Book Review: Solomon's Blues by Josephine Garner

A couple of months ago, I wrote one of my routine Monday Morning posts, where I detailed some things I did over the weekend. That particular Saturday, just before the tax due date, I attended a three hour writing workshop. It was quite good. One thing that was said struck me in particular: 

"The most interesting thing I heard is that literature has changed in the last 100 years. Back then, there wasn't any television, so people wanted words, and plenty of them. But now, in our present time, we don't want that. We are distracted with our video games, computers, social media, etc... And as a result, we don't want words, and novels have to basically play to our attention spans."

And I remember sitting there in the workshop thinking... I would LOVE to find a really lengthy novel.

And there are plenty out there: lots of historical stuff, lots of classics.

I didn't want that. I wanted a good piece of black literature.  Something lengthy and very good.

I was a bit too lazy to go and find one. I pretty much forgot about it.

But, lo and behold, I walked into my current writing workshop. I am very much accustomed to being the only black person in a workshop, and I've had to pull rank a couple of times in some really arrogant atmospheres (this means I have to pull out my "Dr." title on jokers. People don't talk trash if they get the notion that I'm smarter than them).

But I didn't get the sense of that from this class. This is a really good mix of ladies. And I'm looking for a class that I can take whenever it is offered, and this is a good one.

And like I said there was a sister in the class.

Hmm...

The instructor asked us what we were working on. We all talked about it. Everyone had interesting subject matter.

I was particularly curious about the sister's work. I had talked about how my present work (that which I would be working on for the class) was an offshoot of a 900 page manuscript that I have (Sweet Heat, some of you have read it). She, this Josephine Garner, said that she'd written something that long and had condensed it down... and she'd published it.

*ladylee sitting there with raised eyebrows, ears open and eyes stretched*

Hmmmmmm...

The name of her book was Solomon's Blues.

*ladylee quickly scribbling this book title in notes*

She talked about this book and how she was working on the sequel.

Now, during class, I have a bad habit of looking up books on Amazon as the teacher talks about or reads excerpts from them..(I know people think I'm texting. That's why I call it a bad habit). I REALLY wanted to look it up right then, but I didn't. Not on the first day of clas.

But I looked it up the next day.

Solomon's Blues is 606 pages long. 

And it's about black folks.

Now what I usually do when it comes to my kindle books is download the sample first, and then buy the book if I like the sample.

I liked this book from the book's epigraph...

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part: but then shall I know even as also I am known.  - I Corinthians 13:12

O_O.

Now you know how I like my spiritual things. I think about spiritual stuff some 90% of the time.

I read that and I thought... "Oh... this is gonna be gooooooood".

And I remember thinking "This right here is one of them rainy day books. Best read on a rainy day!"

Yes, best read when it's raining all day and you can't go anywhere.  And it was. But I read it rain or shine.

It was a good book.  ALL 606 pages of it.

This novel is set back in the 1950s, just after World War II and before the Civils rights movement. This in itself is pretty interesting to me, as I don't really read much about this period of time in our country.

The heroine, Esther Fay Allen, is a young black woman in her twenties, who has had the opportunity to leave her East Texas hometown and live with relatives in Harlem. Her goal was to go to college and become a teacher. But her mother gets diagnosed with terminal cancer, and Esther returns to her hometown (the fictional McConnell County) to take care of her mother. Unfortunately, her mother passes, and the plan is for Esther to return to Harlem and continue her education.

But she sees an opportunity to make some money before she goes back to New York. Her cousin Nathaniel informs her of a person who is looking for a maid.  Esther Fay decides to take this job, as it pays $20 a week (which is A LOT in the 1950s). This decision causes quite a bit of conflict and disapproval, most notably from the family patriarch Isaac Green (affectionately called "Grampa" throughout the book). But Esther decides to take the position anyway.

Esther's employer is Taylor Payne, a lawyer with the state. He needs someone to cook and clean.

What's interesting is that Taylor Payne is a bachelor. This gets a raised eyebrow and it fuels much gossip amongst the whites and the blacks in town. And yes of course, that's a whole nother layer of tension in this book.

Taylor and Esther become friends. This is predictable, as they have a lot in common (both have spent time in the north, they both love the arts, etc)....

...and this friendship blossoms into a romance.

Yeah... that REALLY gets people going.

And the author handles it all with such care. I mean, these two people belong together. Even the reader can see that. And in today's society, it wouldn't be a problem.

But back in the 1950s, when blacks still sat at the back of the bus and were restricted to drinking from the coloreds-only water fountain... this is a huge problem. HUGE.

And again, the author handles it well... with all of its complexities and complications, and in the most non-stereotypical way possible. This wasn't a case of "the white man taking advantage of the black woman", but it was a case of two people depending on each other and falling in love in a very volatile time in this country's history.

This was such an amazing book. The character development and internal struggles of both Taylor and Esther is phenomenal. It is a rough thing in real life trying to define oneself in the midst of searching, and at the same time, being in the throes of balancing internal satisfaction with satisfying the family and friends- the loved ones-  in your life. The author handled these complexities with ease in this fictional setting, enough to make me ponder my own life and challenges while I was reading.

There aren't too many books out there that have affected me so deeply to the point of crying, but this one did.  I could relate to one of the character's estrangement from family, and not having the deep family ties that others have. Yet that character was indeed a really good person, and determined to live the best life that they could. And that is something I myself struggle with. So to see parts of myself and my own personal internal struggles reflected in that particular character made this novel really real for me.

I like the kindle function that allows bookmarks and highlights. I did much of this during the read. So I looked back through my highlights and found my favorite one:

"It wasn't human nature to be satisfied. Mama used to say that no matter what God gave us, people were always, wishin' for meat and wantin' for bread. Even the Hebrew children rescued from Egypt and slavery had railed against their exodus. For ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger. God made us. He must have known that we would eat the forbidden fruit and crave it endlessly. The desire for that which was not ours always seemed to be more attractive than what we actually had."

(The bold emphasis of the last sentence is mine).

Oh, that just resonated with me, because that quote, that very last line even, applies to human nature right now, right here in 2013. Oh yes it does. 

My goodness. I could do a whole 10 page food-for-thought post on that quote. But I won't do that. We will just leave it alone.

It was that kind of social and spiritual commentary sprinkled generously throughout the book that left me without air. And this wasn't the author's opinion about things... these were the characters thoughts and opinions about things... about themselves, about people around them, and about life in general.

I said many a time while reading... "How did Josephine come up with that line????"

Another favorite line: 

"...worse than living alone is living a lie."

That's a short quote, but a good one nevertheless... You may need to let that one marinate in your head for a spell. You'll understand that quote in a few days.

You know I have my LadyLee postulates...

We'll just call that quote the Esther postulate #3413.

I think I'm suppose to reference the page number of those quotes. Kindle doesn't have page numbers.

Uh, those quotes are located at Locations 11795 and 13790 respectively.  That is all.

LOL

I bought this book on Kindle:

And it was such a good read that I ordered the book.

Yes... I have my book in a plastic bag. Why? Because I am hard on books.  I want this one to stay clean and untattered for awhile.

And... side story: The day I received the book in the mail, I took my neighbor to the gas station for some gas for her lawnmower. (I was HIGHLY perturbed by this, as I needed to get to my writing class and this was a detour. But you know me... sow seed now). She got in my car... along with her 4 year-old granchild.

I remember this litte girl, who was strapped in the backseat, reaching over to my mail on the other side and and my cherished copy of Solomon's Blues and picking it up and hollering "What kinda book is this!?"

Man... I almost went Ma'dea on her...

"Little girl!" I hollered, my voice a couple of octaves higher than normal.. "Little girl, little girl, little girl! Put my book down!"

Oh goodness. Thank goodness her grandma was walking back to the car with her gas can. Oooooh weeeee... little girl, little girl.

Thank goodness that little girl knows how to follow instructions.

*lee gently taking book from child and holding it securely in her lap as she drives the neighbors back to their house*

Man... I almost blacked out on that poor child. She was just asking a simple question.  But she's at that age where she will throw stuff out of an open window. And I would have hate for her and her grandma walking home in the hot sunshine just cuz that baby threw my book out the window.

Okay, so I took my book out of the plastic for ya'll.

My boss was reading the back cover. I sat in my cubicle peering at her curiously. I was ready to tackle her to the ground just in case she tried to walk off with it. Yes, I need my job, but that is MY book. That's like walking off with my pocketbook. You don't do that.

I bought the book because I want to smell the pages. I want to read it again. And I want the author's autograph.

And I remember thinking when I read the final word... "Man oh man... I wish I could write like that on that level.

It's like she has a doctorate in creative writing or something. Lawd have mercy.

And she asks the most interesting questions in class. She asked a question about technical execution in the last class. I was sitting there smirking to myself. I wanted to hold her book up high and holler...

"Josephine! What in the world are you talking about???? Have you read your own book??? This book is a Masters class in technical execution!!!!!"

LOL.

I didn't do all that. I whispered something snide across the table. That's all. I meant what I whispered though. Really.

It has helped me A LOT with my thoughts on an old half finished manuscript. Some of you may remember a set of character sketches I posted for my novel Fancy That. (click here to read prologue and one of the four the major character sketches). This book helped me think a bit deeply about it.

I took the book to class, and Josephine Garner kindly signed it!

I wanted to SCREAM. I was pleased as punch. I almost started rocking and laughing like Miss Sophia at the Easter supper table in The Color Purple.

It was a pleasure to be in class with Ms. Garner. I think it was meant to be that I met her. She herself is a professional just like myself.... and she loves to write.  It was good to meet someone like myself. And she has given me some good advice. I was just going to publish via ebook, but I think I will think about the hardcopy. She was very encouraging in that vein.

And she likes my blog. You know me, I am always O_o when someone likes my ramblings. But thankful nevertheless. Really thankful.

She said during class that she is working on the sequel to Solomon's Blues.

The classmates sit along a long table. I sit in the vincinity of Ms. Garner. Yes, I am actively listening to the teacher, taking copius notes, and googling the names of books dropped by the teacher...

But I'm actively waiting for a page of the rough draft of Ms. Garner's next book to fall to the floor or to be left carelessly behind on the table... so I can give it back to her... ONLY after reading the page of course. LOL
What a good book. It's been quite a long time since a book has stirred and disturbed me (in a good way), and has left me pondering my own ideals and personal philosphies on life.  If you're looking for a wonderfully detailed and introspective piece of fiction, check this book out. You will be thinking about it long after you finish. Very long.

I know I will be.

Class is over this Thursday night. I hate to see it end, because it has been quite good for me.

And I have a bad habit of sitting there all impatient, waiting for the class to be over... so that I can bother Ms. Garner about what I had read in Solomon's Blues and how I felt about it. I am normally a quiet chick, but I've been YACKING hard about it. Ms. Garner is eloquent in speech, a true professional, and I am a bit ebonically inclined. I think some of my ebonics slipped out, but I have watched myself.

I've wanted to holler "Honey Chile! That book sho' nuff good!" *hits Josephine with Obama church fan*

But I've smoothed it out to "Yo, that's a good book right there. Real good."

I know Ms. Garner has to be like "What the world? Does this this gal not know that it's late and that I must get home??"

LOL.

Honey, i wouldn't say a word to you if it was not a good book. Nope.

But this book was great! I can't wait to read it again. Not electronically, but on paper this time.

Yes indeed.