Literary Fiction by People of Color discussion
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Discussion: Unburnable
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Nothing new, as you know, Bill! I am looking forward to Bill Dukes' film - should be interesting.
Christine, while I am probably as far away as a person can get from a blame the victim conservatism, I do think that people are responsible for improving their individual circumstances. Lillian was not an endearing character. She rejected all of Teddy's help, was drawn in upon herself and even after it seemed she was discovering the roots of her misery still took her own life. So to me the failure of this book is the failure of, for me, to empathize with its protagonist. Like I said in one of my first posts..the book was a roller coaster between loving and hating it.
I'd say Lillian isn't a rational character, but then few of these people truly are other than John.
William wrote: "Christine, while I am probably as far away as a person can get from a blame the victim conservatism, I do think that people are responsible for improving their individual circumstances. Lillian was..."cosign.
But, I think it's worth something that people seem to have strong feeling for the book one way or the other. Not a lot of opinions seem to be of the "eh, it was just okay," variety.
Wow. Christine's reading is quite generous to John as an author. The more I think about the book, the less I like it. I try to find complexity in John's rendering of things, but I can't do so satisfactorily. However, a big reason for my joining this group is that I don't read contemporary fiction. My coverage starts getting spotty after 1950, except for Baldwin, Morrison, and a few others. So, I'm eager to see the difference between my impressions of *Unburnable* and *Silver Sparrow.* This group is helping me figure out how much of my response is about being biased in favor of older works.
hard for me to think much of Teddy. He seems bright, talented, lazy, under-motivated and exceedingly shallow. Can't get too excited over a fellow who's great ambition is to be a talking head. However, at least he's not dishonest for the most part since he gives Lillian half of his residuals from the book, and at acknowledges his debt to her personally. However, it's impossible to read the book without becoming heavily invested emotionally in Lillian and in the end, Teddy fails to step up. We need an Orpheus to descend into the depths to rescue her and instead we get someone who can't handle the truth and literally runs away from realities that don't reflect his rational world view.
Personally, I'm surprised the publisher allowed this ending. It leaves a rather bitter taste at best. a most interesting story though.
Thank you so much, Christine, for leading the discussion of this book that elicited such strong and diverse reactions! As usual, the discussion thread will remain open so that anyone who would like to add their comments can do so at any time. Thanks to all who participated in this discussion!
I am so bummed to have missed this discussion! I LOVED Unburnable when first I read it, and was looking forward to sharing it with others. (Alas, work had me on the road for all but 5 days of July!) It's been really interesting to read back through the comments to see what others thought of the novel. On the upside, I now have a Nook, so travel won't keep me away from reading or joining the discussion next time!
I would love to hear your comments Misti. I had started Unburnable and then couldn't put Silver Sparrow down so I am now reading it.
Just could not stop myself from posting this and since Dominica was a major character in the book...http://newsone.com/nation/casey-gane-...
Jesus H. Christ. The clip of Ron Paul standing in front of the Confederate flag proclaiming the South was right in the Civil War is rather interesting as well. Thanks for the site. Really.
It amazes me that there is no penalty for being a racist in American politics..and given the recent surge of Gingrich after venting crudely racist notions, it may actually be a plus (in certain segments of the population).
Literary Fiction by People of Color
Books mentioned in this topic
The Autobiography of My Mother (other topics)Unburnable (other topics)
http://vimeo.com/24155797