The Book of Harlan– A Review
Some of my best moments were spent sitting on the porch with my grandmother in the summer time. Lying on the floor, pretending to watch television, while the adults in the room reminisced about the old days. Those days that seemed a world away, another world. A time when the adults seemed to be a totally different person than the one I’d grown to know and love. Family reunions. Family gatherings. Hearing my history from the ones who’d lived it. The stories that, laced together, formed the patchwork quilt of my existence. Those were the most magical of times for me. I have always loved to listen to the old folks talk.
My grandmother telling us about when she worked at a café owned by white people, a place where she couldn’t eat and neither could her kids. Listening to stories about my mom’s childhood. How because of her darker complexion she was not treated as well as her more fairer complexioned sisters. Listening to my dad talk about playing baseball. Listening to him tell about his dad who got into a fight with his white supervisor because he called granddaddy a n***** and after the fight, granddaddy was warned to get out of town before the sun went down.
That’s what it felt like reading, The Book of Harlan, Bernice McFadden’s newest book. It felt like spending time with family and hearing your history. Because any one of those story threads could be mine. I felt the spirit of my own family running through the pages of the novel. It was like hearing family members tell you about life and the things they’d gone through. For that reason, I took my time reading the book. It took more than a week to read the book. But it was on purpose. Just like I used to want to keep my grandparents and parents talking, I wanted to keep McFadden talking. There were days when I’d set the book aside after reading just one chapter and I’d immerse myself in daydreams, ones that first resembled what I read in the pages, but quickly turned to my own memories.
In school, we talk about historical events like the Nazi occupation of Paris and the Harlem rent parties (Well, if you get a really good African-American Literature teacher like I did), but you never get to see how black people fit in all that. It’s almost like we appeared out of thin air one day, according to a history that is very much whitewashed. But, here in The Book of Harlan, you get a real taste of history and it feels authentic. There were times I smiled (those red beans and rice), times when I laughed (when Lizard’s parents asked him why he was limping), and times when I cried (the cold and casual way the people at Buchenwald exterminated people).
I don’t want to give away too much of the book because it won’t be available until May (I was lucky enough to be able to purchase an autographed copy early), but I truly enjoyed this book. This book breathed life into those scattered pieces of history that are tossed to us in school. Louis Armstrong makes an appearance. We get a glimpse of the Paris that many African-American artists saw when they left America to be given the opportunities that weren’t available to them in their own home country. There were times that I got lost when moving from one family to another, but I quickly found my way back. And that feeling of being lost was part of the beauty. It was like being in Big Mama’s house and hearing that mix of voices as everyone is spinning their own individual tale. Telling his story.
From the back cover: …When Harlan and his best friend, trumpeter Lizard Robbins, are invited to perform at a popular cabaret in the Parisian enclave of Montmartre – affectionately referred to as “The Harlem of Paris” by black American musicians—Harlan jumps at the opportunity, convincing Lizard to join him. But after the City of Light falls under Nazi occupation, Harlan and Lizard are thrown into Buchenwald—the notorious concentration camp in Weimar, Germany—irreparably changing the course of Harlan’s life.” And that’s where the tears begin. It’s also where the grown-ups would start to shoo the children from the room. To protect our ears from those things that we didn’t need to hear. Like the character who almost commits an unspeakable crime. (Again, I don’t want to divulge too much. Read it; it’s a great book.) And I am so glad that Bernice McFadden gave us a chance to hear the whole story. For that, I am grateful.
Peace & Love,
Rosalind
http://www.amazon.com/Book-Harlan-Bernice-L-McFadden/dp/1617754463/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
