Song of Solomon

 I read Toni Morrison's novel, Song of Solomon many years ago. When my son-in-law's nephew moved to Texas, he insisted I take a load of Chris' books. I did not want them. I donated to my building's library keeping two. Finally got around to reading his copy of Song of Solomon. 

I remember loving it first read. NOt so much this go round.  I could not say I would have known this quote came from this novel:

“How come it can’t fly no better than a chicken?’ Milkman asked.

Too much tail. All that jewelry weighs it down. Like vanity. Can’t nobody fly with all that [stuff]. Wanna fly, you got to give up the [stuff] that weighs you down.’

A quote from somewhere:She wanted to fly but got used to taking the train instead." Probably first read I was still getting rid of "jewelry" because I wanted to fly. I literally got used to taking the train instead of my preferred aero plane. Now-a-days "just trying to make it till coronary time." Or trying to get rid of stuff that weighs me down before coronary time. 

Okay, I am supposed to be talking about a book now. Sigh. 

I still run across a quote about Milkman: "If you surrender yourself to the air, you could ride it." Although my minds says "fly," not "ride." That too had meaning to me way back when.

"Lies should be simple like the truth. Excessive detail was excessive.

(propaganda: keep the lie simple, repeat it often, it becomes truth) 

*"It's about whether your children can make other children."

"Wasn't nothing to do. White folks didn't care, colored  folks didn't dare".

I found the story about Milkman and Hagar a bit boring.Pages describing her shopping trip. I guess that was to set a mood? Like Hurry Sundown, see what tomorrow will bring, describing a pregnant woman sweating, canning, only to lose it all, her work in vain. What I found interesting was the racism. Emmett Till mentioned. The barber shop guys judging the boy, bringing his northern way down here kind of thinking. Almost as if they thought Till deserved what was done to him.

*Cops killing black teen boys doing so to prevent them from procreating? I can not find the Malcolm X quote, something like, "for every one of us you take, we will take two of you." He explained it as being the way to talk to Mississippi people. If you turn the other cheek, you will appear to be weak.

They took away Till's chance to have children. George Zimmerman walks free after depriving right to life and children to Trayvon Martin.

Difference is, in today's world, "colored folks" dare. 

We Are Not LikeThem

 Book club discussion question: Riley tells Jen "It's a privilege to never think about race." 

How has privilege affected you life? How has the absence of privilege affected your life?  Discuss an event where you recognized that privileges affected the outcome. 

White privilege is a fairly new term. Maybe black families used the term for many years. 

A 2014 study found that three our of four white people have no nonwhite friends. Are you surprised by this statistic? How does where you grew up affect the friends you make into adulthood?

No the statistic does not surprise me. 

If you grew up in Jim Crow south or fly Confederate flags in 2022, chances are you would not find many black/white friendships. If you grew up in what I used to call "lily white Pocono Mountains" or nearby KKK territory, it is doubtful that you would have black/white friendships. 

I do know a man who grew up racist due to the absence of blacks in his California neighborhood. He changed when he joined the Marines and got to know blacks/browns on a personal level. I would not say they were friends so much as combat buddies. In later years he was considered an honorary Puerto Rican, due to his sister-in-law marrying into a close knit Puerto Rican family. Even though he divorced he still maintains a long-distance relationship with the many Puerto Rican/Americans he associated with for many years. A few of them are black skinned!

I grew up in a northern integrated school. I did not have many close friends. In 7th grade a girl befriended me. Linda, Faye and Me was a story I wrote somewhere. The 3 homeroom class outcasts. We were not allowed to wear stockings, or makeup and wore undershirts not bras. I was quite shy. Every friend I have had in life, befriended me. Like Linda. She died shortly after COVID and I am sad that I never thought to ask her why she liked me.

I can relate to Jenn in that we three never talked about race. Well, Faye would share Chinese customs to us. In high school Linda was College Prep, I was Office Practice and we only waved when we passed in hallways. Years passed and Linda worked with my Mother. Linda still in or near our hometown, me in a different state. We corresponded by letters. Later, e-mails. Later still on Facebook.Way adult we now discussed race. Linda was never my "black friend," she was just Linda.

I liked her because she wrote me notes, made me laugh and showed me how to "paint" my fingernails with pencil. She gave me her phone number. When I called it was answered by one of those prayer phone lines. We laughed the next day and she confessed she did not have a telephone. She, her sister and mother lived in "the projects." She gave me her grandmother's phone number. She lived in an apartment upstairs, and Linda often spent time there. 

We not only did not talk about race we did not talk about our parents. What happened to her father/ Where did her mother work? My mom was SAHM at that time. My father was a Mason Contractor who owned his own business or worked with Union jobs when he did not have any of his own. I do not think we talked about boys or other preteen/teen subjects. She never came to my house. I would not have been allowed to take the bus to go to visit her.

Ironically she married a brother of one of my co-workers. He and I were sort of work friends. He did a pencil sketch of me. He was trying to teach me a super fast dance that I never mastered. I think we bonded due to both of us having a brother who was arrested, names in local newspaper and many siblings. Linda and her husband divorced. I think he wanted children and she could not get pregnant. 

We Are Not Like Them

 We Are Not Like Them is a contemporary novel co-written by Jo Piazza and Christine Pride. 

At novel's end author's conversation included these answers:

It's hard to have a friend of another race in America.

It was important to us that both Black women and white women be able to relate to our characters. 

We were aware that it risked lending itself to a good guy/bad guy dichotomy, we wanted to avoid that at all costs. 

...we had to be careful that our audience didn't "side" with any one woman over the other.

It was important to us that each character earned and deserved both sympathy and frustration in equal measure.

Sorry ladies, I did "side" with Riley. Jenn had blinders on, self-absorbed, self-centered, making demands on Riley. The only fault I saw with Riley, she did not tell Jenn that her boss forbid her to associate with her friend during the investigation. Jenn should have realized that Riley's job as a journalist could suffer through that association. Whine, "but I need you." "Whose side are you on?" Rather than understanding Riley's need for journalistic integrity. 

I dislike being considered white, but society puts that label upon me. My father was born in Italy. When his father brought him, to the U.S.A. the kids called his brother 'tar baby" due to his dark skin. The white classmates harassed my father which may be why the Negro students befriended him, teaching him English and so on.

My mother's family came from Germany; she was born in the U.S.A. If one traces my Italian heritage back far enough, you will find black Africans. There was a time when Italian and Irish immigrants were not considered white. I look at this Blogger screen ~ my skin is not white like the page. I have only known a few black people. Most Black people are shades of brown. 

I hate the labels. One race, the human race. 

We Are Not Like Them

 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5065135694

Goodreads Review: We Are Not Like Them

I wrote a comment on my  review. I just reread the prologue and the 2nd Chapter where Kevin tells his wife that they chased a suspect in car, then when the runner turned into an alley, they chased the suspect on foot. The boy Justin saw a star in the sky, thus I was correct in thinking this happened after dark.

What I missed or forgot was that the two cops arrived at the scene of the convenience store robbery, saw someone running and followed him. Later in the story people view a surveillance video camera of the alley where the boy was shot.Someone commented that the blur must have been the runner (suspect.) 

Page 185: Uncle Rod's giant RV towers over all of them. I have no idea what RV towers are. Oh, I see: Rod's giant RV, towers over... I wonder if I would have read it correctly if there had been that comma after RV. Or "Uncle Rod's giant RV sits in the yard. It towers over all the other cars (dirt, weeds, gravel?) 

page 166: When other people walk away from danger our men walk towards it. And we have their six.

Is six a typo,or some cop lingo I have never heard? 

page 203: so I guess tomorrow will be our last Christmas there house.

At their house? Or just last Christmas there? 

There were a few other times that I had to stop reading trying to make sense of a sentence, but I did not make note of all of them. 

Quotes from Where The Crawdad Sings

 "A lesser male needs to shour to be heard." 

(I learned that others become afraid of people yelling at them. Early on an abusive person yells to frighten and take control. That bully, abuser, or narcissistic needs control to feel powerful. Or is actually a lesser male.They can not win against an alpha male, thus seek out smaller, weaker prey.)

"...life also taught her that ancient genes for survival still persist in undesirable forms among the twists and turns of man's genetic codes." 

(Many readers who commented on the book at Good Reads, thought Kya was not capable of doing what she did to survive future rape/abuse. Yet told readers she could do what it took to survive.)

"Some behaviors that seem harsh to us now ensured the survival of early man in whatever swamp he was in at the time. Without them, we wouldn't be here. We still store those instincts in our genes and they express themselves when certain circumstances prevail. Some parts of us will always be what we wrem what we had to be to survive---way back yonder. "

Kya whispered an Amanda Hamilton verse:

"never underrate

the heart,

Capable of deeds,

  The mind cannot conceive.

How else can you explain

The path I have taken.

Thay you have taken.

The long way through the pass."

(I can not figure out how to get rid of double spaces between lines of poem, so...)

 

Where The Crawdads Sing

 Novel by author Delia Owens, Where The Crawdads Sing.

I enjoyed reading the story although I got bored a few times. Kya was abandoned by her mother when she was six-years-old. Her only remaining sibling fled soon after leaving her alone with her drunken, abusive father who was often gone for days at a time.

Thus begins the tale of Kya learning to survive in the marsh where their shack is located. Some of it seems improbable for a child to do things. Was she tall enough to use the old fashion wood stove to cook? Strong enough to pump well water? Little things. She sat in the outhouse once when father was on a rampage, but little mention of her daily treks. I never thought about children growing up using an outhouse. Seems there would be a danger of small children falling into the hole while trying to mount it. 

The novel spans her years with nary a mention of toothaches. Perhaps she had perfect teeth due to not eating sweets? 

SPOILER ALERT: If you plan to read the book, do not read the rest of this post.

The ending seemed improbable. It would have been nice if the author had added a chapter with Kya recalling how she felt riding the bus to Greenville; how she knew to wipe away possible evidence, such as fingerprints, how she felt when the bus was delayed 45 minutes. Did she panic, thinking her well-laid out plan was doomed to fail?

Nora Ephron

 At the end of I Remember Nothing: And Other Reflections Kindle edition, there is an Acknowledgement that tells of author, Nora Ephron's death on June 26, 2012. She was 69 when she wrote this. I related to the chapter titled: The O Word. She wrote about losing 2 inches, gaining 10 pounds and not being able to lose even one pound. 

Yes, I lost 2 inches of height and gained 16 pounds. I work to lose 5 pounds only to gain 2 pounds. She talks about life feeling like a lottery. Living in a senior apartment complex, I visualize a huge roulette wheel wondering whose number will come up. 

Nora died from pneumonia brought on by acute myeloid leukemia. Leukemia, a blood disorder ~ an imbalance of white/red blood cells. Rather like my own mantle cell lymphoma ~ my cancer relating to lymph nodes, but affecting my white/red blood cells (due to chemo?) I was down to 80 pounds and wonder if Ms. Ephron lost weight due to her cancer. 

"If this is one of the last days of my life, am I doing exactly what I want to be doing?" She also wondered if she knew what she should be doing. She did not mention illness; as we advance in years we become more of death looming large in our future.

I  enjoyed the first chapter of the memoir. I mostly bored with the next chapters about becoming a journalist. It picked up again when she wrote about aging, technology, lists of 25 Things she could live without, and more. She also wondered if she knew what she should be doing. Me too. 

It was a good read, except for the name dropping of people whose names I did not recognize. I learned things I did not know about Nora, such as writing the screen play for two movies I enjoyed ~When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle. I would recommend the book for anyone who walks in a room and forgets what they wanted. Or searches in purse for keys, while holding the keys in her hands. 

I wonder if men have those senior moments.

When I Was a Slave

 When I Was a Slave are selected narratives from a WPA project. At the time, former slaves were 80+ years old. It is interesting how each person interviewed focused on different memories from their days held captive in the south as plantation slaves. Some focused on their living quarters, their work, their meals; others on their slave masters/mistresses. One slave recited exact amounts of items buried to prevent northern soldiers from stealing the valuables. 

However could anyone remember that the slave master's household had 3 silver salt and 3 silver pepper holders, 94 silver teaspoons and so on. Perhaps that slave had helped bury them or kept the inventory for the masters? I suppose if the owners had boxed sets of silverware, like my mother had, they would know how many of each utensil fit in the boxes.

Some slaves sang the virtues of their owners ~ they were well fed, well-dressed, decent housing. Others said the opposite. One man said that slaves who glorified their masters were lying. Hard to imagine a world where men felt justified in buying, selling, owning other people. The owners felt slaves were mere animals to be beat into submission. Sad and horrifying. 

***

Above is a copy of my Goodreads review of When I Was A Slave: Memoirs from the Slave Narrative Collection edited by Norman R. Yetman Reading this book is how I learned that the slave cabins had dirt floors.

I wondered, later, why none of the interviewed slaves mentioned Outhouses. Or did they dig holes, bury it, as modern day hunters are told to do? 

Embers On The Wind

Embers on the Wind was an Amazon Prime free Kindle First Read. I was close to quitting reading beyond the first chapter which made no sense. Glad I stuck it out. The novel got better or more interesting as I progressed. 

This was more of a hard read than a good read. The story shifts between time lines and characters, and ghosts. I am still not sure who Louis was, what happened to him or his relevance to the story. Too much jumping back and forth to easily follow the storyline.

One chapter seemed to be a verbatim repeat of an earlier chapter told from the perspective of a different character. Or maybe it was told be same character at a different time? Switching back and forth between 1800s and 2000s would be okay. What was confusing was shifting between 1850, 2019, 1839, 2018, 2015, 1989. (I made that up, but that is the gist of it.)

Author, Lisa Williamson Rosenberg, covers subjects including the Underground Railroad, interracial marriages, biracial children, ghosts and senaces. Imaginative, if confusing story.

***

Above is my Goodreads review of Embers on the Wind. When I write a Goodreads review I do not tell much about the story as the blurb does that. Plus some reviewers go into detail. Too much! And no Spoiler Alert!

Ladies in the present time want to stay at an Inn that was once a part of the Underground Railroad, as mentioned in previous post. The story was confusing, due to being unable to remember if I was reading about the original events happening to the Freedom Seekers, or a character relaying the story to another in recent time; or yet again, the very present time when ladies visit the Inn. 

Is the Sentence happening in, say, 2019, or did it happen earlier, then talked about later. Ha, hope that sentence is not confusing. It was quite an interesting story, if only it was not so hard to follow.

Slave Quarters

 https://www.yahoo.com/money/no-ones-renting-slave-quarters-011508599.html

Ironically, I recently read a fiction novel about ladies wanting to stay at a former Underground Railroad house turned Inn. They preferred to call runaway slaves or escaped slaves, "Freedom Seekers." Of course, slave owners were the ones who gave those escaping the truancy the names.

The fictional characters wanted to contact their ancestors' spirits, via seance or simply connecting by being there. In the story, there was a root cellar where people died due to a fire. Also a woman gave birth, in the house, killed the man trying to capture her to take her back to slave farm. She then killed herself.

Of course, the article says the cabins are former slave quarters. I would need to know more. The one or two room cabins mostly had dirt floors No electricity, no indoor plumbing. Some had fireplaces, for heat and cooking. Those slave quarters had to have some serious remodeling in order to be suitable for rentals. 

Who, in today's modern society would rent a shack for their vacation!

I do want to read more of the comments.

When They Were Boys

from my Good Reads review of When They Were Boys by Larry Kane. I gave it a 3 star rating based on Good Reads system (I liked it.) 

"I say to you, Larry, here in 1965, that the children of 2000 will be listening to the Beatles." Author, journalist, Larry Kane, traveled with the Beatles' "North American tour in 1964, 1965, and part of 1966." In case you missed that, Mr. Kane will repeat the info multiple times throughout his memoir: When They Were Boys: The True Story of the Beatles' Rise to the Top Skip the long introduction. If so inclined, read the introduction later, to refresh your memory. It will give you long summaries of everything you just read. Reading the book is a bit like listening to someone with Alzheimer's disease ~ too much repetition. At one point I thought I had accidentally scrolled back Kindle pages because I knew I already read "this." No, just more repeating of info. Chapters begin with quotes. The quotes are then repeated in the paragraphs. The story is told in Parts. Most Parts begin with a hard to decipher paragraph, describing events of the time period. "The prince walked down the steps," was meaningless to me. Was Kane trying to be cute or clever or sounding like he was under the influence when he wrote such drivel? Was he imitating someone else's style? Who knows. I enjoyed reading most of the book's stories and learned some things about the group I had not heard previously. "Gator Bowl football stadium Jacksonville Florida concert was to be segregated.  Paul said, 'Well , that's rubbish. Tell them we  are not going to player there if Negroes are seated separately." (1964) The others agreed and the stadium was integrated for the show.  Paul also said that "It's all stupid to me," about discrimination. I neglected to record who said they "would never be remembered as a dance band." I liked the Beatles when they first hit the scene because there songs had a good beat and were easy to dance to. I stopped liking them when they went what I thought "all psychedelic." May years later I came to appreciated the Beatles again.  I used to watch Philadelphia news with Larry Kane; did not know he toured and wrote about the Fab Four.  In the U.S. of A. we have Boomers. In Britain the post war population explosion was called the Bulge generation. I had to research winkle-picker and winkle-creeper shoe and Teddy Boy style of clothing.  I had to search videos of Rory Storm (Alan Caldwell,) The Chants (Ankrah) (not many of those), George Formby, and Lonnie Donegan.  I did know the song "When Your Chewing Gum Loses Its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight," but did not know the artist or recall ever seeing Lonnie perform all those years ago.  I wonder if the teens of 2022 listen to the Beatles. I doubt if my granddaughter (the one who likes reading) would be interested in When They Were Boys, but it would be a decent start to learning about the mop heads rise to fame.

The Color of Water

 Quote from The Color of Water:

"It took years before I began to accept the fact that the nebulous "white man's world" isn't as free as it looked....that all Jews were not like my grandfather, and that part of me is Jewish too."  

Perhaps the readers who accuse McBride of being anti-semitism saw something in the story that I missed. I did not come away having negative impressions of Hebrews anymore than I came away with negative impressions of blacks. 

The mother herself may have developed hatred for Jewish people due to her father's harsh treatment of her and also being shunned by her family. Even her beloved younger sister slammed the door on her face when she went to her for help after her husband died.

It was a different time. In today's world, there may be segments of the population that frown on interracial marriages, but is no longer illegal in the United States of America. Children of today are growing up in a world where interracial couples are shown on TV, commercials and movies. We also had our first black First Lady and biracial president. 

When Ruth McBride-Jordan was growing up, there were probably a lot more Hebrew's who looked down upon Negroes, than there are today. Especially living in that Jim Crow south. 

The Color of Water

 The Color of Water is A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother written by James McBride. I read a hardcover copy published in 1996. I already reviewed this on Good Reads, and will copy some of that review here later. I may have to edit it, as I had not finished reading it when I rat4ed/reviewed the memoir/autobiography.

The book is written in alternate chapters. One tells the story of Jame's childhood, growing up with a mother who denied being white, just light-skinned. Photographs in the book are very light covered over with gray, and hard to view. I would have preferred photos of the family included in the body of the book, not a few black and white, grayed over pages at start and end of the book.

Early on McBride tells readers his mother looks white, he does not look like her. Hence photos would be useful. Many biracial children, children of children of children born of slaves after rape by slave master, look more white than black. Carol Channing would be considered black by the "one-drop" rule. Lena Horne could have passed for white. 

Did his mother look like those two actresses or more like Marilyn Monroe? She had very dark eyes and dark hair. He did not know that she was Hebrew until he decided to write this book. Hebrews from the Middle East often have dark, kinky type curly hair. We learn, however, that his mother was born in Poland. I think of people from Poland as being very white. So perhaps, to young James, her skin color was that of a typical white person. 

The other chapters are his mother's narrative. He tape recorded his interviews with her after forcing her to tell him her family history. I enjoyed both stories, but found the mother's chapters hard to read due to be published in italics with smaller text. Even with my brightest light and reading glasses, I often was squinting. This is why it took me longer to read than was normal for me for a book of 223 pages ~ more if one reads the acknowledgements which I did. Mostly. The list of thank yous became too long to read all the unknown names.

Many who gave The Color of Water one start reviews at Good Reads slammed the author for being anti-semitic; using every negative stereotype of Jews as there are. I did not find that to be true. The only stereotype that comes quickly to mind is "cheap." So what if  her father was a tightwad or frugal, so are persons of all types, especially immigrants or others who grew up in poverty. It is his mother's recollection that her father was not free with his money.

If she described her aunts in a certain way, that is how she perceived them. It is also likely they were exactly as described. They sat Shiva on her after she married Jame's father. Orthodox Jews may still do that in today's world. Catholics used to be excommunicated. But I do not know if their families considered them dead. I do know many disowned their children for a variety of reasons. Including marrying outside of ethnicity. 

To be continued