern lifestyle as it was during the Jim Crow pre-civil rights south. Segregation is as mudbound as the land itself. It is deeply rooted in the culture of anyone born into the southern landscape. Laura follows her husband to Mississippi from the civilized world she is accustomed with no questions asked. Florence and Hap accept the sub human treatment given them as a natural part of life.

Jordan’s craft is to tell the story from the point of view of the characters. In this way you become intimate with the souls of each family member, knowing how they think and feel. The McAllans, Henry, Laura and Jamie and the Jacksons, Hap, Florence and Ronsel.

We cringe when we hear the language used by Pappy, Henry’s father the vile hateful white supremacist bigot. We wiggle uncomfortably when the man, Ronsel Jackson is called boy or Florence is called a nigger or any other racially derogatory moniker. It is hard to understand the thinking behind Laura’s hesitation of allowing Florence to nurse her very sick children because of her color.

Mudbound is the story of Jamie and Ronsel, both soldiers who are back from WWII. For the time being they are helping out on their family’s farms. Ronsel served in an all black unit in Germany and while there has a relationship with a white woman. This is considered taboo in his native Mississippi, but in Europe, he feels like a man, not a black man, color is not noticed. When he returns home, he is treated as a boy again, because in the white world he is not a man, he is a black boy again.

Jamie and Ronsel become friends, but must face the racist rules society imposes on them. Ronsel can’t ride in the cab of Jamie’s pickup truck because of the color of his skin. One day while driving together they are spotted by Pappy who is wrought with disgust and disbelief. Jamie and Ronsel are warned to stop riding together and threatened with consequences by Pappy and Henry. When they continue to break the racial rules the penalties are unrelenting, horrifically unfathomable and life threatening.

Before Civil Rights Laws, this is how life was. As difficult and hard as it is to face our past, it is disturbing and offensive to read now. This book captivated my attention from the very beginning and the momentum never stopped. Jordan has captured the spirit of the time and brings you there. You feel the precarious tolerance of life that existed between whites and blacks, always leery of the next incident. Mudbound had me on the edge and will be etched in my memory for sometime, perhaps forever.
Hillary Jordan's Website
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Mule Contest: The mule is mentioned on page 130 when Henry tells Hap to have one of his boys come fetch it.