Black History Month

Today's books of the weeks have all been chosen in relation to Black History Month: Standing Firm in Power and Pride.

Life on Mars by Tracy K Smith
Recommended by Mr Hager

Life on Mars,Tracy K Smith’s 2011 poetry collection, is a remarkable, versatile work which takes ‘space' as its central metaphor, alongside the work of David Bowie and great science-fiction films of the past. She pushes the boundaries of what ‘space’ can mean, and sues it to ask many questions about life and death, about religion and the quest for meaning in life, about the direction that we as a human race are moving in - as well as specifically the direction of travel in America - and about the best and worst of human actions towards each other.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

In our second post celebrating Black History Month, Adam Seydo considers the work of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of the most well-established Nigerian postcolonial writers, having begun her writing career in 2001. 

For many students at St Paul’s, their only encounter with Adichie has been through the far-from-adored Purple Hibiscus, a novel which, while GCSE-suitable and open for effective thematic analysis, has sometimes failed to gain the fondness of the English students I’ve spoken to. Perhaps its simple narrative style doesn’t read as exciting literature, or the subject matter fails to grab the attention of some. 

I personally don’t hold the same opinion of the novel, finding its directness to be an asset. Adichie’s simplicity of language enforces the raw honesty of the novel, particularly with regards to the stark portrayal of religious tyranny and physical abuse. It also reflects the world through the eyes of Kambili, the innocent fifteen year old protagonist, whose world view is yet to be fully developed. The representation of family in the novel seems deeply authentic thanks to the clarity and detail Adichie furnishes her descriptions with, and it is clearly written with a love for Nigeria and its customs. However, the criticism I’ve heard for the book is understandable, and as Adichie’s first published work, it shouldn’t be too surprising that it isn’t her strongest piece of fiction. The ending, while shocking, feels like it lacks build-up or reasoning, and as a result ends up destabilising the flow of the narrative. This may certainly be an intentional decision, but it still feels as though the unpredictability of the final few chapters is unnecessary. 

BHM SPS: poem of the week

To celebrate Black History Month, this week's posts feature writers engaged with this year's theme, 'reclaiming narratives'.  Today, Alex Frydas introduces poet Lee Mokobe.

Lee Mokobe's slam poem, What It's Like to Be Transgender, offers a touching exploration of the experience of growing up transgender and the struggle to embrace one's identity, particularly within the confines of a deeply religious community, like the one Lee was raised in South Africa.

Black History Month: Book Recommendations

Today's books of the week are all suggested in connection with this year's celebration of Black History Month, and some are particularly linked to this year's theme of 'Saluting our Sisters'. 

Crumbs from the Table of Joy by Lynn Nottage

Recommended by Mr Kemp

A fascinating and brilliantly written 90s play about an African-American family from Florida struggling to adapt to life in Brooklyn. Moving, funny, with great characters. It also goes into the unusual and curious history of Father Divine, a real-life 20th Century evangelist and self-appointed divinity. What a drama!

Book of the Week

Love After Love by Ingrid Persaud

Recommended by Dr Cocks

  
The title of Ingrid Persaud’s novel is a direct echo of Derek Walcott’s 1971 poem of the same title:

    The time will come
    when, with elation
    you will greet yourself arriving
    at your own door, in your own mirror
    and each will smile at the other's welcome,

    and say, sit here. Eat.
    You will love again the stranger who was your self.
    Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
    to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

Walcott’s poem celebrates a time when fractured selves will be reconciled and accommodated – a time in the future when we might learn self-acceptance, understanding, a sense of being at home with one’s self after a period of exile, a biblical homecoming when the self shall return to the self, catching them unaware, and be welcomed as a guest with feasting. In the context of the multiple selves we navigate in the world of the African diaspora and in the post-liberationist milieu of the Caribbean, this poem might also speak to the sense of self-reckoning, self-recognition, and self-love that nations might find too.

Persaud’s tender and ultimately joyous novel of 2020 does some of the cultural work of capturing a national sensibility, even while it acknowledges that any such sensibilities to be in flux. It unfolds, for the most part, or at least for the best parts, in present day Port of Spain ( Trinidad). It’s the story of Betty Ramdin, a close-to-middle aged teacher who has suffered physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her alcoholic husband. A few years on from her husband’s sudden death, she takes in a lodger, Mr Chetan, a homely man in search of a family , and together with her son Solo, they form a complicated and happily dysfunctional family whose love for each other might just be enough to sustain them as they come to terms with who they are, with the legacy of the violent past, and with the selves they must learn to love.

Book of the Week

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Recommended by Ryan Ko

For those of you who know me, you will know that I love Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Having read all her novels, it's hard for me to pick out a favourite – but for today, I will focus on Americanah.

Americanah is a love story between two childhood sweethearts, Ifemulu and Obinze. Both from Nigeria, Ifemulu moves to Philadelphia whilst Obinze moves to the UK. The two are distant in geography, but are linked through the way in which they both are disconnected from the land they live in. This is particularly impressive on Adichie's part because both the UK and the USA have different histories and different social structures; so whilst she is able to intimately connect them through their isolation, she doesn't box both protagonists in a shared consciousness and is able to shed light on the individual position of race in both countries. 

Black History Month

As this year's Black History Month begins - with events at SPS including a reading group discussion of Reni Eddo-Lodge's Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race, as well as a display of books in the library and from the SPS archive - here at the book blog, we thought we'd put together some reading suggestions, including fiction and non-fiction, aimed at all ages: some are new works, and others are classics, and some are particularly linked to this year's theme of 'Black Britain'. If you'd like to suggest a book we should add to the list, please feel free to use the comments box at the end of the post. 

Passing for White by Tanya Landman 

1848 – America’s Deep South. Slave girl Rosa is pale-skinned enough to ‘pass for white’, yet escape seems an impossible dream until she meets Benjamin. Together, they hatch a desperate plan. If Rosa poses as a white gentleman, Benjamin can travel as her slave... But can Rosa hold her nerve on their thousand-mile flight to freedom? Inspired by a true story, this is a powerful tale of danger, injustice and unimaginable courage.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Gripping and powerful young adult novel about the point blank shooting by police of an African American teenager, told through the eyes of 16 year old Starr, who is the only witness to her friend's murder. Black Lives Matter.  

Dear Martin by Nic Stone

Raw and compelling young adult novel about contemporary race relations in the US. Justyce McAllister is top of his class and bound for uni, but none of that matters to the police who arrest him. He looks to the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for answers. But do they hold up anymore?