James by Percival Everett

As the novel that has been perched at the top of the New York Times reading list for weeks on end, James has been on my TBR shelf since its publication. As part of the Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures Ten Evenings series and also a selection for the Gables Book Club, it was time to move from TBR to Reading.

What an incredible novel Percival Everett has crafted. James is the re-imagination of Mark Twain’s Hucleberry Finn told from the point of view of Jim, Huck’s runaway slave companion. Jim is a husband to Sadie and father to Lizzie and is well respected among the other slave s to Judge Thatcher and Miss Watson because he can read and write. When he learns that he is going to be sold and shipped to New Orleans, he runs away. Huck is being abused by his alcoholic father and fakes his death and likewise runs away. The two meet up serendipitously on an island and from there the adventures begin as they encounter a couple of con artists, a minstrel group who appear with black face, One of that group, Norman, has been passing escapes with Jim. The two concoct a plan for Norman to sell Jim and help him escape and sell him over and over again. The owner of a mill, Old Mr. Henderson, buys Jim, and he escapes with another slave, Sammy, whom he witnesses being raped.

The adventures are harrowing, the cruelty and violence are disturbing, but it is history told through fiction. It is difficult to pinpoint what is the most outstanding feature of this novel. It is remarkable for the point of view and language from which Jim relates it. It is told in the first person by Jim who is trying to define what freedom is and how it can be gained outside enslavement. Everett uses a code switching technique, that Everett ini his lecture, sometime questions. When talking to superiors, he uses the “slave filter” and when he is talking with those on equal ground, uses an erudite proper language. He steals a leather notebook where he records his thoughts and where he develops a sense of self. Words are important to him.  During his lecture he read a part of the novel where James was instructing children on the way to talk to the enslavers 

The children said together, “And the better they feel, the safer we are.” “February, translate that.” “Da mo’ betta dey feels, da mo’ safer we be.”

Throughout James the overlying motive for his actions to to get back to Hannibal to free his family and move to where they can enjoy their life. It is what keeps him going. He came to the realization that if he didn’t have them in his life, freedom was meaningless.

Sadness, irony, humor, the myth of racial identity and so many other attributes come together to make this a book for all ages. It should be taught along its companion, Huckleberry Finn in all English curricula. I am not sure that would happen in Florida, After all, as Everett said, “Reading is subversive.”

Percival Everett at Carnegie Music Hall - 24 March 2025

Percival Everett at Carnegie Music Hall - 24 March 2025

Percival Everett at Carnegie Music Hall - 24 March 2025

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

This was a book that had been on my TBR list since it was published. I enjoy James McBride's writing style. I was excited that we had chosen it for our Gable Book Club. Then I was dismayed that I was going to be out of town for our discussion. 

In 1972 in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, a skeleton is discovered in a well while workers were clearing land for a townhouse development. McBride sets the stage as he then flashes back to 1925 and begins the story of Moshe and Chona Ludlow. Moshe is the proprietor of a theatre who books musical acts and Chona runs the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. They live on Chicken Hill, which has traditionally been home to Jewish immigrants. They are a charming couple and in love. Chona suffered an injury to her foot in childhood and is fairly dependent on Moshe taking care of her. The grocery store is a haven and and frequented by immigrants from Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary. Likewise, Moshe welcomes Negro acts to the theatre, signaling how inclusive and accepting they are of ethnic and diverse populations. 

Throughout the novel, McBride introduces the reader to a slew of characters who are so well-developed and interesting. Two in particular are Nate and Addie Timblin. Addie helps Chona with the store and takes care or her with her illness. Nate and Addie approach the Ludlow's to take care of Dodo, a deaf black boy whose mother dies. His observance of a vicious act on Chona sends him to an institution where he is treated in a low-functioning ward. Much of the movel is focused on trying to get his release from Pennhurst. 

Add to the mix the nefarious activity of a town council member who is siphoning water away from the shul in order to provide water to his dairy farm. Repairing the pipeline, freeing Dodo, and a celebratory parade provide a unique culmination for the story and solves the mystery that McBride sets up at the beginning of the novel.

This was an incredible read because of the plot layers and the development of all the characters. It is most difficult to summarize in a few words because of the interactions of all the characters and the complicated plot lines.  If one had unlimited time, it is definitely worth another read. 

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

In some books there are characters that will either leave you cold or leave you indifferent about what happens to them in the course of a novel. In The Nickel Boys, this is not the case. Elwood Curtis from the outset of the novel stole my heart. The events that affected his life were for the most part not of his doing and tragically show the harsh cruelty that was inflicted on the blacks as late as 1960 in this country. 

Elwood was left by his parents in the care of his grandmother, Harriet, when they set out to find a new life in California. Harriet raises her grandson to respect and learn. She buys an album of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speeches that so inspire Elwood. He is bright and is selected to attend college classes while he is still in high school. At about the same time he is unjustly arrested by a white policeman for being in a stolen car. He is sent to a reform school, Nickel School,  in Eleanor, Florida where he is to spend a year. The school is based on the Dozier School, that was so blatantly involved in the deaths of many black young men. 

Elwood tried to minimize his time there by being docile and observant of the rules. He forms a bond with Jack Turner, who goes by just his last name. Turner seems to know the inner workings of the school and has a beat on those in charge. Elwood witnesses so many acts of cruelty that he feels compelled to write an exposé of the conditions. This leads to his second confinement and according to Turner, the intent to take Curtis "out back" where he will be killed. Turner somehow manages to free Elwood and the two plan to escape. 

The narrative moves back and forth between the early1960s, the time of Elwood's Nickel School days and the late 60s when he is in New York City operating a moving company business. There is a real twist that Whitehead springs on the reader that is like a dagger to the heart.

In 2010 Elwood travels back to Florida to publicly express what transpired at that school. In actuality, much has been exposed about the Dozier school and the cruel abominations that occurred there. Archaeologists have been excavating Boot Hill, the area where bodies of the boys were interred.

Whitehead has created a work of fiction that is a masterpiece in informing and soul searching. It would be an incredible book to teach in high schools in states that are not fearful of having the truth about racism exposed. I will never forget Elwood Curtis and his tragic life.

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

The selection for our February book group was the debut novel by Charmaine Wilkerson. It was hard to tell to what the title referred, but at first glance, we anticipated a more culinary offering than what was the actual focus of the novel. 

It is really a story of relationships, self-identity, coincidences, and a bit of mystery. Benny and Byron, sister and brother have been estranged for a number of years. They are brought back together by the death of their mother, Eleanor,  who leaves them a tape that she recorded that shed light on her life and a black cake. It was also a means to illuminate the trouble that begins the book when she was a small girl, Covey grew up on a Caribbean island in the 1950s. Her mother had left her and her father, driven away by his drinking and gambling. Covey and her best friend, Bunny were swimmers and enjoyed the waters together. In order to settle debts, Covey's father, Lin, arranges a marriage between Covey and "Little Man" Henry. From the wedding day on, the book details how Covey escaped and found a new life in London, where she went to meet the real love of her life, Gibbs Grant.  

The first part of the book was rough going for me as I tried to sort out the characters and their relationships to each other. When the tape recording revealed the true identities of the characters, it became much more enjoyable and ended up being a real page-turner. Wilkerson masterfully weaves the characters and their relationships together for the reader. As she does that she also amalgamates the themes of feminism, resilience, racism, homophobia, friendship and family ties. The chapters were short and both time-shifted as well as locality-shifted. Once the characters' true identities were revealed, it was not difficult to follow. The solution to the mystery was revealed slowly, but resolved in the last chapter, as was disposition of the black cake

A good and interesting read. 

The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb

The Violin Conspiracy was an interesting read about a young black man, RqyQuain McMillian, who rises from an amateur student violinist to one of the most accomplished virtuosos in the world of symphonic music who finds himself in the midst of a horrible mystery and crime. From the time as a young boy he has played a rental violin.

The novel begins in media res with Ray and his girlfriend Nicole in New York City where he is performing and with his violin being stolen from his hotel room. The time shifts back to Ray as a youth and recounts the months and years leading up to the crime. 

Ray lives with an overpowering mother and twin siblings. His mother thinks it is a waste of time for him to be playing the instrument when he could be working at Popeye's Chicken or a grocery store. She wants the teenager to contribute to the household expenses. The most supportive person in his life is his grandmother who encourages his playing. Then one Christmas she gives him an old violin that was his great grandfather's who was an enslaved man. It was old, covered in resin and in an old alligator case. When Ray has it cleaned, it is discovered that it is a Stradivarius, worth close to 10 million dollars. The flashback that occupies most of the novel details the struggles that Ray has had to endure a a black instrumentalist, even being arrested by a racist policeman in Baton Rouge. When he meets Nicole, a violist, he finds a support person who is encouraging and loving. 

The investigation into the theft of the Strad points to a number of people who would benefit from its sale: his family who believe that it should have been sold and they split the profits, the descendants, the Marks family, of the slave owner, who believe it is rightly theirs, and even a competitor at the world renowned Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.  Both his family and the Marks sue him. The mystery of the theft provides the main plot of the novel.

One of the most interesting parts of the book was the detail of Ray's repertoire.  I got side-tracked numerous times looking up some of the pieces and listening to them. to hear Itzhak Perlman play Serenade Melancolique is as moving as it was described as he played it in Moscow. Slocumb, an accomplished musician in his own right brings much insight into the classical music world. The mystery of the theft of Ray's violin is not without its red herrings plays out in a surprising solution.. A good, solid, and quick read.

 

Horse by Geraldine Brooks

Geraldine Brooks is a master storyteller and literary crafts-person. Her novels, heavily and meticulously researched, give the reader an insight into time, place, and events of an historical nature. Horse is no exception. On the surface, it seems to be the saga of Lexington, the most exceptional horse in American history. Lexington was not acclaimed as a race horse, but the greatest stud whose progeny have ruled the race tracks since the late 1800s. 

In what seems to be the latest literary vogue, Brooks uses a combination of time periods to tell her story. As the novel opens, the reader meets Theo, a black graduate student in Washington, D.C. who discovers a painting of Lexington in the trash that a neighbor has discarded. He is taken by the photo and begins to research its provenance. On this journey he meets Jess, a white osteologist who is working on articulating the bones of a horse at the Smithsonian, soon to be identified as Lexington.

Flashback to 1850 and the readers is introduced to enslaved Jarrett who assumes the last name of his master throughout the book. Jarrett is present at the birth of Darly (Lexington's original name) and stays with him throughout the novel. Theo's father has bought his own freedom, but could not afford Theo's. It is that goal to which the young lad works. Although Theo, Jess, and Jarrett are all fictional characters who move the story along, Brooks' research also introduces Richard Ten Broeck and artists Thomas J. Scott, and Jackson Pollock, all historical figures. 

The book is a not so veiled treatise on racism from early on when Brooks quotes Frederick Douglass' argument about white artists have never been able to capture a true portrait of Africans. It recounts Jarrett's struggles and the relationship attitudes of Jess and Theo, culminating in a tragic turn of events. 

Horse is a complex novel and one that begs to be read. The only fault that I would find in it is the ending where it seems that she was ticking all the boxes for her publisher to create a treatise on current events. Any book of hers should be put on personal reading lists.  
 

Caste by Isabel Wilkerson

What can be said about one of the most powerful books that I have ever read except WOW! In building on the book The Warmth of Other Suns,  Wilkerson examines the disparity between the words of racism and caste in her discussion of the the state of the United States. She masterfully uses metaphors and simile as she documents the history of the United States' caste system.  

The treatise explores the caste systems of India, Nazi Germany, and the United States. She freely admits that in the United States caste and racism are interwoven and it can be difficult to separate them. But she does define them succinctly on page 70 of the book:

" Any action or institution that mocks, harms, assumes, or attaches inferiority or stereotype on the basis of the social construct of race can be considered racism. Any action or structure that seeks to limit, hold back, or put someone in a defined ranking or seeks to keep someone in their place by elevating or denigrating that person on the basis of their perceived category, can be considered casteism."

She cites numerous examples of how this system of caste has evolved in the United States and most are quite painful to read. Her comparison of the crowds in Germany waving Nazi flage in supporting Hitler's campaign against those in the lower caste (Jews, homosexuals, and gypsies) to those who gathered in the South to witness lynchings. The violence exhibited against those in the lower castes were nothing less than sadistic and dehumanizing. In our country even the lowest whites, so far down in the caste system consider themselves above the highest Blacks. The Obama presidency has led to a backlash and realization that by 2042  the majority of the citizenry of the US will be people of color. Such resentment by the whites and the desire to maintain caste contributed to the results of the 2016 election. 

Perhaps one of the most painful examples of this caste system is in Wilkerson's discussion of the Eight Pillars of Caste - Purity versus Pollution. The upper caste does not ever want to touch anything from the castes beneath. In 1951 in Youngstown, Ohio, Al Bright, a little league baseball player was forced to sit outside a swimming pool while watching his other teammates frolic and revel in their championship victory. When one of the coaches finally convinced the life guards that Al should be at least allowed a few minutes in the pool, he was put on a float and never allowed to touch the water. 

I was so privileged to hear Wilkerson speak as a part of the Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures Ten Evenings series. Her articulate examination of caste and her emotional discussion of it was inspirational. It was heightened when the son of Al Bright introduced himself to her and the audience. 

This book deserves a second and third read as we try to come to an understanding that it is humanity and an appreciation that we are all in this together as the only way to escape the hate and derision that a caste system fosters. It should be required reading for all.                                                     

Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar

What began somewhat as a confusing read, finished as a most thought provoking and intellectually stimulating adventure. Although Homeland Elegies clearly states that it is a novel, what was perplexing was that the narrator shared the name with the author, as well as many biographical similarities. Was it fact or was it fiction?

Born to Pakistani parents both Akhtar the narrator and the author share much of the same up bringing. Both parents (not their real names in the novel) were esteemed physicians and both settled in the suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In the novel, Akhtar's father, Sikander, was summoned to be the personal cardiologist for Donald Trump and is flown in to NYC when Trump experiences some heart-related symptoms of ill health. This backdrop provides Akhtar, the novelist, a spring board on which to launch his disdain for the former president. 

Told in a series of often fragmented chapters that often are most like essays, memoirs, or narrative prose, the reader gains insight into the life of a young man who is trying to find his place as an American, after the attacks on 9/11. Akhtar the narrator recounts what it is like to be Muslim in this country as well as American when he returns for a brief time to Pakistan. He is educated in the world of capitalism by another Muslim, Riaz Rind, a hedge fund manager who takes him under his wing. His mother, Fatima,  longs to return to her homeland and pines for that time and regretting that she did not marry a medical school classmate.  The contrast between his parents' views of life in America set an underlying tone for the novel. Akhtar recounts the days after 9/11 where he wore a cross around his neck to squelch thoughts that he was Un-American. He seeks an identity for himself that must bridge both aspects of his being.

Akhtar, the writer's, message becomes clear as he addresses the racism and anti-immigrant feelings that are pervasive in those days and years after the terrorist attacks on the United States. He contends that the hopes that the working class once dared dream were dashed by the failure of capitalism and accrual of debt. It is this state that contributes to such systemic racism. 

In one of the most erudite and informed lectures delivered by authors of the Ten Evenings seried, Akhtar explained many of the nuances of the writing of the book and his view of the United States today. His comparison of the demise of the Roman Empire to the state of our country was startling. Perhaps one of the most forceful quotes of the lecture that resonates today was one from the novel:  

“The established majority takes its "we" image from a minority of its best and shapes a "they" image of the despised outsiders from a minority of their worst.” 

A powerful and mind-stretching read.  

 

 

The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris

Our January selection for the Gables Book Club provided one of the best reads in the last few years. It was an Oprah Book Club read as well as appearing on President Obama's Summer List. Set in Old Ox, Georgia at the end of the Civil War, the novel seems timeless in its discourse on racial, social, and familial relationships. It is a remarkable piece of writing from a young (30 years) writer, who seems to have a firm grasp of what is involved in all those relationships.

The novel opens as George Walker learns that his son, Caleb, was killed during the Civil War. He struggles with that fact as well as how he can possibly tell his wife, Isabelle the news. Walker is a landowner with some degree of wealth, who has decided to use his land to grow peanuts. While surveying the land he meets two black men who have recently been freed from slavery of a neighbor, Ted Morton. Prentiss speaks for his brother, Landry, who is mute and show evidence of a broken jaw. Walker offers them a job working for him and the three become connected as they clear land and ready the acreage for peanut planting. 

In a surprise for all, Caleb appears, belying the report of his death. He recounts his travels back home from the war and relates that August Webler has also returned. Caleb also alludes to the relationship that he and August had before the war. This relationship continues and provokes an insidious act of violence when their sexual tryst is observed and further the abrupt escape of Prentiss and Caleb from the town. 

Nathan Harris' character development in this novel is remarkable in that they reflect the societal history of the time and place. George and Isabelle are a hard-working couple whose values transcend the typical southern aristocratic snobbery and prejudice, not only against the Negroes, but also the white people in the town. Neighbors Morton, Webler, and Sheriff Hackstedde are those prejudicial men who cannot accept that the slaves have been freed and are able to decide for themselves how to live their lives out of slavery. Prentiss and Landry want to further their station in life and to get to that time when they are self-sufficient and can maybe at some time be reunited with their mother. Caleb struggles with his sexuality, but acts morally when that relationship is put to the test. Two minor characters, Mildred, Isabelle's friend, and Clementine, a prostitute, provide a mirror into the main characters via their interactions with them.

There is so much to absorb and reflect upon in this novel. At times it is haunting, but at those same times so disturbing to think that many of the actions and reactions in that time period are not much different than what we are experiencing in 2022, over 150 years later. Definitely a must read and even re-read. 
 

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu

In a very creative way, Charles Yu presents a very disturbing picture of the life of Asian Americans in the United States. This was an October feature of the Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures Ten Evenings. Written as a screenplay, the novel focuses on the life of Willis Wu, cast as Generic Asian Guy. It is told in 7 Acts and culminates in a dramatic court room scene. 

Willis Wu's ambition is rise to the role of Kung Fu Guy,  the best role to which an Asian male can aspire. He lands a role on a TV detective series, Black and White (Yu in his lecture likens it to Law and Order) where helps a decidedly racist detective, Turner, and pretty white detective, Green, investigate the disappearance of Older Brother. Willis proves to be invaluable in the search and leads them to the whereabouts of the criminal, during which time Willis is shot and killed. In TV protocol, because he died on screen, Willis must wait out 45 days before appearing in another show.

 In the novel, this provides a means for Yu to show what Wu's real life is like. His aging father has a PhD and is relegated to work at the Oriental Palace, the ground floor of the apartment his family occupies. His mother, is also educated and works evenings at the restaurant. There are also very illuminating listings of the immigration laws that governed the Chinese arrivals into the United States. Willis also falls in love with Karen, a mixed race beautiful woman, who has set her sights on getting herself out of Chinatown. They hastily get married because Karen finds out that she is pregnant. 

In a not so subtle turn of events, the novel reaches its climax in a courtroom with Wu on trial. Through his lawyer's arguments, Yu presents his viewpoint that Chinese-Americans will always be considered foreigners no matter how long or through how many generations they reside in the United States. This is so atrociously and disturbingly true as we have witnessed so many attacks on Asians during the pandemic.  

To be sure, Interior Chinatown also provides some humor and some poignant scenes. Often these are in conjunction with each other  - why else would an elderly Old Asian Man be singing karaoke? The novel explores complex and emotional issues, while providing an entertaining read. It's hard to excel at both and Charles Yu does that.

  

 

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

The Vanishing Half  has been critically acclaimed in many publications and on social media. I would concur that it is deserving of the accolades. 

The novel concerns the life of twins Desiree and Stella Vignes, who live in a small town, Mallard, Louisiana. The town was founded as a place for light skinned Negroes to settle. However, it is a place that still experiences violent racial divisions. When the twins were very young, their father was murdered by a white mob, which leaves their mother, Adele, left to raise the girls. Pulled out of school to help with the household expenses, the girls decide to run away from home in 1954. when they are sixteen. After a brief period of living together their paths diverge and the separation lasts for over twenty years. The paths that their lives take are also divergent. Desiree marries a dark skinned black man and has a daughter, Jude, who is also very dark. Stella uses her light skin as a way to pass, marries her white boss, Blake Sanders,  and also has a blue eyed blonde daughter, Kennedy. 

After Desiree can take the abuse doled out from her husband in 1968 she returns to Mallard with Jude and go to live with her mother. Her intention is that it is temporary, but leaving just doesn't work out. She stays to take care of her mother, who begins to show signs of Alzheimers, meets a male companion, Early, and raises Jude there. Jude decides that she wants to go to school at UCLA where she meets Reese, a transgendered male. Stella moves to Los Angeles and  raises Kennedy there with a silver spoon in her mouth. Their subdivision must deal with the racial tensions of integration when a black family moves in across the street from the Sanders. Stella lives in fear that she will be found out and she tries to shield Kennedy from the family.

The reader has a distinct feeling that the paths of these two sisters and the cousins will cross somewhere and sometime during the pages that follow. This increases the tension in the novel and makes the book a page turner. Despite some fast forwarding and flashbacks, the book is an easy read, but an uneasy one at the same time. It is a unsettling examination of race relations, stereotyping of individuals, and the effects that lies have upon the human condition. At every turn prejudice screams out from the pages, whether it is the rich vs. poor, white vs. black, or straight vs. the LGBTA+ world. In the end, familial ties are underscored and the idea of going home emphasized. Bennett is a gifted storyteller and the ending of the book leaves a quiet understanding those themes.