Dadielte's World

A LONG WAY GONE: MEMOIRS OF A BOY SOLDIER

 by Ismael Beah

 This is a story of Ismael Beah who at age twelve had to leave his home in a village in Sierra Leone to escape a rebel army who killed his family and destroyed not only his village, but many others as well. Beah and his friends search for a safe haven only to have to leave because of the rebels. Many times he barely escapes with his life. The atrocities he experiences leaves an indelible image in his mind. One that I believe can never be erased. Eventually he becomes one of the boy soldiers, fighting with the army against the rebels some of whom are boys as young as he. Beah proves that war can destroy a person's humanity;  and that trying to recover a lost childhood is extremely difficult.

Beah's story is compelling. His writing style is exquisite and easily accessible..

ONLY TWICE I’VE WISHED FOR HEAVEN

BY Dawn Turner Trice

NY: :Crown Publishers, Inc. 1996 304 pages

Main Characters: Tempest Rosa Saville (Child) 11 years old, Miss Jonetta Goode, Valerie Nicholae 12 years old, Thomas and Felicia Saville - Tempest’s parents,Alfred Mayes

The novel is told from two points of view - Tempest and Miss Jonetta. The Saville family move into an exclusive community called Lakeland where middle class Blacks live. It borders a lake , is guarded by security, and is surrounded by a fence set off from Thirty-fifth Street where poor Blacks live. Mr. Saville who worked as a cab driver while he attended school has accepted a teaching position, sells their house, on the far side of Chicago, and moves his family into an apartment in Lakeland. Both mother and daughter are reluctant to leave their old neighborhood for this upscale environment.

Tempest is enrolled in the elementary school where her father teaches. From the start, she feels out of place among the children of the Lakeland community who are arrogant and look down their noses at everyone. The one person she meets shortly after coming to the school is Valerie, the janitor’s daughter. Valerie is down-to-earth, doesn’t care what others think of her, yet she is bright even though her attendance at school is irregular. Tempest is drawn to her. Meanwhile, Tempest is also drawn to 35th  street which is a few blocks away.  35th street has a reputation of being filled with prostitutes, pimps, hustlers, thieves, all the bad people Lakeland abhors. It also has an assortment of street preachers and New Saved whose goal is to reform those living in the neighborhood.

The novel is wonderful, moving and satisfying. All Trice's characters, even the minor ones, are carefully drawn, making them sympathetic to the reader.

THE KNOWN WORLD

 by Edward P. Jones, Amistad/an imprint of Harper Collins

An expansive novel, Jones has created a world peopled with slaves, slave masters black and white, freed Negroes, poor whites, centered mostly around Manchester County Virginia. The novel examines the lives of several people and the impact of slavery on each. An in-depth , absorbing account of their everyday lives on the plantation, in and around the town. The omniscient narrator, Jones projects into the future and tells us what will happen to his characters.

Moses, Henry Townsend, Caldonia, Henry’s wife, William Robbins, wealthy plantation owner who has 113 slaves. Celeste and Elias, Priscilla, Moses’s wife , Alice, Stamford, Gloria , Delphis, Cassandra - slaves on the Townsend plantation. Augustus and Mildred Townsend, Henry’s father and mother, free, Fern Elston, free black woman John Skiffington, Sheriff, Winifred Skiffington, John’s wife, Minerva Skiffington, their “maid” Clara, Skiffington’s cousin, Ralph, Clara’s slave; Barnum Kinsey, Oden Peoples, Harvey Travis, slave patrollers. Counsel Skiffington, wife Belle, Darcy, slave speculator, Steenis, Darcy’s slave, Calvin Newman, Caldonia’s twin brother

The plotting is too intricate to relate in a short essay. Nonetheless, it is absorbing and contains all sorts of twist and turns. I thoroughly enjoyed the novel. Jones aptly shows the effect of slavery on everyone involved and the callousness of those who actively participate in maintaining the institution, disrespecting humanity. Jones has created a known world that is very credible.