Harlem - 1,001 Books: A Library of America

 Harlem - 1,001 Novels: 

A Library of America

1.  The Street (1946) - Ann Petry

2.   Invisible Man (1955) - Ralph Ellison

3.  Passing (1929) - Nella Larsen

4.  Home to Harlem (1928) - Claude McKay

5.  If Beale Street Could Talk (1974) - James Baldwin

6.  Big Girl (2022) by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan

7.  Ruby (1976) by Rosa Guy

8.  Stories From the Tenants Downstairs (2022) - Sidik Fofana

9.  Bodega Dreams (2000) - Ernesto Quinonez

10.  The Ballad of Black Tom (2016) by Victor LaValle

11.  Daddy Was A Number Runner (1970) - Louise Merriweather

12.  Hoops (1981) - Walter Dean Myers

13.  Cool World (1959) - Warren Miller

14.  A Hero Ain't Nothin But A Sandwich (1973) - Alice Childress

  Harlem was my favorite sub-chapter thus far in the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America list.  The top eight titles on that list of 14 are all really worth reading for any student of American literature.  This is also the first substantial body of non-white authors in all the states so far- that's all of New England and now New York.  I wouldn't insert my number one pick from the Bronx (Charming Billy by Alice McDermott) into a combined list above the five slot here.  There wasn't any point in this section where I felt like the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America was a waste of time, as has been the case at some points when I've been slogging through a second or third tier work of detective fiction set in upstate New York or rural New England.   Editor Susan Straight also included her first work of genre-science fiction/fantasy after snubbing H.P. Lovecraft in New England.  Her pick, The Ballad of Black Tom, was curious  but an interesting departure from the rest of the list.

   There was a greater sense of history in Harlem than the Bronx- writers of the Harlem Renaissance helped in that department, but the more recent books were interesting as well. All in all the strongest sub chapter yet. 

The Bronx: 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

 The Bronx - 1,001 Novels:

A Library of America

1. Charming Billy (1998) by Alice McDermott

2. How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent (1991) - Julia Alvarez

3.  Don't Erase Me (1997) by Carolyn Ferrell

4. The Bait (1968) - Dorothy Uhnak

5.  Spidertown (1996) - Abraham Rodriguez Jr.

6. The Catfish Man: A Conjured Life (1980) by Jerome Charyn

7.  The Blackboard Jungle (1954) by Evan Hunter

   Socioeconomic distress is the name of the game in the seven novels in The Bronx from 1,001 Novels: A Library of America.  There is also a specific focus on the years between 1950 and 1990- that basically handles all seven titles.  I was glad to finally read an Alice McDermott book- never would have without the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America project to push me.  I also enjoyed reading my first Julia Alvarez, I now understand her significance as an author within the world of American Lit.  Lowlights were those bottom three books- the Audiobook of The Blackboard Jungle was a huge mistake- 13 scarring hours that I'll never retrieve. 

  I'm not entirely surprised at the absence of any books set in the 19th century- like- at all- but I suppose The Bronx wasn't really a thing until the 20th century?   I don't know and none of these books made me care. 

Passing (1929) by Nella Larsen

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

Passing (1929)

by Nella Larsen

Harlem,  New York City

New York: 50/105

Harlem:  14/14

     OK! Done with the Harlem chapter of 1,001 Novels: A Library of America and done with the Bronx/Harlem subgrouping from New York, i.e. the black and brown part of New York City.  Loved the Harlem books, but the Bronx titles were a bummer.  Passing is last up because I thought I had already read this book but couldn't find any record of it.  I ended up checking out the Netflix movie associated Audiobook from the library because it's only four hours long and listened to it during a run.  Passing really seems like more of a novella but it's gone firmly canon- it was on the Atlantic Great American Novel list from last month.

     After listening to the Audiobook I'm still not sure whether I've read it before or not- parts seemed familiar, but I did not remember the ending, and I feel like I would have remembered the ending if I actually had read the book.  The craziest part of this book is that it's about these two friends, both light skinned African American women from Chicago.  One "Passes" and marries a white man, who is also a virulent anti-black racist, the other marries a black Doctor.  They both end up in New York, but the book begins with the black friend recounting a meeting with the passing friend's husband, who calls his wife the n-word as a term of affection because "she gets darker every year."   It's wild. I'm going to go watch the 2021 Netflix movie just to see how they handle it in the movie.

A Hero Ain't Nothing But a Sandwich (1973) by Alice Childress

 Book Review

A Hero Ain't Nothing But a Sandwich (1973)

by Alice Childress

Harlem, New York

New York: 49/105

Harlem: 13/14

   A Hero Ain't Nothing But a Sandwich is a 1973 YA classic about a 13 year old Harlem boy addicted to Heroin.  Certainly it represents some kind of nadir for the depiction of addiction in YA fiction.  Speaking as someone who has been exposed to drugs in various capacities over most of my forty plus years, I found this character hard to imagine.  A thirteen year old who is shooting heroin.  It's insane.  And the whole tone of the book is so blase about it!  I mean, sure college students, heroin, of course, and maybe even high school age student, I mean, ok, it must have happened.  But a thirteen year old?  Why would a thirteen year old even want to do heroin in the first place- speaking as someone who was using drugs at that age- the whole idea of injecting oneself with a needle was abhorrent- still is!

  The tale is told from a kaleidoscope of perspectives but the main players are the junkie teen and his step dad.  There are also some interesting school teachers- one black, one white, who both provide a more complicated portrait of inner city school teachers in a few pages than the other books do in dozens.   The early 1970's were a real nadir for the social fabric in New York City.

The American Slave Coast: A History of the Slave Breeding Industry (2017) by Ned and Constance Sublette

 Book Review

The American Slave Coast: 

A History of the Slave Breeding Industry (2017)

 by Ned and Constance Sublette

  I listened to the 30 hour Audiobook of this title over the last several months- took me a few check outs from the library and then waiting in between check-outs to finish it.  I checked it out because I've been reading about early American capitalism- cued by a recent trip to the Fairmont Copley Plaza (Boston) where I mused over the genesis of American fortune over Espresso martinis in their absurdly rococo hotel lobby bar/restaurant.    "Where does the money come from?" I mused to myself.   

   It comes from the exploitation of natural resources- lumber, stone, later oil and coal.  It came from shipping, where America quickly established itself in the farthest ports as a neutral trading partner.  And, as this book amply demonstrates, it came from the production and sale of human beings, slaves.  Not just in the south, slave BREEDING was close to being a raison d'etre for the original rebellion and a key facet of what kept the union together after the Civil War. 

   I won't recount the argument in full, which is NOT that there was some kind of breeding farm system in place- the authors investigate that allegation and find nothing but a few mentions and letters.  Indeed, slave breeding was both casual and highly complex and integrated with American (and global capitalism) but the key to understanding the narrative here is that the US acted early to band the FOREIGN IMPORTATION of slaves at the behest of the Virginia political class (slave owners) who made money selling their excess bodies to the cotton growing regions in Mississippi and Louisiana.

  They were facilitated by a class of middle men who operated in the north- cotton factories, factors for cotton production and shippers as well as those who operated in the middle- Maryland and Washington DC were the site of "slave jails" where run away slaves (and occasionally kidnapped free men) were sent back to the south.

  The main thesis here is that slavery was not some outlier in America, but rather an economic activity that helped provide the economic basis for the rapid expansion of the American economy- all of it.

   

Solar Bones (2016) by Mike McCormack

 Boo Review

Solar Bones (2016)

by Mike McCormack

   Solar Bones written by Irish author Mike McCormack only contains a single sentence.  It does contain many paragraph breaks, but no periods.  It takes the form of a reminisce by Marcus Conway, who is (I learned from Wikipedia after finishing the book), a spirit who has returned to his kitchen table on All Souls Day.   Something that Wikipedia does not mention is that Conway likely died as a result of a global pandemic that claims his wife during the recollections of the book.   There are just hints of the impending apocalypse- his wife sweating and vomiting her way to death in the bedroom as Conway talks to his alarmist children in different parts of the world.

   McCormack won the 2016 Goldsmith's award for this book and he made the 2017 International Booker longlist, but again, the fact that is a formally challenging, modernist-technique influenced book really dampens the recommendation appeal.  Based on what I know, books like Solar Bones have a zero percent casual readership a month after the New York Times writes its rave review.  People just don't want to be really challenged in their reading comprehension by their literary fiction.  They don't seek it out.

What I'd Rather Not Think About (2024) by Jente Posthuma

 Book Review

What I'd Rather Not Think About (2024)

by Jente Posthuma

Translated by Sarah Timmer Harvey

   The Dutch have been doing all right in the Booker International Prize this past decade. Lucas Rijneveld won back in 2020 for The Discomfort of Evening which was... dark.   Now we've got another Dutch author on this years longlist- I realize by the time this post publishes we will know about the short list, but I'm writing this before that list is announced.  What I'd Rather Not Think About is a work about a pair of fraternal twins- "One" is the older twin, a gay man.  "Two" is the younger, and the narrator, a cis, straight woman. 

   Basically, One commits suicide by riding his bike directly into a canal and drowning (he leaves a note so we know it's suicide).  Such a Dutch way to kill yourself!  Two spends the rest of the book recounting her memories and trying to make sense of what, even by the standards of literary suicide, seems like a random act of self-violence.  Despite the recounting of the off-hand type of comments everyone makes at one point or another ("I wish I was dead." level stuff), there is nothing in the rest of What I'd Rather Not Think About that explains this central act- viewed, rightfully, as an act of abandonment and betrayal, by the narrator.

  Despite the dark subject matter, What I'd Rather Not Think About is a breezy read, easily tackled in an afternoon.  Doesn't seem like a Booker International Shortlist title to me.

And Now You Can Go (1993) by Vendela Vida

 1,001 Novels:  A Library of America

And Now You Can Go (1993)

by Vendela Vida

Riverside Park, Manhattan New York

New York: 48/105

Manhattan: 6/34

This debut novel by the woman who married Dave Eggers (and co-founded The Believer), didn't do much for me.  Also, I question the placement in Riverside Park- where the narrator is mugged(?) at the beginning of the book by one of those criminals who only appears in the pages of literary fiction- yes, he points a gun at her, but he also cries and seems to be crying out for human contact.  Oh, the whimsy of authors of literary fiction.

This event happens in the first five pages of the book, after that Ellis- the 21 year old graduate student- spends the following 200 odd pages not getting over it.  And Now You Can Go was one of those novels that illustrates my complaints about much of American literary fiction- a young character, more or less privileged, who suffers a mild trauma and then absolutely can not get over it for the rest of the book.  It also embodies a frequent trope of American literary fiction, which is a whole cast of characters who behave like they've never worked a day in their life and can't actually understand how that happens.

  Getting back to the placement of this book in New York City- much of it takes places in San Francisco and the Philippines. Vida, the author, is a Bay Area gal through and through. A puzzling choice for such a rich geographic area for literature.

Daddy Was a Number Runner (1970) by Louise Merriweather

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

Daddy Was a Number Runner (1970)

by Louis Merriweather

Harlem, New York City

New York: 47/105

Harlem: 12/14

   Daddy Was a Number Runner is another classic from the Harlem canon- the Audiobook wasn't published until 2022, so make that a bit of an underground classic.  It came complete with a scholarly afternote that placed the book in context and mentioned most of the other titles and authors that Susan Straight picked for this portion of the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America list.   I've been really satisfied with her Harlem picks- it's been a who's who of Harlem lit and I've been surprised at how few of these books I've read.  This book is another bleak slice of life novel written from the perspective of Francine Coffin, a twelve year old girl living with her Mom, Dad and two older brothers in Harlem during the depression.   

   The Depression-era timeline is given as the reason for the father being unable to find work, forcing him into a job as a "numbers-runner" an early 20th century predecessor of the state lottery that was run by the mob... Dutch Schulz, to be exact.  A numbers runner was the person who collected the bets and money and ferried both to the mobsters who ran the game.  In this book, gambling is portrayed as pernicious a vice as drugs would be later- Francine's father not only works as a numbers runner, he spends all of this money and more on the game, hoping for "the big hit."

  Francine meanwhile has to dodge the day-to-day reality of being constantly molested by white men who come to Harlem for that purpose, and the wives of Jewish shopkeepers who want to exploit her for her labor by making her clean the outside of a window on the 10th floor of an apartment building.  White people, as represented by Jewish people, do not come off well in this book.

   It has been many Harlem Audiobooks.  Taxing! I've implemented a new guidelines which is no more 12/13 hour Audiobooks- 10 hours is the limit going forward.  I'd rather just read the book if the Audiobook is over 10 hours, unless it is super long, in which case I'd rather listen to the Audiobook (say over 30 hours). 

The Swan Book (2018) by Alexis Wright

 Book Review

The Swan Book (2018)

by Alexis Wright

  I was pretty impressed by Praiseworthy, by indigenous-Australian author Alexis Wright, and published this year.  I didn't love reading Praiseworthy, but I was still impressed because how often does a 672 page stream-of-consciouses'(multiple viewpoints) by an indigenous-Australian writer get picked up for American publication.  Just about never I'm thinking.  The ambition of an author writing in the 2020's who has the fucking balls to write a 670 page novel and hand it in.   It's just impressive and worthy of note.

  I've adopted a specific reading technique for technically challenging/lengthy works of literary fiction:  I don't really start paying close attention until I'm at least 10% through the Ebook/audiobook or 100 pages into a physical copy.  Maybe I don't entirely get what's going on, but with longer books that is often because there is some kind of preamble that doesn't tie to the main text and with technically challenging titles it's the lack of guideposts that create the confusion, so paying more attention isn't necessarily the answer. 

   That was an approach that really paid off in Praiseworthy and I also put it to use for The Swan Book, which is similarly challenging but not as long and is also about climate dystopia and child marriage.  I didn't get too upset about the fact that I had little idea what was going on for most of the book. There is a guy- and he is indigenous, but he is also like, the head of the Australian government, and there is like, a reservation-prison-nation for the indigenous people in Australia and there is a girl who lives in a polluted lake, and he goes there- the politician- and basically kidnaps her and forces her to marry him and then they go on a road trip into the Australian outback, and he destroys the indigenous reservation-prison-nation for some reason and then he gets murdered and his child-bride has to figure out what to do with herself. 

  At some point you get enough context so that the beginning of the book makes sense. Ive a great admiration for novels that use the complicating techniques of literary modernism in contemporary literary fiction but in the context of a blog its hard to recommend to a member of the general reading public, "Yeah, go out and read this book that hardly makes sense." Of course, it DOES make sense, but you have to read the whole book to figure it all out.