YOUNGBLOOD

by John Oliver Killens ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 18, 1966

A Negro novel being reissued in hardcovers after twelve years, Youngblood is about intolerance in Georgia and is timelier than ever. Set in the Twenties and Thirties, the very long story indicts the Georgia ""crackers"" for their total oppression of Negroes and details the rise of a hotelworkers' union (colored). Sensational incidents are contrasted with rock-bottom home life in the Youngblood family. Killens' vision wavers between stereotypes and accurate social realism and it features reams of richly recorded Negro speech. Also a coming-of-age novel, it works toward a dramatic riot and a death that herald the present Civil Rights revolution. It keeps an objective grip on itself, except in moments of pathos, and the sexual material is either soft-pedaled or necessary to the rhetoric of the plot. All of the novel relates to oppression; there is precious little about happy times, on the one hand, nor are broken homes, illegitimate children and so on more than mentioned. The melancholy banality of these driven lives is captured with great success, while constant fear lends convincing urgency to the story's scheme.

Pub Date: April 18, 1966

ISBN: 0820322016

Page Count: -

Publisher: Trident

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1966

Categories: FICTION