Buddy read: In the Heat of the Night

[Jane]

I agree with all those points too

[Sara]

I think Tibbs does understand the South, which is why he deals with everything so coolly. He knows not to fight the system (goes into custody without a fight, doesn't protest the lack of soap and towels in the bathroom, refers to Gillespie as "sir" at all times, etc.), but he doesn't bow to it either or pretend not to know what he knows. He carries himself with dignity, not arrogance. I think someone unfamiliar with the South and coming from a more tolerant place like CA would have made the mistake of trying to assert himself, a tack sure to lose.

[Jane]

Very true !

[Brina]

Almost seems as though John Ball wrote Virgil Tibbs for Sidney Poitier. Agreed that he carries himself with dignity.

[Tom, "Big Daddy"]

Sara wrote: "I think Tibbs does understand the South, which is why he deals with everything so coolly. He knows not to fight the system (goes into custody without a fight, doesn't protest the lack of soap and t..."

Well said. These are very good points.

[Tom, "Big Daddy"]

I finished it this morning. While I enjoyed it I don't think it would have had nearly the impact it did had the movie not been made. I realize that Ball was trying to make a point, his simple 'southern whites are racists. Northerners are pure as the driven snow.' message lacks nuance and would therefore have been rejected out of hand by a lot of readers.

[M.L.]

It was published in 1965 and pretty daring.

"John Ball broke new ground with his book In The Heat of the Night, his 1965 novel that introduced the determined detective Virgil Tibbs. Ball's novel was controversial for it established a black man as a protagonist and Ball refused to change it, despite pressure from the publishing community. Ball would succeed and his book went on to become a film and television series, winning five Oscars including Best Picture and Best Actor for actor Sidney Poitier. Virgil Tibbs features in other books in the series, using his wits and physical martial arts skills as he successfully fights against crime, racism, and more."

I rented this one free on Amazon, Rosetta Books, I wish the others were in their loan library.

Also on Ball, he worked part time as an LA Sheriff! Interesting.

I thought of him partly because I'm reading Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy - and it is dedicated to John Ball, "Friend and teacher." Pretty cool!

[Brina]

ML, was that the basis for a movie starring Harrison Ford? Let us know how you like the book. 1965 was groundbreaking. Even though baseball and the armed forces had been integrated, most of the south was not until forced to by the civil rights act. Something we think is over the top in 2016 might have been normal thinking in 1965.

[M.L.]

Brina wrote: "ML, was that the basis for a movie starring Harrison Ford? Let us know how you like the book. 1965 was groundbreaking. Even though baseball and the armed forces had been integrated, most of the sou..."

Brina, hi, yes, it's the Harrison Ford Jack Ryan movie. I love the book. I'm at 156/688. More depth on everything. Ryan has just made his first appearance.

[M.L.]

Brina wrote: "ML, was that the basis for a movie starring Harrison Ford? Let us know how you like the book. 1965 was groundbreaking. Even though baseball and the armed forces had been integrated, most of the sou..."

1965 - indeed groundbreaking, volatile, dangerous. To publish this book then - John Ball is amazing.

1965
•
On Feb. 21, Malcolm X is assassinated in Harlem at the Audubon Ballroom apparently by Nation of Islam operatives, although other theories abound.

•
On March 7, 600 civil rights activists, including Hosea Williams of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and John Lewis of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), leave Selma, Ala., traveling eastward on Route 80 toward Montgomery, Ala. They are marching to protest the killing of Jimmy Lee Jackson, an unarmed demonstrator slain during a march the prior month by an Alabama state trooper. State troopers and local police stop the marchers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, beating them with clubs as well as spraying them with water hoses and tear gas.

•
On March 9, King leads a march to the Pettus bridge, turning the marchers around at the bridge.

•
On March 21, 3,000 marchers leave Selma for Montgomery, completing the march without opposition.

•
On March 25, around 25,000 people join the Selma marchers at the Montgomery city limits.

•
On Aug. 6, President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act into law, which bans discriminatory voting requirements, like requiring people to complete literacy tests before they registered to vote. White Southerners had used this technique to disenfranchise blacks.

•
On Aug. 11, a riot breaks out in Watts, a section of Los Angeles, after a fight erupts between a white traffic officer and an black man accused of drinking and driving. The officer arrests the man and some of his family members who had arrived at the scene. Rumors of police brutality, however, result in six days of rioting in Watts. Thirty-four people, mostly African-Americans, die during the riot.

[Jane]

Wow!

[Jane]

Thankyou for reminding me of the dates

[Brina]

Amazing. I'm a history buff and I am glad I was not around for that brutality. John Ball seems amazing. I'm interesting in reading more Virgil Tibbs cases. It was not lost on me that his other books take place in California rather than South Carolina.

[Tom, "Big Daddy"]

Here is my review. I enjoyed the book but I don't think it would still be around if it weren't for the movie.

[Franky]

Some great discussion points. I was wondering if anyone has gone on to read any in this series with Tibbs? I was considering the 2nd in the series.

M.L., thanks for the dates.

[M.L.]

* 5 stars *
Thanks, Jane, Franky - the dates surprised me, so much happened in 1965. I'm a history buff too and that is pretty sobering.

I haven't read the next but I may. It's set in LA and John Ball writes with historical perspective. I originally gave it three stars, but now it's five - added a few for sheer guts and determination - I can only imagine the pressure from Hollywood to change the character.

Speaking of 'stars,' why are Tom's the only ones showing up! :) I added mine - level playing field and all! :)

[Tom, "Big Daddy"]

M.L. wrote: "* 5 stars *
Speaking of 'stars,' why are Tom's the only ones showing up! :) I added mine - level playing field and all! :) .."

There appears to be two different editions of the book that don't share readers. You can find other people's reviews under this version of In the Heat of the Night.

[Tom, "Big Daddy"]

I just watched the movie again. There were several that Tibbs did in the movie that would have gotten him into serious trouble in the real world, slapping Endicott being only the most egregious. Likewise, I can't imagine the sheriff in a southern town in the sixties carrying the luggage of a black man. In a day when knowing one's place was important, a sheriff who was hired for his perceived ability to hold the line against integration would never have considered such an act.

I'm going to adjust my rating, rounding the 3 1/2 stars up instead of down because, despite my complaints, I did really enjoy the book.

[Sara]

That happens to me sometimes, Tom. When I finish, rate the book, and then can't stop thinking about it, it generally means I need to upgrade the rating.

I really need to see the movie again. The things you describe would definitely be not-happening in the 1965 South.

[Brina]

I will be watching the movie when the kids go back to school and I have use of the DVD player once again. I'd like to read the next book. It will be interesting to see Tibbs character growth once he is in his home turf.

[M.L.]

I bought the next one, The Cool Cottontail. It has a, well, 'cool' vintage type cover (different from the link; they don't have this edition in the list). I have a number of reads ahead of it but looking forward to reading it.

[CS]

I read In the Heat of the Night last week, and finished The Cool Cottontail yesterday. I thought Virgil Tibbs was believable as an Afro-American trying to break the racial barrier in the police department. I've known Afro-Americans in the 1960s and 1970s who were in the same position. Two became university professors; one became the first Afro-American dean of a prestigious university. They had to keep their tempers and candid opinions to themselves, and be as impressive as Superman in their work. Women who broke barriers in the elite levels of medicine, law, and business had to do the same. To their credit, these people knew they were pioneers for their sex and/or race, and if the door was to remain open for minorities and women, they had to behave as competent and non-threatening examples to others.

Tom wrote: "I can't imagine the sheriff in a southern town in the sixties carrying the luggage of a black man..."

During the 1960s Civil Rights era, enough white Southerners acted against type to further the cause of racial equality. We're seeing the same dynamic in the Black Lives Matter movement now. Enough people from non-black races are paying attention and asking hard questions about police tactics towards Afro-Americans.

Would a white sheriff ever carry the luggage of a black policeman? The stereotypical white sheriff of that era would not. What about an individual who has come to respect Virgil Tibbs, and maybe feels bad about his earlier rudeness to Tibbs? Well, maybe. I think the author was trying to make a point here about possible rapprochement between the races, and got heavy-handed. It's a novel, not real life, so for me the question is: is this incident believable? I don't think the author developed this sheriff's character enough that his gesture towards Tibbs was believable. I would need to know something else about this sheriff to support his act in the story.

In Cottontail, the author shows racism in Southern California in the mid-1960s, which is of slightly different kind and degree compared to the South. So the author did not believe that racism was confined to the South at all.