BHM Reflection and Recommendations
It’s leap year, which means Black History Month gets an extra day… and, still it’s the shortest month of the year. On this extra day, I wonder how long will it be before inequitable systems are righted and Black history is fully integrated with honor and respect into the instruction of American history. I spent much of the day thinking about the amazing literature written by Black authors. Here is a small sample of some of my favorites:
Behold the Dreamers is a debut novel, published in 2016, that made me question my facts. Was this novel - witty and full of great characters, heart, and heartbreak - truly Imbolo Mbue’s first novel??? She writes like an author with many under her belt! The novel opens as Cameroonian immigrant Jende Jonga prepares for his first job interview. A senior executive at Lehman Brothers hires him as his chauffeur and soon after, his boss’ wife hires his wife. It is 2007, less than a year after they left Cameroon and already their future appears rosy. Their days catapult towards 2008 and the financial ruin that will upend their lives. Mbue deftly creates complex characters navigating complicated circumstances, characters who stuck with me long after the book was over. One of my all-time favorites.
If you are a nonfiction reader, a fan of Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy, or someone curious about human psychology, add The Sun Does Shine: How I Found My Life and Freedom on Death Row to your reading pile. Anthony Ray Hinton writes about the 30 years he spent on death row in Alabama for a crime he did not commit. A profoundly hopeful book, it tells of the agonizing darkness exacted by a system set up to work against Black and brown people while also reminding readers of the strength of the human spirit.
James McBride’s latest novel, Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, like his memoir The Color of Water, explores the overlapping experiences of Blacks, Jews, and other immigrants, and it reads a bit like an amusement park experience: filled with twists and turns, outsized characters, and moments of absurdity. Though the story begins as a 1970s murder mystery, it swings quickly back to the 1920s and 1930s. McBride brings to life Chicken Hill, a Pottstown, PA neighborhood inhabited by Blacks and European immigrants, by introducing character after character. Among others, there is Chona, a headstrong, big hearted American-born Jew who runs a grocery, Moshe, her Romanian-born dance-hall owning husband, and Dodo, the orphaned deaf Black boy Chona agrees to help hide from state officials. Those are just three of his cast of characters; the list continues with Monkey Pants, Son of Man, Doc Roberts, and Nate, to name a few.
McBride weaves a tapestry with the numerous characters, and if you find yourself getting bogged down, give it time! Soak in the personalities that he brings to life; you will surely find yourself on Chicken Hill with them. Life there is messy and loud. There is ignorance. There are horrors. And, also, there is goodness. Such profound goodness. McBride weaves it all together, and you will feel the love that can and does exist even amidst the complexities of racial division, prejudice, and misunderstanding. Heaven & Earth Grocery Story is a rollicking ride well worth the price of admission!
Do you love American crime fiction? Check out All the Sinners Bleed by SA Cosby. A year after a former FBI agent returns to his rural Virginia hometown to become its first black sheriff, a former student enters the local high school, shoots, and kills the most popular teacher. Interaction between the town’s white and black citizens was uneasy prior to the murder; tension escalates as the teacher was a white man and the shooter - who is also shot and killed - a black man. An expert at crafting tension, Cosby had me holding my breath as the sheriff tries to get to the bottom of the crime. What he discovers is unnerving to everyone. All the Sinners Bleed gallops and is Cosby’s best yet.
Twelve years ago, Michelle Norris (of NPR and The Race Card Project fame) sought responses to one short prompt: “Race. Your Thoughts. Six Words. Please Send.” She has compiled the responses into a powerful new book, Our Hidden Conversations: What Americans Really Think About Race and Identity. While Norris doesn’t share them all - she has received over 500,000 from people across the country and of all demographics - the reader gets a full taste of the spectrum of responses. Quick to read they are packed with depth, emotion, and honesty. She also shares pictures and longer responses. Norris’ book provides a gateway for the oft wrought conversations about race and identity. I can’t imagine a better book to read and discuss with friends, family, and colleagues.
Which one of your favorites would you add to the list?
