Roadtripping the Past and the Present

In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse by Joseph Marshall III

New York : Amulet Books, [2015]

165 p. : ill., map ; 21 cm. 

This is a little gem of a book! I love a brief, emotional and enlightening book.  Marshall succinctly retells the story of Lakota Indian and warrior, Ta-sunko-witko - known more commonly as Crazy Horse.   

Marshall embeds the story of Crazy Horse within the story of Jimmy, a contemporary eleven-year-old Lakota boy growing up in South Dakota.  This boy has light hair and blue eyes and so is teased and bullied by a couple of classmates.  During the summer his beloved grandpa takes him on a road trip through South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Montana - tracing places in the life of Crazy Horse which the grandpa fills in with storytelling.  As he teaches Jimmy about Crazy Horse's great character and courage,  he also notes that Crazy Horse also was known as "Light Hair" when he was young - something that connects him with Jimmy.

As they trace the places important in the life of Crazy Horse - Nebraska near Ash Hollow State Park, Forts Laramie and Reno in Wyoming, and battle sites like the Hundred in the Hands (Fetterman Fight) in Wyoming and the renowned Battle of the Little Bighorn (Battle of the Greasy Grass) in Montana. They even visit Fort Robinson in Nebraska where Crazy Horse surrendered and was murdered. 

Within all this history, is a lovely story of an elder passing on his knowledge to his grandson.  The grandfather, a Vietnam veteran, is clear-eyed about the cruel nature of war and battle, and also keenly aware that courage also means protecting the vulnerable and those you love.  By the end of the story, Jimmy is starting a new school year and - though fearful of the bullies - has a newfound strength in confronting them.

I definitely recommend this novel.

    

13 in 13

Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio by Derf Backderf 

New York : Abrams ComicArts, 2020.

279 p. : chiefly ill., maps ; 27 cm.

Meticulously researched and passionately drawn and retold, this graphic novel account of the Kent State Massacre of May 4, 1970 is superb.  This is a great book for bringing a tragic history alive.  Having known about the Kent State killings for decades, I was surprised by how much I learned and by the emotional power of Backderf's storytelling.      

In Backderf's graphic novel about the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer he centers it around his actually being a high school "friend" of Dahmer.  In Kent State, Backderf opens the book with a personal touch: his childhood memories of Ohio National Guard troops being used near his hometown to crush a Teamster's strike in the days before they were sent on to the Kent State campus where they wounded and killed 13 people in just 13 seconds. 

In this retelling Backderf manages to recreate the personal lives of significant figures in the Kent State tragedy.  We learn about student life on campus, radical activists, the peace movement, the culture of the college town, and the utter incompetence and immorality of political and military leadership at the time - leadership that was willing to kill, lie, and cover-up.  In the aftermath of the massacre, leaders lie about the protesters, the culpability of the men who fired on the students, and the leaders who gave the orders (one officer, Capt. Ronald J. Snyder even lied under oath about finding a gun on one of the students killed).  

I would highly recommend this book to any adult or young adult.  There is a lot to think about and learn from this terrible event of 1970.  In addition to the carefully structured story and illustrations, Backderf also includes copious notes at the back of the book that fill out information and indicate the pages in the novel that they refer to. 

This Will Be Your Final Notice

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

New York, NY : Harper Teen, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2017]

373 p. ; 22 cm.

Adam Silvera has a brilliant set up for his novel. The time is the near future, but in his future, people receive a cell phone notice shortly after midnight on the day they are going to die.  The notifications are handled by a company, Death Cast, and "Deckers" - recipients of the call - are given no details about how, or how many hours they have left, but only that they will die on that day (and there is no recourse or escaping one's fate).  In this world - set in New York City - Deckers can use an app called Last Friend so they don't have to spend their last day alive alone or utterly lonely.  

So what happens if the Deckers are young, say seventeen or eighteen years old? That's what this novel is all about.  Two young men - one orphaned and troubled, and one with only one parent who is very ill and in a coma - connect on the Last Friend app and push each other to live their last day to the fullest and to really embrace the person they are.  They develop a deep attachment in the short time they have and compliment each other well.  It's a well developed novel and holds up well.

Often I'll find a novel that has a great premise (like this one does) but the author just can sustain it throughout or doesn't finish it in a way that is satisfying.  Silvera delivers on both these counts, and manages to deliver a really poignant and thought-provoking read in the process.  I really appreciated it. 

For me the weakest part of the novel was the opening act of physical violence committed by one of the main characters.  I think it was meant to convey his troubled and angry recent life, but it was jarring for me and left me alienated from the main character.  There are continuing issues that come up with him and his victim that also detracted from the overall read (for me).  In spite of this (and some readers may actually like this aspect of the book) I found the book a solid read. It has great pacing, character development and emotional power.  I would definitely recommend it to a young adult reader.  

Particle Detector

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche

New York : Anchor Books, a division of Random House LLC, 2014.

588 p. ; 21 cm.     

The thing I loved about Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah is the author's ability to subtly recreate in her fiction those nuanced threads of race, identity, class, politics (and longing) that make up the patchwork of cultures in a country.  It makes me think of the way that scientists sometimes identify invisible particles by studying their tracks.  

When her main character, Ifemelu, is in New Haven with her Black Yale professor partner the reader can feel the bubble of intellectual snobbery and conformity that one often encounters around academics. Adiche does this while also describing the overarching issues of racism that define the US.  When her main character is back in Nigeria, Adiche's immerses us in a world of crass materialism, pretension, and the endless/meaningless pursuit of wealth. 

There is so much one could say about this novel.  It touches on issues of race, wealth, internationalism, immigration, romance, family, corruption, and appearance v. reality.  Adiche does all this while also telling a great tale of young love, exile, disillusion, return, and love pursued. It's a long read, but a great tale.  This is a book that I could see recommending to students who know of Adiche through her short book, We Should All Be Feminists. I also would recommend it to students interested in fiction about contemporary African life since much of the novel occurs in Lagos, Nigeria.