Skim; Shortcomings; Still I Rise

[rootedinsong.livejournal.com]

10. Skim, by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki

Somehow, this book didn't resonate with me as much as it did with others here. I'm not sure why; it is beautifully done, and it seems like the kind of book that I would love. But it didn't quite do it for me.

11. Shortcomings, by Adrian Tomine

I had mixed reactions to this one. On the one hand, a lot of things about the characters made me twitch. On the other hand, it examines honestly the issues of race and attraction and what contemporary American culture conditions us to find attractive. And there are a lot of queer women, portrayed for the most part realistically. It's just... eh.

One thing that I found amusing: the protagonist tears into his ex-girlfriend for dating a white man, and she protests that he's actually half Jewish and half Native American. I'm a quarter each, and have never encountered that combination in fiction before (or anywhere, really).

12. Still I Rise: A Graphic History of African Americans, by Ronald Laird and Taneshia Nash Laird, illustrated by Elihu "Adofo" Bey

This book traces the history of African-Americans from the early 17th century to the election of Barack Obama. It is absolutely packed with information: the authors try to squeeze four centuries of history into 217 pages, so it feels like information is whizzing by at a breakneck speed.

This is the second edition; the first edition was published in 1997. The second edition includes 13 more pages about history from 1997 to now. (There's an obvious break between the original pages and the added pages: the handwriting in the new pages looks different, the lines are thinner, and the characters look subtly different. It looks a little less carefully planned.)

The history is told by two narrators, a man and a woman - who sometimes have different opinions about the events they're recounting. I think doing it this way, as opposed to attempting to tell the history "objectively," allowed the narrative to be deeply centered in the black point(s) of view: they could talk about "us," make value judgments, show the unity and diversity of opinion. For those who are used to the dominant white-centered narrative of US history, I think this would represent a radical recentering; for me, it was interesting because I'm used to Native American critique and recentering of that narrative, so this recentering was alike-but-different. It felt to me like some parts were missing - but it also felt like it included other parts that I was missing.

All in all, I recommend it. But look elsewhere for in-depth treatment of the events depicted.


Edit: I keep breaking the tagging system...

'Jupiter Williams' by S.I. Martin

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

'Jupiter Williams' is a young adult novel, set in the 18th century, and based around the character of Jupiter Williams, a young African boy at a boarding school for young Africans in Clapham. His family are important people in Sierra Leone, and he and his brother have been sent over to England to be educated. However, whilst they are there, his younger brother goes missing and so Jupiter has to go and find him.

This book is a wonderful exploration of London in the 18th century, and specifically of Black London in this time period, which is a subject that is horribly under-explored. It's also, I thought, a really interesting look at the intersection of class and race. Jupiter runs into horrible numbers of problems because of his race - both Black and White folk alike assume he is a runaway slave, he is at constant risk of being kidnapped for the slave trade - but equally it's made clear that he starts off the novel as a pretty privileged and sheltered young man in some ways, because of the wealth and status of his family, and he does treat other people quite badly because of that in some ways.

I started off not really expecting to like this book - it's a boys school story, which I've not been that fond of in the past, and all the main characters are male which is also often a turn off for me. However, I actually found myself really getting drawn in, and wound up reading the whole book in a single sitting. I liked Jupiter as a character hugely. He is flawed, he can be stupid, he's cocky and blind to so much, but he's also so human and so teenage. I found myself wanting things to work out for him, and really hated the way the world kept throwing more and more crap at it, most of which was solely because he was an African boy alone in London.

The only objection I had to this book was the ending. I'm hoping there's a sequel out there, because the ending did leave so much hanging, but I've a horrible feeling that there isn't, and that's a shame.