From the bookshelf of Literary Fiction by People of Color…

Black Water Rising by Attica Locke

Start date: November 1, 2009

Finish date: November 30, 2009

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Discussion leader: Ksab

Why we're reading this: November Book Selection
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Izetta Autumn

(page 300 of 448)
— Nov 20, 2009 05:07PM

Jean

(page 360 of 448)
— Oct 31, 2009 06:25PM

what members thought

Oct 20, 2009

H.A. rated it:

bookshelves: litpoc_bookclub, poc_50, requestedfromlib

Read in November, 2009

recommended to H.A. by: Bookclub

Well written, a convoluted, interesting story of Texas in the early 80's. The main character is suffering what seems to me a form of PTSD from his experiences as a radical activist in the 60's civil rights movement. He gets caught up in a conspiracy involving oil, labor unions, and murder.

The story was a real eye-opener as far as what the psychological fall out might be from activists not only in the civil rights movement, but the anti-war movement and any other in the 60's that mig...more

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Sep 23, 2009

Izetta Autumn rated it:

bookshelves: african-american, mystery-thriller, word-on-the-street-is

Read in November, 2009

While Attica Locke expertly evokes Houston in the '80s, and paints a strong portrayal of a man as he struggles with his demons, in the post Civil Rights era, what was lacking in the second half of the novel nearly erases the Locke's extremely promising debut.

The beginning of the novel is well written, and in my opinion could be considered literary noire, much like the novels of Walter Mosley. We learn of Jay Porter, former revolutionary, who is preparing for the birth of his child, ...more While Attica Locke expertly evokes Houston in the '80s, and paints a strong portrayal of a man as he struggles with his demons, in the post Civil Rights era, what was lacking in the second half of the novel nearly erases the Locke's extremely promising debut.

The beginning of the novel is well written, and in my opinion could be considered literary noire, much like the novels of Walter Mosley. We learn of Jay Porter, former revolutionary, who is preparing for the birth of his child, when he and his wife unexpectedly witness a scream in the night on the bayou. The opening of the novel, setting the reader off right into the middle of the actiom, quickly drew me in as a reader. Unfortunately, Locke's pace does not hold - and the cinematic quality of the novel, which at first is gratifying, begins to drag the novel - fileting it from the action it promised in its beginning.

What is compelling about Attica Locke's great debut, is the structure that she works into the standard literary noire genre. Jay, a reformed, or as we learn scared witless former member of the Black Panther Party, who was set up in his senior year of college, avoiding jail by only the smallest of margins, is not only triggered by watching another set up happening, but also by the impending birth of his child. Jay himself was never able to meet his father, his namesake having been killed on a West Texas road by 3 white men, and a hosptial that refused to see a Black patient.

This back story makes it far easier for us to understand Jay's psychological motives as he pursues the men who beat a young man in a Black union, the truth behind what he witnesses on his wife's birthday, and his own framing. As a reader, I appreciated the care to draw out this character development: though we may not like Jay, though he may seem a coward - abandoning his sister to a sexual predator, refusing to face the police, holding himself from emotionally connecting with his wife and unborn child, or pursuing his dreams - we at least have context for why he has fallen in on himself.

Locke renders Jay as a sympathetic character, handling him tenderly, even when we as a reader may be increasingly at wit's end with him. Never is this more so, than toward the end of the book, when Jay decides to take a court case that puts his growing family at risk, while dismissing the concerns of his wife Bernie, who told him from the beginning to go the police. By showing her character in such a light it reveals just how broken Jay is, drawing a powerful real life allegory between Black men currently incarcerated and how that incarceration impacts their souls, lives, and families.

Locke does an admirable job, not only of bringing Houston to life, but also capturing a good deal of history, of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements in her thriller.

Even with much to recommend Black Water Rising, there are still some serious hiccups. For one, Bernie's character is barely an ink sketch on paper. She exists only as a foil to her husband. We never learn anything about her truly - only that she is a good preacher's daughter, who was chosen by Jay because he thought she would be simple (no questions, no demands) and easy to love. A portrayal of a Black womyn in this way, by a Black female author is disappointing to say the least. I expect such a one dimensional female character in a Patterson or even Mosley novel, but had high hopes for Locke creating a believable Black female character, with real agency.

Next, the book slows with a powerful tug toward the middle of the book, after a more than promising beginning. It just cannot keep up the energy. Frankly it would have been a stronger book if it had been about 100 pages shorter.

Third, the racial dynamics of the book made my eyebrow raise. We learn that Jay is in love with a white womyn and how that irrevocably impacts him. But the inference is that all of the white characters are duplicitious, specifically the white womyn. And while they are drawn in a somewhat unfavorable light, they are at least fully developed characters, while Bernie, outside of her voracious reading, never gets a personality. One wonders, what is Bernie reading? What did she write in her journal? Why did she marry Jay? There's a clue, I think to Jay's skin color dynamics when we learn more about his long lost sister.

Lastly, Locke's twists and turns aren't that thrilling or exciting. The twists aren't new. In fact they are telepathed so much in the novel that you seem them coming as if you were on Broadway headed to 42nd. And that to me is the greatest disappointment. Ultimately, beyond the opening of the novel, and the upgraded to professional Black male protagonist, this novel isn't new. In some ways, it felt much like reading an early 1990s Mosley novel without the full punch of Mosley. Yet Locke, I think is a strong talent, and I will certainly read her next novel - with high hopes.(less)

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