Keenly observed and moving.
Well-crafted look at the wrenching experience of the youngest of the “Little Rock Nine.”
In the fall of 1957, three years after Brown v. Board of Education ordered the desegregation of all U.S. public schools, 14-year-old Carlotta Walls (now LaNier) signed up to be among the first black students at previously all-white Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas. This naïve, earnest decision would affect every facet of her life, as well as the lives of her family and neighbors. Coached and encouraged by the local NAACP branch, ten students attempted to attend Central High, only to be turned back by an ugly mob and the Arkansas National Guard, dispatched to encircle the school by staunch segregationist Gov. Orval Faubus. As lawsuits pressed by Thurgood Marshall and other civil-rights lawyers were pursued, President Eisenhower dispatched federal paratroopers to avoid “anarchy” and accompany each of the nine students (one had given up) to their classes. “Getting inside Central was just the beginning,” remembers the author; now she faced “a brand new struggle: finding a way to survive.” The daily abuse, both verbal and physical, caused intense stress; LaNier’s memoir vividly depicts the students’ and their families’ blistering struggles. Faubus illegally closed down all the area high schools during the ’58-59 school year (“the Lost Year”), and the violence worsened; Walls’ home was bombed. She left Little Rock for college and a career, loath even to mention her involvement for many years. Finding her voice, as she notes, came much later, and this hindsight account suggests that the nation still has not achieved closure about the painful events at Little Rock.
Keenly observed and moving.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-345-51100-3
Page Count: 290
Publisher: One World/Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
Vignettes of prison life, as told from inside the ``big house.'' Washington, who spent 16 years in federal jails after being convicted of murder (he claimed self-defense), serves an anedcotal smorgasbord of prison life and people. He goes for a nitty-gritty tone, as when he informs us that, in jail, ``criticism can come from the blade of a knife or a punch in the mouth.'' The bulk of his text consists of thumbnail sketches of fellow felons, guards, escape attempts, and bureaucratic snafus—all quite unevenly realized. His one-page portrait of ``Old Man Henry Carter'' is typical. Carter had come to the prison ``before rules were rules, and no records of him were kept.'' Although old and stooped, he had a kind word and smile for everyone; even the warden was moved to create a job to uphold Carter's sense of self-worth: He swept floors and delivered empty envelopes to people who called him a ``good old boy.'' Members of the Chaplain's Aid Committee took turns writing Carter so that he would receive mail, as did his fellow prisoners. When he died, the cause of death was listed by the doctor as ``PRISON.'' Washington's sour attitude toward the inhuman and arbitrary prison bureaucracy—it may be justified, but we've heard it all before—contrasts with the cleanly expressed pathos of ``Carter'' and similar still lifes in this patchy collection. His peculiarly fecund material would probably be more powerfully realized as short stories. Righteous anger, pointed questioning, and a plaintive voice that cannot be denied—but a far cry from the rage and fury of the best prison writing.
Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1994
ISBN: 0-936609-33-8
Page Count: 176
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1994
An astute, engrossing examination of the dynamic relationship between comedy and social revolution. Jenkins (Performing Arts/Emerson College), who has traveled the globe both as a student and as a professional clown, draws his material from a wealth of personal experiences. From France come the violent antics of the Archaos metal clown troupe: Costumed in suits of corrugated metal, the clowns play out nihilistic battles against evil machines that symbolize the struggle of the individual against an increasingly hostile environment. In stark contrast to the Archaos troupe are Bali's sacred temple clowns, who ``purify'' traditional rituals with the cleansing power of laughter. The Balinese clowns also inject current events into the ancient rituals, thus bridging the gap between modern reality and tradition. Comedy in formerly Communist Lithuania served to deconstruct the official vision of reality imposed by a totalitarian state. Jokes about the incompetence of the KGB and Communist bureaucracy abounded; turning the oppressor into a buffoon helped ease the burden of fear and harsh living conditions. In South Africa under apartheid, jokes about the police and government were intended to ``subvert the tyranny of a system that leaves its people spiritually homeless.'' In Italy the performer Dario Fo mocks corruption both in the Catholic hierarchy and in the secular government; his comedies serve to rekindle anger in an industrialized nation grown apathetic under the strain of centuries of corruption and political scandal. Japan's informal taishu engeki theater serves as a forum in which the working class can ridicule the stringent rules of etiquette that bind them to conformity in their everyday lives. Finally, Jenkins analyzes American comedy, noting that truly subversive acts tend to be marginalized and replaced by slick, detached performances that render true rage impossible. The author's intimate connection to his material and his tremendous capacity for description strengthen this provocative and entertaining work.
Pub Date: Oct. 27, 1994
ISBN: 0-02-916405-2
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Free Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1994
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