Although I didn’t dislike this novel, I wasn’t enamored with it either. There was racism on both sides, but for what reason? The novel was a tangled story without any real direction. Black versus white is understandable, but the characters in this story seem to have a problem with each other, whether they were black, white, male or female. What is this novel about? After reading 425 pages, I’m still a little foggy on that note...what was the novel’s point? The author, Alan S. Kessler, seems to be a storyteller, but the story didn’t seem to have the same flow chapter to chapter. I do see the author’s talent (I understand that it’s not easy to write a novel), but he needs to write in a more orderly manner, instead of drifting back and forth between characters. And talking about characters...did we need this many to tell this story? I don’t think so. I’m a big time believer of five to six main characters per story. It makes for superior reading with a user-friendly understandability. With due respect to the author, overall I thought the story was slightly humdrum and written in a somewhat pedestrian fashion. Okay, what was this novel about...I’m a little hazy, but let’s give it a spin.
The first 21 pages were rousing: it’s 1974 and teenage Jimmy Sullivan stands by and watches two other boys beat up and kill a black man for no reason. Since Jimmy wouldn’t take a plea bargain, he is sent to prison for life. In prison, he is approached by another prisoner, Todd Munson. Todd tells him that he needs the protection of the Church of the Christ, Judea or he will be on his own. Jimmy joins the teachings of the church and soon learns to hate Jews and blacks. The church was founded by a Mr. Walters in Ohio. We find out that Todd is dying of lung cancer and has selected Jimmy to educate the new white prisoners to the church’s ways. After ten years in prison, Jimmy is given a book from Willard, the book cart attendant. It’s The Diary of Anne Frank. After reading more holocaust books, Jimmy questions his new faith and decides to write a letter to a girl (Tammy) that he was going to date on the day of the murder. She writes back and eventually convinces him that her religion is the real church of God. Jimmy gets permission to marry Tammy in prison. Before that can happen, a prisoner from his old church plunges a spike into Jimmy’s kidney. “Curled into a fetal position, he managed to inch Tammy’s photo out of his pocket. Blood pooling around him, he stared into her blood smeared eyes.” Wow, I thought that I had an exciting novel to read...what a start.
Then we retro to 1942 to witness, Clarence Olgibee (five year old black kid) being dumped into a barrel by some white kids in a park. Clarence’s parents (both teachers) just ignore what happened. What is the lesson supposed to be learned? I didn’t get it. Then for some reason we retro to 1955. Clarence, now 17 and a senior in high school (already accepted to Oberlin College), is living on an all black street named Brighton Road (where the better black’s live). The one exception living on Brighton Road is the Munson family, who are white. Mother Olgibee is a disciplinarian and father Olgibee seems to be in his own world studying everything imaginable. Clarence’s friends are Todd Munson (the same one from paragraph two) and high school football lineman Willard, who has some deep emotional problems and behaviors. Lastly we have Gwen, a pretty black girl that wishes she was white (Clarence falls in love with this control freak). Now there are many other characters, but I’m keeping them out for the clarity of the story. Clarence’s cousin, Ortis, comes to his house for a stay. He’s a hip kid that is not a good influence on his cousin Clarence. After Ortis leaves Ohio, he gets killed, but somehow continues to talk to Clarence throughout the novel. I’m only about forty pages into the book.
The boys go into a curb painting business, have a traffic accident rolling Todd in a barrel into a busy street and later meet Gwen and her girlfriend in a park. Clarence falls in love with this pretentious black girl who thinks she should be white. Later that day, “Clarence bent over the piano stool…You practicing? his mother called out... I’m in love! he wanted to tell her but shivering, knew desire had no heart.” Later, Clarence has mixed feelings about Gwen’s attitude, “Her white boyfriend dumped her. She’s a stuck-up princess who lives in an apartment but still walks around with her nose in the air. The witch is lucky I’m taking her anywhere. She didn’t care that Cousin Ortis died.” Later, Gwen accuses Clarence of impregnating her...Clarence doesn’t believe it and joins the Navy. I’m a hundred pages or so into this novel and this is the exact point where I lost interest. The novel had too many characters, most of them had no bearing on the story. Mr. Kessler’s prose was acceptable, but the story lacked a strong plot and reader attachment to the characters. I can only give a neutral rating to this novel.
RATING: 3 out of 5 stars
Comment: I prefer to give a book a four or five star rating, but every so often I can’t. This is not to say that another reviewer will not see it differently. Amazon has their own internal system. What is it? Okay, here it is:
Five stars= I loved it
Four stars= I liked it
Three stars= It was okay
Two stars= I didn’t like it
One star= I hated it
So there you go...I thought Mr. Kessler’s novel was okay (even after all my criticism).
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