The Man Who Lived Underground

The Man Who Lived Underground by Richard Wright 240 pages

When I was in graduate school, I read “The Man Who Lived Underground” as it was published in author Wright’s posthumous collection, “Eight Men.” In that collection, the work had been “drastically condensed and truncated.” I thought highly of it then but knowing that it wasn’t the complete work left me unsatisfied.

Now, the complete work, the one that Wright was unable to publish in his lifetime, has landed on bookshelves. This work meant more to him than any of his other publications: “I have never written anything in my life that stemmed more from sheer inspiration.”

The story is heartbreakingly simple. It’s 1941-42.  Fred Daniels, a Black man, is on his way home after collecting his week’s wages (a whopping seventeen dollars!) to his wife who is due to give birth any time. As he walks along, happy with his place in the world, he notices a police car with three police officers, just sitting there. As he approaches the police exit the car and arrest him for the horrifically vicious double murder that occurred at the neighbors of his employer’s home.

Although he proclaims his innocence, his words fall on deaf ears. The cops need a perpetrator. and Fred is their man. The police haul him to the station and torture him until he signs a confession. Case closed.

However, Fred is able to escape (or was he allowed, I was never really sure) and heads for the sewers beneath the Chicago streets. There he traverses the systems. As Fred wandered, he was able to view other lives by removing some of the bricks tht led into basements. There he gathers some food, robbed a bank from which he plastered the money to the walls of the main tunnel, heard a church choir sign, etc.

The novel is more of  stream of consciousness than I like, but what stood out to me the most, that eighty years later, not much has changed for the African Americans. They are still the first ones suspected of a crime.

The work also contains the essay, “Memories of my Grandmother,” which a companion to Fred’s story. I didn’t care for it. To me, it didn’t have that immediacy of Underground.  “The Man Who Lived Underground” receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

milk and honey

milk and honey by rupi kaur     204 pages

milk and honey is a collection of poetry and prose about survival. It is about the experience of violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity. It is split into four chapters, and each chapter serves a different purpose, deals with a different pain, heals a different heartache. milk and honey takes readers through a journey of the most bitter moments in life and finds sweetness in them because there is sweetness everywhere if you are just willing to look.

Though I'm sure this would be categorized under confessional poetry, to me a lot of it read like motivational poster captions or something inspirational someone would probably tattoo on their forearm.  Though I have read enough poetry to know that almost anything can be considered poetry, it doesn't mean I have to agree. I would consider Kaur's writing as more of a diary/memoir of her reflections on her life, particularly the most traumatic moments and how she was able to get past them. I can see how this work is inspirational to some, and Kaur definitely deserves to be called brave because she does not hide the fact that this is a work of deeply personal emotions and experiences. I just can't get past how simplistic most of it seems. But then, a lot of people might really need someone to tell them, "You matter," or "Love yourself first," and I don't mean that in a sarcastic way. This is definitely something I would give to someone I knew was going through a rough patch and really needs some advice on self-care. That being said, I did not enjoy the majority of this book. A handful of "poems" stuck out to me, but most of it seemed derivative of works or quotes I'd seen or heard before. I'm very picky when it comes to poetry and none of these poems really spoke to me or made my skin prickle or caused me to feel a rise of emotion. Perhaps I'm not the intended audience, I'm not sure. Either way, for me, this was mostly just an "eh" book and I probably won't read it again. If you got something out of it, great. I think Kaur is justified in sharing this piece of herself because there are lots of people out there who need to hear the things she's stated in this book.

Heart Berries

Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot     142 pages

Heart Berries is a powerful, poetic memoir of a woman's coming of age on the Seabird Island Indian Reservation in the Pacific Northwest. Having survived a profoundly dysfunctional upbringing only to find herself hospitalized and facing a dual diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder and bipolar II disorder; Terese Marie Mailhot is given a notebook and begins to write her way out of trauma. The triumphant result is Heart Berries , a memorial for Mailhot's mother, a social worker and activist who had a thing for prisoners; a story of reconciliation with her father--an abusive drunk and a brilliant artist--who was murdered under mysterious circumstances; and an elegy on how difficult it is to love someone while dragging the long shadows of shame.

I believe this genre of writing is not my cup of tea. Mailhot's writing style reminded me a lot of Maggie Nelson's book, The Argonauts, where everything is related out of time, in a stream-of-consciousness style, and addressing a specific person ("you") throughout. The book is deeply personal, but at the same time, it is meant to be shared with everyone, her story finally being told on her terms and in the way she believes it should be shared.

I don't like reading books that are sad or depressing - and Mailhot's memoir is both. She jumps from one bleak moment of her life to the next, which in itself does not warrant me rating this book two out of five stars, but only relates to my personal feelings about reading such material. It's not something I enjoyed, I felt a lot of it went beyond my understanding - so much of it was metaphorical that I could find no anchor to ground myself with. Everything was symbolic or told in a poetic style that made it difficult to find the reality of it. I was mostly left shrugging my shoulders and thinking maybe if I read this in a classroom setting and was prompted to discuss it further, then maybe I'd get something more out of it.

I read this as a book club selection, otherwise I'm not sure I ever would have picked it up for myself as a personal interest. I am counting this book as my one-sitting book for Book Riot's Read Harder challenge. I don't know that I'd recommend this book, unless I was sure there'd be an interest in the memoir genre or I knew the person enjoyed reading from diverse authors.

In the Springtime Everything is New All Over Again: A Dark Humor Short Story

In the Springtime Everything is New All Over Again: A Dark Humor Short Story by Esmerelda Q. Jones  26 pages

This short story has an unnamed narrator who is a writer. Based off a running joke with her (since they share a room) sister, the narrator names her protagonist Carl. The she spends the rest of the story coming up with the plot and plot twists for poor ol’ Carl.

I didn’t think it was funny, and it rubbed me the wrong way. Basically because it goes against the basic rule of fiction writing: Nothing is more boring than a character sitting around thinking and not acting. Granted this is a writer thinking, but it’s just as boring.

The one saving thing about this short story is just that: it’s short. That’s why I give In the Springtime Everything is New All Over Again: A Dark Humor Short Story 2 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.