Passing by Patricia Jones

[tanyahp.livejournal.com]

I recently read Passing by Patricia Jones.

Having read Nella Larson's Passing, I was expecting something completely different, specifically a story about someone passing for white. Not so! This novel, featuring an African American family from the upper echelons of Baltimore, deals primarily with class and "passing" has to do with denying one's roots. Jones discusses the split in the African American community of those who are wealthy and light from those who are "too dark" or "too ghetto". The novel has a somewhat happy ending.

Dokebi Bride # 1, by Marley

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

A promising beginning to a manhwa (Korean comic) about an old woman who’s a village shaman (their translation – a note says the Korean word is mudang), her young grand-daughter who’s inherited her skills, and a whole lot of spirits.

The narrative flashes back and forth in time, showing episodes from the lives of grand-daughter Sunbi and grandmother Okboon, and how their lives are intertwined with the spirit world and the declining health of their little fishing village. I’m being coy about the plot because though the outline of the story is familiar, the details are better left unspoiled.

The expressive art moves easily from spectacular spirit visitations to smaller moments of pathos, humor, or spookiness. The plot is intriguing, the spirits all have distinct personalities, and both Sunbi and Okboon are refreshingly strong-willed women. Though there’s a few male human characters, the main characters all seem to be female. Given the title and that most of the spirits seem to be male, I am hoping for a female-centric narrative with the possibility of human-spirit romance.

Though the translation is clunky, I liked this quite a bit overall and will continue reading the series.

See it on Amazon: Dokebi Bride Vol. 1 (v. 1)

African American nonfiction: Obama, Millner, Raybon, and Best African American Essays

[sophinisba]

20. Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
This is one of the most reviewed books at the comm and I don't have much more to say, just that I was really impressed by his writing. One of the quotes on the back cover said the memoir had the pacing of a novel and I found that to be true. I loved the way he would keep the story moving and even as he was talking about really complicated issues, and the way he would accomplish several things at once, like the scene where he goes into a barbershop in Chicago and is describing the scene, and his own place among the other men there, and at the same time recording the conversation and the black communities feeling about the election of Harold Washington. I recommend this book very highly.

21. Caille Millner, The Golden Road: Notes on My Gentrification
This is another memoir by a middle-class black writer who also grew up in an area with very few other black people, in this case San Jose, California, where her family started out in Chicano neighborhoods and later moved to the white suburbs. Millner then went to college at Harvard and afterward spent time in South Africa. I really liked it at first! I enjoyed Milner's writing style and her way of selecting telling details, like in this passage from the first chapter where she talks about going to church with her brother and walking past beggars on the front steps: ( Read more... )

22. Patricia Raybon, My First White Friend: Confessions on Race, Love, and Forgiveness
This was the book I liked least of the four I'm reviewing here, though I did learn things and am glad I read it. Raybon is from an older generation than Obama or Millner and because of that I found that her experience was a little more familiar from other things I'd read, and yet slightly less relevant for understanding race relations as they are today. ( Read more... )

23. Best African American Essays: 2009
Gerald Early, series editor, and Debra J. Dickerson, guest editor
This is the first volume of what's intended to be an annual series, along the lines of Best American Essays, although it's put out by a different publisher. The companion volume is Best African American Fiction: 2009. ( Read more... )