Get Down: Stories

published	October 17th 2006 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
binding	Hardcover
isbn	0374299420 (isbn13: 9780374299422)
pages	208
description	Asali Solomon’s characters are vivid misfits—a heathen at Jesus camp, a scheming prep-school student, a middle-aged mom pining for her sal...more [close] Asali Solomon’s characters are vivid misfits—a heathen at Jesus camp, a scheming prep-school student, a middle-aged mom pining for her salsa-dancing salad days, a scheming twentysomething virgin, a college stud in love with his weight-lifting partner, a lonely girl in love with a yellow dress. The kids in Get Down are trapped between their own good breeding and their burning desire to join the house party of sex, romance, and bad behavior that seems to be happening on some other block, down some other more dangerous street. The adults in Get Down are just trying to hold it together. Here is a debut that will make you laugh and cringe in equal measure. Set mostly in middle-class black Philadelphia during the crack and Reagan years, the stories in Get Down are antic, poignant, and utterly universal—they’ll bring back memories for anyone who has ever stood in the corner of a darkened school gym wondering whether to dance . . . or duck for cover. They announce a sparkling new talent, a recent graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop whose work has been featured in Vibe, Essence, and the anthology Naked: Black Women Bare All About Their Skin, Hair, Hips, Lips, and Other Parts. [close]
date added	06-25-07 edit book

find at: Amazon | Half.com | Barnes & Noble | Abebooks | more...

discuss this book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

groups with this book

friend reviews (0)

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

lists with this book

This book is not in any lists. Go add it to a list.

other reviews (showing 1-20 of 26)

Tamara rated it:

11/10/07

bookshelves: african-american-books

When I first saw the book jacket for "Get Down," I was instantly taken back to my childhood in the '80 and days of watching Yo MTV raps and break-dancing. What Asali Solomon manages to do in "Get Down" is not only capture the 1980's perfectly,she also creates stories that drawn in the reader and makes you care about the characters and the situations they are going through.

"Get Down" consists of seven stories and although each story is special in its own right...more When I first saw the book jacket for "Get Down," I was instantly taken back to my childhood in the '80 and days of watching Yo MTV raps and break-dancing. What Asali Solomon manages to do in "Get Down" is not only capture the 1980's perfectly,she also creates stories that drawn in the reader and makes you care about the characters and the situations they are going through.

"Get Down" consists of seven stories and although each story is special in its own right, there are some factors that are similar in several of the stories. First, in all but two of the stories, the main character is usually a black girl who attends private school. Secondly,most of the stories take place in Philadelphia or surrounding areas. Lastly, all of the stories have some sort of element of surprise.

Although I thoroughly enjoyed all of the stories in "Get Down," my two favorites stories were "Twelve takes Thea" and "Save me." In "Twelve take Thea," we are introduced to Thea Brown, a girl who is trying to fit in at her private school which is proving to be hard since she is one of two black girls at the school. The title itself is a play on the title "Tracie Marie Takes Twelve." In the course of the story, Thea and her best friend Nadja go to the same private school then Nadja mother sends her to another school. Nadja leaving Thea alone forces her to make new friends but Thea is torn between her loyalty to her and Nadja friendship and her new friends. I enjoyed "Twelve takes Thea" because it was a great coming of age story and it also was a deeper story about acceptance and loyalty as well.

My second favorite story in "Get Down" was "Save Me." I was intrigued by this story mainly because of the technique Solomon used with this story. "Save Me" use a type of narration in which the narrator makes the reader the main character of the story by saying what is happening to you and how you felt about it. This type of narration is especially interesting since "Save Me" is about a trip to Christian summer camp and in the story the point is made the the campers have to experience God for themselves. As with the other stories in "Get Down," the experience shared by the character is one the mostly anyone can relate to and again, this story deals with acceptance and loyalty.

I also like that Solomon let the reader draw their own conclusions in reference to how the story would end. It is refreshing to now have a story end in a predictable way or have a chance to use your own mind to determine how the character's fate will play out.

Overall, this was a wonderful debut by Asali Solomon. The stories in "Get Down" were funny, sad, rich, and realistic. Although this book dealt with different characters in different way, the two theme I gathered from this book was how important acceptance and loyalty can be. Although we may feel it is not that important or may even say that it it is not important, at the end of the day,we still want to feel like we belong to something.
...less

Like this review? yes

title link
avg rating
small image
med image
large image

Get Down: Stories

discuss this book

groups with this book

friend reviews (0)

lists with this book

other reviews (showing 1-20 of 26)

book data (includes all editions)

blog this book

popular shelves

other editions