The African in Me Author:Howard Gordon From Publishers Weekly — Although slightly uneven, this debut collection affectingly depicts black life in upstate New York over the past four decades. In these nine stories, racism and violence constantly threaten the family and the community at large. "The Playground of Hostility," set in 1954, deepens these themes through its dramatization of ... more »voluntary segregation among children during recess and of a boy's Cold War neurosis. In "Man Walks Son, Self," a boy named Junior chronicles nightly walks with his father while his mother lies dying, her illness the source of rumors that literally invade the home and follow father and son on their nocturnal strolls. Junior recounts the ways in which both parents teach him to bear up under the shadow of racist innuendo. The title story examines the estrangement between its narrator, who is secretly dying of cancer, and his older brother, Cameron, who harbors within his soul the cancer of hatred. Gordon, whose work has been published in Essence and other periodicals, is better at choosing themes than he is at delineating them in a consistent tone; at his best he gives us new ways of looking at the lingering problems of poverty and race relations.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
"No one was ever meant to be a slave... So when people try to beat on you or deprive you, or turn you into less than nothing, think of what you used to be--not a slave, but an Old World African, perhaps an ordinary citizen, maybe a king or a great warrior--at the very least, an equal." In this quote, Vernon, the protagonist of the title story, tells how his father's many African proverbs showed him how to survive racism. This collection by Gordon (assistant provost, SUNY-Oswego) is a powerful and often painful portrait of the lives of survivors of the African diaspora, as well as what life is like for anyone who has not been corrupted by power. Recommended for both young adult and adult collections.
- Veronica Mitchell, New York City Board of Education
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.« less