Books and Movies

Reading

The first sentence of the introduction to The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man, which was published in 1912: “This vivid and startlingly new picture of conditions brought about by the race question in the United States makes no special plea for the Negro, but shows in a dispassionate, though sympathetic, manner conditions as they actually exist between the whites and blacks to-day.” 

The book is a fictional narrative of the life of one man, featuring his observations on what it meant over 100 years ago to be black both in the north and in the south (also in Paris and London). I was amazed at how many aspects of the “race question” have remained unchanged. Only the choice of words (“race question”) is different. So much is the same. The book vividly combines the specific events of one character’s life with insights about the way that being either black or white created a person’s opportunities and experiences. The protagonist/narrator is a black man who can pass for white, and thus experiences life from both points of view.

James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) was an author, a poet, a civil rights leader, and a participant in the Harlem Renaissance. His most famous poem is “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” which is viewed as the Black National Anthem. Johnson was the head of the NAACP from 1920-1930. His novel The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man is an American classic.

The latest Detective Galileo novel was a little disappointing to me. The plot wasn’t as interesting or as compelling and the suspense wasn’t as dramatic as in earlier novels in this series. If you are hooked on this series you can’t miss it!

Reading Next

The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier: a bestselling author whose books
 I have enjoyed reading

Watching

“A Haunting in Venice” stars Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot along with an all-star cast.

Creepy but a little too contrived.

 

The final episode of  “Vera” is very emotional and nostalgic, but with a good mystery to wrap up a great series. 

Blog post shared with Deb’s Sunday Salon

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