ME AND MINE

In pre-dystopian Milwaukee, where neighborhoods are partitioned, travel is restricted, and drinking water is limited, a racially blended family confronts racism as usual.

“We’d been in a manageable amount of danger since we were born,” says Mars, the narrator, one of three brothers whose Black father appears to have been murdered and whose Greek Jewish mother, a community doctor, up and disappeared. White supremacist paramilitary and fascist groups prowl the shrunken city, where ID codes have been instituted at check points that separate the wealthy from the poor. Among the siblings, Amilcar, or AG, having “cooled out with the autodidactic revolutionary blueprint,” now works in the mayor’s office—or so his siblings, who lost touch with him, have heard. Lucius, or Lu, the “pitbull” of the family, and the pop culture savvy Mars have gotten involved in different ways with private security groups and armed resistance. A notable fourth party is Lu’s ex-girlfriend Minnijean Belafonte, aka Mini-Bel, head of an underground group whose fortifications “would make CIA blacksites proud.” Holmes’ impressive first novel, following his story collection, How Are You Going to Save Yourself (2018), proceeds with unstoppable energy, cutting through its sprawling narrative with tangy dialogue, wide-ranging cultural and historical references, and stinging social commentary: “Once you turn 30 it’s like they take the heart and soul out of a Black man in this country. And you don’t wanna fight no more.” Extreme weather—dreaded sprees of 110 degrees and conditions so cold that cops “who still had souls” pick up people to keep them from freezing to death—further weakens the city of broad shoulders. One can only wonder what Carl Sandburg would make of it.

An uncategorizable novel that is as grimly amusing as it is unsettling.