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Ginny Gall
A sweeping, eerily resonant epic of race and violence in the Jim Crow South: a lyrical and emotionally devastating masterpiece from Charlie Smith, whom the New York Public Library has said “may be America’s most bewitching stylist alive”
Delvin Walker is just a boy when his mother flees their home in the Red Row section of Chattanooga, accused of killing a white man. Taken in by Cornelius Oliver, proprietor of the town’s leading Negro funeral home, he discovers the art of caring for the aggrieved, the promise of transcendence in the written word, and a rare peace in a hostile world. Yet tragedy visits them near-daily, and after a series of devastating events—a lynching, a church burning—Delvin fears being accused of murdering a local white boy and leaves town.
Haunted by his mother’s disappearance, Delvin rides the rails, meets fellow travelers, falls in love, and sees an America sliding into the Great Depression. But before his hopes for life and love can be realized, he and a group of other young men are falsely charged with the rape of two white women, and shackled to a system of enslavement masquerading as justice. As he is pushed deeper into the darkness of imprisonment, his resolve to escape burns only more brightly, until in a last spasm of flight, in a white heat of terror, he is called to choose his fate.
In language both intimate and lyrical, novelist and poet Charlie Smith conjures a fresh and complex portrait of the South of the 1920s and ’30s in all its brutal humanity—and the astonishing endurance of one battered young man, his consciousness “an accumulation of breached and disordered living . . . hopes packed hard into sprung joints,” who lives past and through it all.
Delvin Walker is just a boy when his mother flees their home in the Red Row section of Chattanooga, accused of killing a white man. Taken in by Cornelius Oliver, proprietor of the town’s leading Negro funeral home, he discovers the art of caring for the aggrieved, the promise of transcendence in the written word, and a rare peace in a hostile world. Yet tragedy visits them near-daily, and after a series of devastating events—a lynching, a church burning—Delvin fears being accused of murdering a local white boy and leaves town.
Haunted by his mother’s disappearance, Delvin rides the rails, meets fellow travelers, falls in love, and sees an America sliding into the Great Depression. But before his hopes for life and love can be realized, he and a group of other young men are falsely charged with the rape of two white women, and shackled to a system of enslavement masquerading as justice. As he is pushed deeper into the darkness of imprisonment, his resolve to escape burns only more brightly, until in a last spasm of flight, in a white heat of terror, he is called to choose his fate.
In language both intimate and lyrical, novelist and poet Charlie Smith conjures a fresh and complex portrait of the South of the 1920s and ’30s in all its brutal humanity—and the astonishing endurance of one battered young man, his consciousness “an accumulation of breached and disordered living . . . hopes packed hard into sprung joints,” who lives past and through it all.
453 pages, Hardcover
First published February 2, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
February 2, 2016
Smith's gorgeous, harrowing novel covers a great swatch of the Jim Crow South and conjures up the largely separate, ferociously repressed world of African Americans in the early 20th century. The protagonist is Delvin, born in 1913, to a “good-time gal” in Chattanooga, Tenn. Early in the novel, his mother unintentionally kills a white man and runs for her life. Delvin is left first to the care of an orphanage and then to a kindly undertaker, from whom he learns the mechanics of death and the rhythms of grief. He’s a bright boy, “a wonderanemous child,” quick to read and eager to make up stories, but his primary occupation is staying alive in a society that insists black men — even boys — remain. . . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
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To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...
June 25, 2016
★★★★ Ginny Gall: A Life in the South ~ Charlie Smith ★★★★
“The boy was smart and he knew the story but he hadn’t been able to tell it. Like all of them he didn’t believe what was happening to him. Three hundred years of teaching, and they still didn’t get it.”
A middle-aged father of four travels across town one night to one of his best friend’s houses. He is stopped by the police and questioned. Despite the Mortuary Chief’s Seal in the window of his Volvo that marks him as a working man like them, they wonder what he is doing here. They are suspicious until . . . his friend, the lawyer, steps out of his house and asks them what, pray tell, is the matter.
A twenty year old young man has just left the mall after working 16 hours straight on his feet handling the holiday rush. He doesn’t have a car but is willing to brave the cold weather on foot. You see he has been ticketed before for riding a bike that didn’t have a bell on it. This night he is stopped once again. In fact he has been stopped nearly every night. But on this night his work ID is not enough; he receives another citation.
Ginny Gall is a slang term for the Negro suburban communities of the 1920s and 30s. It represents “the hell beyond hell, hell’s hell”.
“In each town the strict divide between the races was carefully and forcefully maintained. Place was most important. Remember your place, boy, the instructions lettered invisibly but legibly on every sign and attitude.”
Ginny Gall is the story of Delvin Walker, the last son of Capable “Cappie” Florence, a prostitute who runs off after being accused of killing a white man. He and his siblings are left behind in the town’s orphanage. Delvin’s life appears to take a turn for the better when he catches the eye of the local mortician who takes him under his wing and grooms him to take over the business. This is until one sunny day Delvin comes across two gangs of white boys fighting in the fields. Upon discovering him watching them, they take off after him. One of his friends fires off a warning shot that may have hit one of the young boys. For fear that he will be lynched, Delvin takes to the rails and begins his journey through the Jim Crow South. The atrocities that he witnesses and experiences are all too familiar ones in the year 2016. These are the travesties that still plague our nightly news programs and disturb the sleep of black mothers.
“You think somebody’s going to wake up, some bit of religion or hope or human reason or kindness is going to kick in, but then it doesn’t.”
To say that Charlie Smith has a way with words is an understatement. His prose is superbly written; his descriptions the stuff of poetry. At times I felt Smith’s narrative transported me back in time surrounded by the sounds and scents and colors of that era. At other times, I felt bogged down by the metaphors and wanted Smith to skip the details and get on with Delvin’s journey. The scenery no longer mattered to me so much as Delvin’s story did. As a representative of Black men in America both past and present, I simply had a yearning desire to see him survive, to live, to be set free.
“His spirit wakens or shifts in a new way, or an old way recalled, and a sadness cuts into him. But there is a happiness mixed with it, a sense of life going on in a world he is part of, not this world of battering and futility but the other – pinched as it is – smelling of churned water and living things moving through the air. It’s natural to him and he realizes this, the world can’t really be taken from him, no matter the prison they put him in.”
“The boy was smart and he knew the story but he hadn’t been able to tell it. Like all of them he didn’t believe what was happening to him. Three hundred years of teaching, and they still didn’t get it.”
A middle-aged father of four travels across town one night to one of his best friend’s houses. He is stopped by the police and questioned. Despite the Mortuary Chief’s Seal in the window of his Volvo that marks him as a working man like them, they wonder what he is doing here. They are suspicious until . . . his friend, the lawyer, steps out of his house and asks them what, pray tell, is the matter.
A twenty year old young man has just left the mall after working 16 hours straight on his feet handling the holiday rush. He doesn’t have a car but is willing to brave the cold weather on foot. You see he has been ticketed before for riding a bike that didn’t have a bell on it. This night he is stopped once again. In fact he has been stopped nearly every night. But on this night his work ID is not enough; he receives another citation.
Ginny Gall is a slang term for the Negro suburban communities of the 1920s and 30s. It represents “the hell beyond hell, hell’s hell”.
“In each town the strict divide between the races was carefully and forcefully maintained. Place was most important. Remember your place, boy, the instructions lettered invisibly but legibly on every sign and attitude.”
Ginny Gall is the story of Delvin Walker, the last son of Capable “Cappie” Florence, a prostitute who runs off after being accused of killing a white man. He and his siblings are left behind in the town’s orphanage. Delvin’s life appears to take a turn for the better when he catches the eye of the local mortician who takes him under his wing and grooms him to take over the business. This is until one sunny day Delvin comes across two gangs of white boys fighting in the fields. Upon discovering him watching them, they take off after him. One of his friends fires off a warning shot that may have hit one of the young boys. For fear that he will be lynched, Delvin takes to the rails and begins his journey through the Jim Crow South. The atrocities that he witnesses and experiences are all too familiar ones in the year 2016. These are the travesties that still plague our nightly news programs and disturb the sleep of black mothers.
“You think somebody’s going to wake up, some bit of religion or hope or human reason or kindness is going to kick in, but then it doesn’t.”
To say that Charlie Smith has a way with words is an understatement. His prose is superbly written; his descriptions the stuff of poetry. At times I felt Smith’s narrative transported me back in time surrounded by the sounds and scents and colors of that era. At other times, I felt bogged down by the metaphors and wanted Smith to skip the details and get on with Delvin’s journey. The scenery no longer mattered to me so much as Delvin’s story did. As a representative of Black men in America both past and present, I simply had a yearning desire to see him survive, to live, to be set free.
“His spirit wakens or shifts in a new way, or an old way recalled, and a sadness cuts into him. But there is a happiness mixed with it, a sense of life going on in a world he is part of, not this world of battering and futility but the other – pinched as it is – smelling of churned water and living things moving through the air. It’s natural to him and he realizes this, the world can’t really be taken from him, no matter the prison they put him in.”
February 15, 2016
This book had enormous potential for the first 250 pages. Unfortunately, it went completely off the tracks. (No pun intended.) The author's penchant for page long sentences, endless description and stream of consciousness Mumbo Jumbo completely gutted what could have been a great story. I'm not an art critic. As a reader I'm just a paying customer. Vociferous style over substance does not appeal to me. Mr. Smith should stick to poetry and keep the cost down.
June 10, 2016
This book was a great find. I was at the Olathe library looking at the newly released books, I'm so glad I picked it up. Charlie Smith is a great writer. He is able to write poetically within a devastating story about a black man growing up in the 1930's in the South. I highly recommend it. Writers are amazing!
January 15, 2016
Ginny Gall is slang for “a suburb of Hell,” which certainly applied to black people in the Jim Crow South, where you could be lynched just for being black. Delvin Walker, the main protagonist, suffered for the crime of having dark skin. He was born in the Red Row (black--we'd call it the projects now) district of Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1913, to a scrappy and fiery mother, whose crime he was also paying for. Charlie Smith’s novel is more of a portrait of a time, and of a people that Delvin symbolized, castigated for breathing the same air as white people.
The author’s unsentimental, frank narrative portrays the black man’s burden, yes, how inhumanity is the accepted “etiquette” of the era, but also how humanity is found in some of the most unlikely places. Moreover, the author made the story specific to Delvin, the most evolved character in the story, a boy who grew to be a man, even though he was treated, by society, like an animal. It is by turns tragic, confounding, tender, rough, sharp, tangy, mournful, and uplifting. Hope, in Ginny Gall, can also be a suburb of Hell.
This wasn’t just about social injustice, though. Delvin, (like other black people of the time), carved out a niche for himself, or tried to. His first benefactor, Mr. Oliver, was the well-off mortician/undertaker for the black side of town. Delvin was taken under his wing after a long stint at an orphanage. He learned the business, became part of a lively family, and also experienced life with the dead. The avuncular Oliver encouraged Delvin’s self-education, and they both enjoyed reading Shakespeare and other classics together. Delvin fell in love with the written word, and aspired to be a writer.
Throughout his life, Delvin found himself having to run; some ghost or shadow of one was always chasing him (and there’s an albino named Ghost, which was symbolic). Jumping on trains was a bit of an art, but it was also the only means of transportation for many of his peers. During his travels, Delvin finds first love, odd friendships, and a lot to write about. He hooks up with a learned man with a museum on wheels—essentially, a library of the black experience, and photographs of inspired or expired individuals that the “professor” felt should be learned about and remembered.
My biggest complaint—and I love a certain amount of wordiness at times—is the sheer verbosity of every scene, all the details that make up a setting. You know how certain movies provide a work of art in every frame? It works for a movie, because it presents a visual tableau for the eyes. However, in a novel, it can get bogged down; Smith never failed to enumerate every detail—whether it was every smell that was elicited, every article surrounding the setting, or the minutia of every nook and cranny. The pacing was sluggish, plodding on and absorbed by the physical features. I admit to getting weary at times, wanting to move on. This book would make a fantastic movie, as everything is laid out to see. But, in a novel, I’d like to do a little of the fill-in for myself.
At other times, the author’s narrative would just break my heart. “…he carried with him for days the recall of a faint sadness…He returned to study and wonder about it, the singular occasion of reprimand and the sorrow it uncovered and the moment of silence it revealed and how this silence or space with nothing in it seemed so important.”
“The world was receding from him, leaving a space that nothing had quite filled in. Life in the end thievery’s fool.”
The author’s unsentimental, frank narrative portrays the black man’s burden, yes, how inhumanity is the accepted “etiquette” of the era, but also how humanity is found in some of the most unlikely places. Moreover, the author made the story specific to Delvin, the most evolved character in the story, a boy who grew to be a man, even though he was treated, by society, like an animal. It is by turns tragic, confounding, tender, rough, sharp, tangy, mournful, and uplifting. Hope, in Ginny Gall, can also be a suburb of Hell.
This wasn’t just about social injustice, though. Delvin, (like other black people of the time), carved out a niche for himself, or tried to. His first benefactor, Mr. Oliver, was the well-off mortician/undertaker for the black side of town. Delvin was taken under his wing after a long stint at an orphanage. He learned the business, became part of a lively family, and also experienced life with the dead. The avuncular Oliver encouraged Delvin’s self-education, and they both enjoyed reading Shakespeare and other classics together. Delvin fell in love with the written word, and aspired to be a writer.
Throughout his life, Delvin found himself having to run; some ghost or shadow of one was always chasing him (and there’s an albino named Ghost, which was symbolic). Jumping on trains was a bit of an art, but it was also the only means of transportation for many of his peers. During his travels, Delvin finds first love, odd friendships, and a lot to write about. He hooks up with a learned man with a museum on wheels—essentially, a library of the black experience, and photographs of inspired or expired individuals that the “professor” felt should be learned about and remembered.
My biggest complaint—and I love a certain amount of wordiness at times—is the sheer verbosity of every scene, all the details that make up a setting. You know how certain movies provide a work of art in every frame? It works for a movie, because it presents a visual tableau for the eyes. However, in a novel, it can get bogged down; Smith never failed to enumerate every detail—whether it was every smell that was elicited, every article surrounding the setting, or the minutia of every nook and cranny. The pacing was sluggish, plodding on and absorbed by the physical features. I admit to getting weary at times, wanting to move on. This book would make a fantastic movie, as everything is laid out to see. But, in a novel, I’d like to do a little of the fill-in for myself.
At other times, the author’s narrative would just break my heart. “…he carried with him for days the recall of a faint sadness…He returned to study and wonder about it, the singular occasion of reprimand and the sorrow it uncovered and the moment of silence it revealed and how this silence or space with nothing in it seemed so important.”
“The world was receding from him, leaving a space that nothing had quite filled in. Life in the end thievery’s fool.”
December 16, 2015
"Ginny Gall" is the story of a black man, living in the South during the Jim Crowe Era, accused of killing a white man. Just a boy, Delvin Walker and his mother flee their home in Red Row, Chattanooga. He is taken in by Cornelius Oliver, owner of the town’s most prominent African-American funeral home, where he learns about grieving, compassion and religion.
This book deals realistically with a time period in US history that many current groups want to cover up, or 'whitewash'. I am a believer that those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it, so I feel works like Charlie Smith's "Ginny Gall" are more important today than they have ever been. I would recommend this book to history buffs.
(Book obtained from Goodreads)
This book deals realistically with a time period in US history that many current groups want to cover up, or 'whitewash'. I am a believer that those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it, so I feel works like Charlie Smith's "Ginny Gall" are more important today than they have ever been. I would recommend this book to history buffs.
(Book obtained from Goodreads)
March 5, 2024
I kind of struggled with this one a bit. Chalie Smith is one of those authors who is fond of using run-on sentences that can be up to a page long. I found it exhausting and about halfway through, considered not finishing it, but I persevered and made it to the end.
Putting those criticisms aside, I did enjoy it. The crux of the story is that of a young boy separated from his Momma and finding his way through the Jim Crow Era in the deep south alone. Hard to believe that all that was less than a hundred years ago.
Putting those criticisms aside, I did enjoy it. The crux of the story is that of a young boy separated from his Momma and finding his way through the Jim Crow Era in the deep south alone. Hard to believe that all that was less than a hundred years ago.
January 31, 2016
Charlie Smith’s new novel, Ginny Gall, is about a life in the South. The reader is introduced to the protagonist, Delvin Walker, at his birth on the porch where his mother is currently living. With Delvin’s birth, Mr. Smith begins an in depth portrayal of Southern mores that have lasted for generations. “A certain way of doing things” that impacts both Black life and White life on a daily basis. The novel Ginny Gall is not for the faint of heart. There are brutal scenes that give the reader pause, if only to recover one’s own humanity.
Charlie Smith is both a poet and a novelist. This dynamic combination is evident throughout the novel as long descriptive passages, filled with a plethora of figurative language, envelope and consume the often brutal action that was and is life in the South. Thesis and anti-thesis are in play when referring to both Black and White life in the South. One does not exist without the other. Exposing Delvin Walker’s Black life also exposes the White life that places restrictions on other human beings simply because it can be done. The Black paradigm of survival in a segregated environment also exposes the White paradigm of annihilation in a segregated environment.
Ginny Gall is a novel to be read by anyone who is willing to face the truth about life – past and present. Charlie Smith describes what life was like during the early 20th century in America. Much has changed in metropolitan arenas; however, much has remained the same in small town conclaves. All of this is reality. Being mindful that one’s perception is one’s reality, we are witnesses to what life is like today. Mr. Charlie Smith has opened a door to the past that must be acknowledged by each individual reading this novel. Who is willing to accept this challenge?
Linda Hines
AAMBC Reviewer
Charlie Smith is both a poet and a novelist. This dynamic combination is evident throughout the novel as long descriptive passages, filled with a plethora of figurative language, envelope and consume the often brutal action that was and is life in the South. Thesis and anti-thesis are in play when referring to both Black and White life in the South. One does not exist without the other. Exposing Delvin Walker’s Black life also exposes the White life that places restrictions on other human beings simply because it can be done. The Black paradigm of survival in a segregated environment also exposes the White paradigm of annihilation in a segregated environment.
Ginny Gall is a novel to be read by anyone who is willing to face the truth about life – past and present. Charlie Smith describes what life was like during the early 20th century in America. Much has changed in metropolitan arenas; however, much has remained the same in small town conclaves. All of this is reality. Being mindful that one’s perception is one’s reality, we are witnesses to what life is like today. Mr. Charlie Smith has opened a door to the past that must be acknowledged by each individual reading this novel. Who is willing to accept this challenge?
Linda Hines
AAMBC Reviewer
February 20, 2016
3.5 Ginny Gall is the latest work from prize winning author Charlie Smith.
The title? Ginny Gall is a word coined by 1920's and 1930's blacks meaning..."a suburb of Hell". And that's where Smith takes the reader to start - to the Jim Crow south in Tennessee.
The lead character is Delvin Walker born in Chattanooga in 1913 to a prostitute. He's left alone too soon as his mother flees, accused of killing a white man. Smith takes the reader on Delvin's journey through life as he makes his way - first finding a home with the local black funeral director and then mirroring his mother as he too is accused of killing a white boy and flees Chattanooga. He rides the rails, exploring America, hoping for more, hoping for better. But it seems he can't outrun prejudice, inhumanity and injustice.
I loved Delvin's voice, his hopes and his thoughts. I wept at the fact that you could change the dates of the story and still post it under today's newspaper headlines.
Smith's prose reminded me of black strap molasses - richly coloured and glowing when the light shines through as it is poured. But also viscous and opaque when not moving. I had to put the book down a number of times and come back to it. The prose are beautiful and lyrical, but I found them overwhelming in large doses. Smith details every bit of the book, sometimes to the detriment of his protagonist and his message.
This one's going to be hard to rate - I think there's a very important message here, I think Smith's writing is beautiful and I liked the protagonist very much, but I just got bogged down in detail.
The title? Ginny Gall is a word coined by 1920's and 1930's blacks meaning..."a suburb of Hell". And that's where Smith takes the reader to start - to the Jim Crow south in Tennessee.
The lead character is Delvin Walker born in Chattanooga in 1913 to a prostitute. He's left alone too soon as his mother flees, accused of killing a white man. Smith takes the reader on Delvin's journey through life as he makes his way - first finding a home with the local black funeral director and then mirroring his mother as he too is accused of killing a white boy and flees Chattanooga. He rides the rails, exploring America, hoping for more, hoping for better. But it seems he can't outrun prejudice, inhumanity and injustice.
I loved Delvin's voice, his hopes and his thoughts. I wept at the fact that you could change the dates of the story and still post it under today's newspaper headlines.
Smith's prose reminded me of black strap molasses - richly coloured and glowing when the light shines through as it is poured. But also viscous and opaque when not moving. I had to put the book down a number of times and come back to it. The prose are beautiful and lyrical, but I found them overwhelming in large doses. Smith details every bit of the book, sometimes to the detriment of his protagonist and his message.
This one's going to be hard to rate - I think there's a very important message here, I think Smith's writing is beautiful and I liked the protagonist very much, but I just got bogged down in detail.
May 25, 2017
Contemporary fiction book group - have to confess I didn't finish this book but abandoned it 100 pages from end because I just couldn't take it anymore. I really wanted to like this book but the overly descriptive writing, disjointed story, and run on sentences were too much to overcome. Could have been a great book as the look at the Jim Crow south, race, class, poverty, colorism, etc. provided ample material. I did like parts of this book and several sections really made me think and draw parallels to today but those could not displace the sense I was dragging myself through hoping to get to the end.
September 18, 2018
DNF After 257 pages I gave up. EDIT!
June 22, 2021
I don't often read fiction. Books like this are why. What first irked me was the sister of the main character whose name is Coolmist. TF is Coolmist? Sounds like the name of a menthol cigarette.
Then there's the half a page written about a cricket. Unless that cricket becomes a character in the book - and I'll never know b/c I stopped reading it - why are we talking about it? It sets the scene, I get it. It's still not something I want to fill my head with. There's so much that happened in Jim Crow south to read about but this isn't it.
Then there's the half a page written about a cricket. Unless that cricket becomes a character in the book - and I'll never know b/c I stopped reading it - why are we talking about it? It sets the scene, I get it. It's still not something I want to fill my head with. There's so much that happened in Jim Crow south to read about but this isn't it.
August 6, 2017
The book was very slow. Felt every one of the 453 pages
July 30, 2018
good...
July 4, 2016
Smith is a highly gifted author and poet. While the lengthy prose and paragraphs could have been minimized in this story, without distracting from the overall plot, there was such depth and beauty in his descriptive writing that I didn't mind the additional passages. Smith takes us on a journey into the lives of negroes living under Jim Crow from 1913-1943.
Set predominately in Chattanooga, Devlin Walker is five years old in 1918 when his mother, Cappie, is accused of murdering a white man, one of her regular customers, Mr. Miller. Cappie is a prostitute at the Emporium. She flees leaving her four children orphaned. In the orphanage, Devlin begins to learn to read from Mrs. Parker.
The children are placed in an orphanage. When Devlin is six and a half years old he goes to live with and work for Mr. Cornelius Oliver, the owner and mortician of the Constitution Funeral Home. Smith delves into the inner workings of a funeral home from preparing and repairing the corpses to dealing with grieving families members to placing the corpse in its final resting place at the cemetery. Devlin was both intrigued and scared by the ordeal. As a young child he began to ponder death, loss, life everlasting, and the spirit world.
Lynching, racism and the KKK were prevelant and blacks were constantly looking over their shoulder for their safety and mistreatment lying around many corners of life. Several of the bodies delivered to Mr. Oliver were mutilated by white racists.
When he is twelve Devlin befriends an albino boy, Winston Morgred, whom he calls Ghost and another boy called Onely. The boys were playing and hunting in the woods and accidently fire the gun at a group of white boys. They run for their lives and Devlin skips town on a train. Devlin meets a professor Clemenus John Carmel who owns a traveling museum of negro history and Devlin joins Professor Carmel on his travels. Devlin's knowledge and curiosity is expanded during his time with Professor Carmel. Devlin meets Celia Cumberland, the daughter of a teacher and a stepfather who is a physician. Celia is in college and is toying between medicine and literature. She and Devlin are physically and intellectually attracted to each other.
Devlin begins to get into minor skirmishes and trouble with the law nit because he has nothing anything wrong, but rather, because he was standing up for truth, justice and equal treatment. For his first offense, which for nothing other than the color of his skin, sends him to a work farm to pay off his punishment. After release. Devlin tries to find and rejoin Professor Carmel, but on September 8, 1931 he is caught up in a terrible fight on a freight train where white and black young men and two prostitutes, Lucille Blaine and Hazel Fran, become ensnared in a fight and the women charge accusations against the eight black men of rape. Of course prejudice prevails and the eight men go to prison.
For twelve years Devlin lives in four prisons: Blue Mountain, Uniball, Columbia and Acheron. He escapes once and lives for a month before being caught. He contracts "red dog" which severely incapacitates him. Through his fevers he dreams of those he has loved and the life he lost for running as a boy: his mother, Mrs. Parker, Mr. Oliver, the Ghost, Celia and the Professor. As the eight men face retrials Devlin pokes holes at the weak arguments by the prosecution. The white men in the courts know Devlin speaks the truth, is too smart for his own good, and is defying their authority. The eight men are never acquitted.
In 1943 Devlin finally escapes from Acheron through a tunnel and finds his way to Florida and then Atlanta where he meets another woman, Minnie Mae, whom he falls in love with. He ultimately works his way back to Chattanooga to see if he can find his mother. Mr. Oliver is dying from cancer and he learns his mother returned six years earlier to the Emporium and died there from natural causes. When Devlin goes to the Emporium he again meets Lucille Blaine who is bragging of how famous she became for falsely accusing eight black men of rape. The fate of Cappie striking Mr. Miller mirrors Devlin striking Lucille causing both mother and son to flee their fate. The ghost of Cappie haunts Devlin throughout his life.
Like the cycle of life we are brought into, we enter and leave this world alone. Devlin was a child and man searching for love, but for him, it was forever elusive and the cup of his heart never filled. No matter how hard he tried to make right in his life, the elements and circumstances were stacked against him.
"Ginny Galled, you might say-a negro name, Ginny Gall, for the hell beyond hell, hell's hell-he begins to tell himself his book."
"If they were looking. Maybe they'd...but he knew they hadn't forgot. Couldn't down here afford to neglect for too long any unaccounted-for colored man. Colored man-the rules he had to follow-was the linchpin of the whole business down here. Lynch pin."
Set predominately in Chattanooga, Devlin Walker is five years old in 1918 when his mother, Cappie, is accused of murdering a white man, one of her regular customers, Mr. Miller. Cappie is a prostitute at the Emporium. She flees leaving her four children orphaned. In the orphanage, Devlin begins to learn to read from Mrs. Parker.
The children are placed in an orphanage. When Devlin is six and a half years old he goes to live with and work for Mr. Cornelius Oliver, the owner and mortician of the Constitution Funeral Home. Smith delves into the inner workings of a funeral home from preparing and repairing the corpses to dealing with grieving families members to placing the corpse in its final resting place at the cemetery. Devlin was both intrigued and scared by the ordeal. As a young child he began to ponder death, loss, life everlasting, and the spirit world.
Lynching, racism and the KKK were prevelant and blacks were constantly looking over their shoulder for their safety and mistreatment lying around many corners of life. Several of the bodies delivered to Mr. Oliver were mutilated by white racists.
When he is twelve Devlin befriends an albino boy, Winston Morgred, whom he calls Ghost and another boy called Onely. The boys were playing and hunting in the woods and accidently fire the gun at a group of white boys. They run for their lives and Devlin skips town on a train. Devlin meets a professor Clemenus John Carmel who owns a traveling museum of negro history and Devlin joins Professor Carmel on his travels. Devlin's knowledge and curiosity is expanded during his time with Professor Carmel. Devlin meets Celia Cumberland, the daughter of a teacher and a stepfather who is a physician. Celia is in college and is toying between medicine and literature. She and Devlin are physically and intellectually attracted to each other.
Devlin begins to get into minor skirmishes and trouble with the law nit because he has nothing anything wrong, but rather, because he was standing up for truth, justice and equal treatment. For his first offense, which for nothing other than the color of his skin, sends him to a work farm to pay off his punishment. After release. Devlin tries to find and rejoin Professor Carmel, but on September 8, 1931 he is caught up in a terrible fight on a freight train where white and black young men and two prostitutes, Lucille Blaine and Hazel Fran, become ensnared in a fight and the women charge accusations against the eight black men of rape. Of course prejudice prevails and the eight men go to prison.
For twelve years Devlin lives in four prisons: Blue Mountain, Uniball, Columbia and Acheron. He escapes once and lives for a month before being caught. He contracts "red dog" which severely incapacitates him. Through his fevers he dreams of those he has loved and the life he lost for running as a boy: his mother, Mrs. Parker, Mr. Oliver, the Ghost, Celia and the Professor. As the eight men face retrials Devlin pokes holes at the weak arguments by the prosecution. The white men in the courts know Devlin speaks the truth, is too smart for his own good, and is defying their authority. The eight men are never acquitted.
In 1943 Devlin finally escapes from Acheron through a tunnel and finds his way to Florida and then Atlanta where he meets another woman, Minnie Mae, whom he falls in love with. He ultimately works his way back to Chattanooga to see if he can find his mother. Mr. Oliver is dying from cancer and he learns his mother returned six years earlier to the Emporium and died there from natural causes. When Devlin goes to the Emporium he again meets Lucille Blaine who is bragging of how famous she became for falsely accusing eight black men of rape. The fate of Cappie striking Mr. Miller mirrors Devlin striking Lucille causing both mother and son to flee their fate. The ghost of Cappie haunts Devlin throughout his life.
Like the cycle of life we are brought into, we enter and leave this world alone. Devlin was a child and man searching for love, but for him, it was forever elusive and the cup of his heart never filled. No matter how hard he tried to make right in his life, the elements and circumstances were stacked against him.
"Ginny Galled, you might say-a negro name, Ginny Gall, for the hell beyond hell, hell's hell-he begins to tell himself his book."
"If they were looking. Maybe they'd...but he knew they hadn't forgot. Couldn't down here afford to neglect for too long any unaccounted-for colored man. Colored man-the rules he had to follow-was the linchpin of the whole business down here. Lynch pin."
December 23, 2016
We first meet Delvin Walker as a very young black boy abandoned by his mother when she was accused of killing a man while working as a prostitute on "Red Row" in Chattanooga. His education was sporadic, and he was turned away from various schools because he had no parent or guardian to vouch for him. He did learn to read, however and discovered that books were "rideable transport into habitable territory." Delvin spent some time in an orphanage and a foundlings home, but was eventually taken in by Mr. Oliver, the town's black funeral parlor owner. Oliver was a thoughtful and learned man, and they spent their evenings reading Shakespeare and other great works.
Life is good for Delvin for a while, or as good as it gets for a colored boy in the deep south in the early part of the century. When he was about 15, he and his friend Onely got caught up in a kerfuffle with some white boys, Onely fired his gun, one of the white boys was injured and Delvin knew instantly that he wouldn't be safe anywhere. Thus began his life on the run. Though Delvin had periods of rest and safety when he landed some place with kind people who didn't care about his past, he is constantly reminded of his inferior status and the injustice brought on him by the color of his skin.
Smith's writing is characterized by long run-on sentences, sometimes paragraph length, which at times had a cinematic quality - as if the scene was filmed with one camera and no cuts. The language and vocabulary is at times inscrutable; on page one I circled two words which I would have looked up online if I had been reading the Kindle version of the book: massacree and crudesence. Neither word is found in the dictionary. Later on I encountered such words as "fribbly" and "qualmous" or "terrapinate". I don't know whether such words were meant to be part of the vernacular of the black people in the south, or words that Smith made up, or words that just sound like real words... I certainly enjoy expanding my vocabulary through reading, but some of these word choices were just odd.
Though I enjoyed the dialogue which had an authentic voice and helped to move the narrative along briskly, Smith's dense writing style can only be described as a barrage of words, ponderous and at times oppressive. About half way through the book, the sad tales of Delvin's lonely, helpless and desperate life started to wear on me, as did the page after page of walls of text - sometimes a paragraph was a page of more in length. There were also many pages of italicized text which is difficult to read and should be reserved for short passages. I never figured out why it was necessary to present so much of the text in italics.
In spite of Delvin's burdensome life, he retains a core of humanity and hope. He wanted to write books, and his travels were the source of his stories - stories that he felt needed to be told. He wanted to keep travelling and said "I feel like I'm winding string onto a ball." - a great metaphor for the gathering of life experiences.
Life is good for Delvin for a while, or as good as it gets for a colored boy in the deep south in the early part of the century. When he was about 15, he and his friend Onely got caught up in a kerfuffle with some white boys, Onely fired his gun, one of the white boys was injured and Delvin knew instantly that he wouldn't be safe anywhere. Thus began his life on the run. Though Delvin had periods of rest and safety when he landed some place with kind people who didn't care about his past, he is constantly reminded of his inferior status and the injustice brought on him by the color of his skin.
Smith's writing is characterized by long run-on sentences, sometimes paragraph length, which at times had a cinematic quality - as if the scene was filmed with one camera and no cuts. The language and vocabulary is at times inscrutable; on page one I circled two words which I would have looked up online if I had been reading the Kindle version of the book: massacree and crudesence. Neither word is found in the dictionary. Later on I encountered such words as "fribbly" and "qualmous" or "terrapinate". I don't know whether such words were meant to be part of the vernacular of the black people in the south, or words that Smith made up, or words that just sound like real words... I certainly enjoy expanding my vocabulary through reading, but some of these word choices were just odd.
Though I enjoyed the dialogue which had an authentic voice and helped to move the narrative along briskly, Smith's dense writing style can only be described as a barrage of words, ponderous and at times oppressive. About half way through the book, the sad tales of Delvin's lonely, helpless and desperate life started to wear on me, as did the page after page of walls of text - sometimes a paragraph was a page of more in length. There were also many pages of italicized text which is difficult to read and should be reserved for short passages. I never figured out why it was necessary to present so much of the text in italics.
In spite of Delvin's burdensome life, he retains a core of humanity and hope. He wanted to write books, and his travels were the source of his stories - stories that he felt needed to be told. He wanted to keep travelling and said "I feel like I'm winding string onto a ball." - a great metaphor for the gathering of life experiences.
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January 16, 2016Ginny Gal follows the life and the journey of Delvin Walker beginning with the moment of his birth on the steps of a home in the black neighborhood of Chatanooga in (I believe) 1913. It is Delvin's story and at the same time it is an "everyman's" story. Delvin learns early about the power (or, more accurately, powerlessness) of his skin color when his mother flees after responding in anger to the beating of her son after he took a small shiny bead from a dress store. Delvin lives as a traveler. He finds father figures in the owner of a "colored" funeral home and in the proprietor of a mobile exhibit on the history of blacks in America. He finds love, true friendship, and a passion for the written word, but he also finds hate, the latter landing him in prison for a crime he didn't commit (this is mentioned in the official synopsis and is telegraphed early in the book so I'm not considering it a spoiler). Throughout his travels, he is clearly looking for one thing -- home.
This is the type of book I always want to like. It is about an important part of our own history and told from a perspective that often goes unvoiced, as do almost all non-dominant voices. As the saying goes, history is old by the victor or, in situations where no one truly wins, the powerful. In many ways, this is a book about justice or the lack thereof as a legal system tilted against him pursues Delvin throughout his life. It is also about a period that cast certain people in a nearly inhuman role from the moment they were born (heck, before they were born).
So, the topic is important and its a topic that makes me want to love the book. But, I just didn't. I found it dragged and even the "action scenes" bored me (and I'm someone who tends to be happy with very little action in the right character-driven novel). It isn't that I didn't like Delvin, but I never felt compelled to follow him or his journey. I loved certain lines, but generally the words someone became too much for me (also not typical). On a very specific note, at least in my Advance Reader's Copy (provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review), certain sections were written in italics which made them hard to read. Granted, they were also a hard time in Delvin's journey, but he text style distracted me from focusing on an important part of the book.
Two and a half stars....I'll round up when called for out of respect for the chosen topic and the breadth of the journey, but I'd really prefer to stick to the 2.5 because I can't honestly say I'd want to read it again or recommend it to others (aside: I nearly wrote "because I can't honestly say I enjoyed it," but then there's the complex question of ever "enjoying" a tough topic....I do, however, believe one can enjoy a book even if it isn't an enjoyable subject).
May 4, 2016
I received an uncorrected proof copy of this book from HarperCollins.
Revealing the haunting racism and violence of the South in the Jim Crow era, this novel follows the life of Delvin Walker. When Delvin is a young child, his mother flees, fearful of being accused of murdering a white man. Young Delvin is taken in by the owner of the local Negro funeral home and learns to care for those suffering from grief and discovers the power of the written word. Yet the racist world he lives in continues to haunt him. After a series of tragedies including a lynching and a church burning, Delvin flees town, fearful of being accused of murdering a white man just as his mother was years before. No matter where Delvin goes or how he tries to reinvent himself, he can never escape the racial culture of the country or the economic downslide into the Great Depression.
I was not surprised to learn that author Charlie Smith is also a poet, as this book reads in a very lyrical and poetical manner. In many ways Delvin is a metaphor for the black man in America during the 1920s and 30s. Delvin's life serves to underscore the inevitable encounter with racial injustice and violence the black man faces in America.
I enjoyed the meta-writing quality of this novel in that Delvin is preoccupied with both reading and writing as an escape from his world: "they were part, he knew, of the stories his mother had told him and read to him of kings and treasures and palaces in far lands" (15). For Delvin, books are "rideable transports into habitable territory" (22). Yet heartbreakingly, as a child he is turned away from the public library because of the color of his skin.
Ultimately, this book is about Delvin's unexpected and tragic journey as he tries to avoid and allude the pervasive racism that surrounds him. His journey thus becomes a cyclical journey; he constantly returns to his point of origin, unable to move beyond his past either racially or geographically, restrained by the racial limitations of his time. Delvin represents the suffering of all African Americans: "We all been scared. We been scared to death over here for the last three hundred years. All day every day." The title also alludes to this world Delvin finds himself immersed in from the day of his birth: "Ginny Galled, you might say - a negro name, Ginny Gall, for the hell beyond hell, hell's hell" (388).
This book was emotionally taxing to read. I found the erratic passage of time and the omission of some details - such as the fate of Delvin's siblings - frustrating. Additionally, I questioned the reliability of the narration, as Delvin admits alterations to the truth in his own writings: "This was not true but he wrote it anyway" (225).
Revealing the haunting racism and violence of the South in the Jim Crow era, this novel follows the life of Delvin Walker. When Delvin is a young child, his mother flees, fearful of being accused of murdering a white man. Young Delvin is taken in by the owner of the local Negro funeral home and learns to care for those suffering from grief and discovers the power of the written word. Yet the racist world he lives in continues to haunt him. After a series of tragedies including a lynching and a church burning, Delvin flees town, fearful of being accused of murdering a white man just as his mother was years before. No matter where Delvin goes or how he tries to reinvent himself, he can never escape the racial culture of the country or the economic downslide into the Great Depression.
I was not surprised to learn that author Charlie Smith is also a poet, as this book reads in a very lyrical and poetical manner. In many ways Delvin is a metaphor for the black man in America during the 1920s and 30s. Delvin's life serves to underscore the inevitable encounter with racial injustice and violence the black man faces in America.
I enjoyed the meta-writing quality of this novel in that Delvin is preoccupied with both reading and writing as an escape from his world: "they were part, he knew, of the stories his mother had told him and read to him of kings and treasures and palaces in far lands" (15). For Delvin, books are "rideable transports into habitable territory" (22). Yet heartbreakingly, as a child he is turned away from the public library because of the color of his skin.
Ultimately, this book is about Delvin's unexpected and tragic journey as he tries to avoid and allude the pervasive racism that surrounds him. His journey thus becomes a cyclical journey; he constantly returns to his point of origin, unable to move beyond his past either racially or geographically, restrained by the racial limitations of his time. Delvin represents the suffering of all African Americans: "We all been scared. We been scared to death over here for the last three hundred years. All day every day." The title also alludes to this world Delvin finds himself immersed in from the day of his birth: "Ginny Galled, you might say - a negro name, Ginny Gall, for the hell beyond hell, hell's hell" (388).
This book was emotionally taxing to read. I found the erratic passage of time and the omission of some details - such as the fate of Delvin's siblings - frustrating. Additionally, I questioned the reliability of the narration, as Delvin admits alterations to the truth in his own writings: "This was not true but he wrote it anyway" (225).
March 31, 2016
This is the (extremely long) tale of Delvin Walker and his life on the run. Delvin was born the last of many children to a poor prostitute around the 1920s/1930s, and his birth happened so fast, his mama didn't even make it off the back porch before he came flying out and she scooped him up into her loving arms. Although his mama was a whore, she loved her kids and gave them a decent upbringing. That is, until she accidentally killed a white man in their hometown of Chattanooga, and fled for the mountains never to be seen by her children again. Delvin was 6 years old. After spending time in an orphanage, Delvin lucked upon the local funeral director who took him in as an apprentice, and upon realizing that Delvin was whip smart and could already read, encouraged Delvin's love of reading and writing. Until one day Delvin accidentally got mixed up with another black boy who shot at some white boys who were chasing them and Delvin feared the trouble that would bring and he fled town to ride the rails. Delvin spent years in different areas of the South, yearning to see the Gulf of Mexico, catching trouble wherever he went. It was always a case of wrong place, wrong time for Delvin. A good boy turned into a good man, but Delvin could never catch a break and spent most of his adult life in and out of prisons. Beaten, raped, beaten some more, Delvin became a broken man. Through his years after leaving Chattanooga he found another mentor who he traveled with for a while before finding trouble and prison again. After many escape attempts, Delvin finally escaped without recourse to make his way home to try to find his mother who he yearned for his entire life. He makes it back to the old whorehouse she worked at to find his former mentor near-death, the funeral home torn down, his mother dead and no friends left and no one to trust. This is a story of despair, repeated unfairness, and a meaningful life wasted. Lyrical, yet at times hard to read, beautiful, yet incredibly long, I felt relieved when the book was finished, yet wanted to know more of this story. I won this book via First Reads.
February 4, 2016
Dark, dismal, violent, sorrowful–all words descriptive of Charlie Smith’s latest novel, Ginny Gall. In my opinion, this masterful work has entered the book world at the most appropriate of times.
Ginny Gall is a name in the Negro communities of 1920s-30s defining life as “the hell beyond hell, hell’s hell.” The years of the 1920s and 1930s represent the Jim Crow era and in choosing this backdrop for Ginny Gall, Smith has told us the story of a representative member of the African-American community in Chattanooga, TN, to paint an epic picture of life under Jim Crow laws.
Faint reminders throughout bring back blurred images of the Scottsboro Boys trials of nine African-American boys railroaded on rape charges. The reader is drawn to the character, Delvin Walker, who survives a rough and dangerous birth to move on and become an early reader and hard worker in a local funeral home.
Written as four books, Smith introduces his reader in Book 2 to a misunderstanding that takes Delvin out of what most in his situation would call a very good life and transplants him to riding the rails at the beginning of the Great Depression. Even as an adolescent, Delvin tends to ponder and think a great deal creating a story that is more pastoral than moving. In so doing, Smith paints epic images for his readers, often rich in theology and mesmerizing using lush and gorgeous language.
While the reading is difficult at times because of man’s inhumanity to man, it also reveals something about the world today. Have we really come very far with respect to civil rights and equality? Are we treating our fellow men and women humanely, regardless of color, ethnicity, religion, beliefs?
Ginny Gall is a call to stop and think about our society today. Those of us a certain age can only read about the Jim Crow era. Some of our older citizens can tell their stories rooted in that era. Do we want our society to go down in history because of its inhumanity to man? I think not.
FTC Disclosure: I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via TLC Book Tours in exchange for a fair and honest review. Opinions expressed are mine.
Ginny Gall is a name in the Negro communities of 1920s-30s defining life as “the hell beyond hell, hell’s hell.” The years of the 1920s and 1930s represent the Jim Crow era and in choosing this backdrop for Ginny Gall, Smith has told us the story of a representative member of the African-American community in Chattanooga, TN, to paint an epic picture of life under Jim Crow laws.
Faint reminders throughout bring back blurred images of the Scottsboro Boys trials of nine African-American boys railroaded on rape charges. The reader is drawn to the character, Delvin Walker, who survives a rough and dangerous birth to move on and become an early reader and hard worker in a local funeral home.
Written as four books, Smith introduces his reader in Book 2 to a misunderstanding that takes Delvin out of what most in his situation would call a very good life and transplants him to riding the rails at the beginning of the Great Depression. Even as an adolescent, Delvin tends to ponder and think a great deal creating a story that is more pastoral than moving. In so doing, Smith paints epic images for his readers, often rich in theology and mesmerizing using lush and gorgeous language.
While the reading is difficult at times because of man’s inhumanity to man, it also reveals something about the world today. Have we really come very far with respect to civil rights and equality? Are we treating our fellow men and women humanely, regardless of color, ethnicity, religion, beliefs?
Ginny Gall is a call to stop and think about our society today. Those of us a certain age can only read about the Jim Crow era. Some of our older citizens can tell their stories rooted in that era. Do we want our society to go down in history because of its inhumanity to man? I think not.
FTC Disclosure: I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via TLC Book Tours in exchange for a fair and honest review. Opinions expressed are mine.
January 27, 2016
After Devlin Walker's prostitute mother is accused of murdering a white man, she flees town, leaving the boy on his own. He is eventually taken in by the local mortician, but flees when he himself is afraid he might be accused of murder. Devlin becomes rather a hobo, but no matter where he is, he constantly writes down his observations in notebooks. He can't seem to avoid unfairness, however. While riding the rails, he and several other black men are falsely accused of raping some white women.
This book gives the reader a feel of what things must have been like for African Americans during the 1920's and 30's, which is quite dismal. But while this book has its engrossing moments, much of it is extremely slow and hard to get through. The book is overly descriptive in general, but then the pages of Devlin's observations drag on, and, towards the end, the many pages of italics are hard to read. The language is also uneven -- beautiful at times, long winded at times, and sometimes the author breaks into these odd choices of words that are maybe supposed to be how people talked during that period but they are so sporadic that they didn't seem to fit. My favorite part of the book is the unique characters and situations--in particular the traveling museum of negro history and how the proprietor managed to get around the white authorities in town.
This book gives the reader a feel of what things must have been like for African Americans during the 1920's and 30's, which is quite dismal. But while this book has its engrossing moments, much of it is extremely slow and hard to get through. The book is overly descriptive in general, but then the pages of Devlin's observations drag on, and, towards the end, the many pages of italics are hard to read. The language is also uneven -- beautiful at times, long winded at times, and sometimes the author breaks into these odd choices of words that are maybe supposed to be how people talked during that period but they are so sporadic that they didn't seem to fit. My favorite part of the book is the unique characters and situations--in particular the traveling museum of negro history and how the proprietor managed to get around the white authorities in town.
January 5, 2016
"Ginny Gall" is the story of Delvin Walker, and it begins when he is just a young boy. His mother is accused of killing a white man and runs away to escape. Delvin is taken in by the town's mortician and learns how to prepare bodies and host funerals. Getting into trouble with his friend, he thinks they killed a white boy. Delvin then runs off to a hobo life and explores America.
As he travels, he takes on odd jobs like farm work and helping with a traveling museum of black Americana. He meets a girl named Celia and falls in love. While riding the rails, he and a group of other travelers are accused of raping two white women. This leads to a trial and unfair imprisonment for Delvin.
As he learns to survive in a harsh world, you can see how he grows as a person, and how racial tensions and mistreatment shape his life. This book was a colorful and interesting tale of a young mans life and how racism causes both emotional and physical pain, and even death in some cases. A great read that will make you think and also hopefully make people more caring of their actions.
As he travels, he takes on odd jobs like farm work and helping with a traveling museum of black Americana. He meets a girl named Celia and falls in love. While riding the rails, he and a group of other travelers are accused of raping two white women. This leads to a trial and unfair imprisonment for Delvin.
As he learns to survive in a harsh world, you can see how he grows as a person, and how racial tensions and mistreatment shape his life. This book was a colorful and interesting tale of a young mans life and how racism causes both emotional and physical pain, and even death in some cases. A great read that will make you think and also hopefully make people more caring of their actions.
April 28, 2016
This is a novel that leaves you breathless. It is compelling, enthralling, disturbing, and captivating all at once. On top of that, Smith's writing is exquisite. Another reviewer here made me laugh by saying, "The author's penchant for page long sentences, endless description and stream of consciousness Mumbo Jumbo completely gutted what could have been a great story." (I'll let the reviewer's writing speak for itself.) Apologizing in advance for the pun, but Smith's writing proves he is, indeed, a top-notch wordsmith. His sentences sing with passion, especially the longer ones. HIs descriptions pull you in and give a tremendous flavor to this heart-wrenching story. And there is no Kerouacian stream-of-conscious here, mumbo-jumoed or otherwise.
This is a novel that is not only hard to put down, it is one that won't put you down for days after completing it. I'm always amazed to come across another great author I should have heard about before, but hadn't. In hopes of not being disappointed, and I really can't see that happening, I'm going to order copies of some of Smith's previous novels.
Could have been a great story? No, I'm sorry, this is one, through-and-through.
This is a novel that is not only hard to put down, it is one that won't put you down for days after completing it. I'm always amazed to come across another great author I should have heard about before, but hadn't. In hopes of not being disappointed, and I really can't see that happening, I'm going to order copies of some of Smith's previous novels.
Could have been a great story? No, I'm sorry, this is one, through-and-through.
March 21, 2016
"Nearly every paragraph in the book is a work of art and on a page-by-page basis I am utterly in awe of this author's writing. Unfortunately it becomes too much of a good thing relatively early on. Smith's descriptions are lush but extensive; they seem to go on forever and bog down Delvin's story considerably, giving the narrative a plodding, elegiac tone. I came away from the book with a deeper understanding of the heart of the racial divide that continues to affect us (the United States in particular) to this day. While the book may be slow-going, readers who appreciate a well-crafted novel will almost certainly find that it's worth the time." - Kim Kovacs, BookBrowse.com. Full review at: https://www.bookbrowse.com/reviews/in...
June 5, 2016
Check out the full review at Kritters Ramblings
Delvin Walker is our main character and he starts the book as a very young man, maybe even child abandoned by his mother as she has killed a man and as a black woman will face the harshest of punishments for her crime. Devlin and his siblings are taken to an orphanage of sorts and from there Delvin's life is a whirlwind.
To describe this book in one word, which I rarely do, I immediately thought of adventure. If you are a reader who loves books that are just one big grand adventure, then pick this book up. From here to there to everywhere, Delvin lives everywhere and does almost everything.
Delvin Walker is our main character and he starts the book as a very young man, maybe even child abandoned by his mother as she has killed a man and as a black woman will face the harshest of punishments for her crime. Devlin and his siblings are taken to an orphanage of sorts and from there Delvin's life is a whirlwind.
To describe this book in one word, which I rarely do, I immediately thought of adventure. If you are a reader who loves books that are just one big grand adventure, then pick this book up. From here to there to everywhere, Delvin lives everywhere and does almost everything.
August 20, 2016
Sometimes a book picks its reader rather than the reader picking the book. This was the case with Ginny Gall. It called to me from the library shelf and I brought it home not really expecting to read it. Once I started it I could not stop. About half way through, I had to look up "Ginny Gall" in Zora Neale Hurston's book of Harlem slang and then the book took on another level of meaning for me that was heart wrenching. The juxtaposition of the Jim Crow south with the lyrical beauty of the language exemplified all that is right and wrong with the world. This is a book I will not forget.
January 7, 2016
Brilliantly written, so many themes explored. The book was long and by page 300 was dragging for me. You are privy to Delvin's every thought-and I mean every thought. Which gives you insight into his character and certainly into the time period and setting,etc. But it also makes it a bit tedious in reading. Race in the south in the 20's and 30's but also so much more about life, love and basic needs.
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March 28, 2016How to describe this book? Charlie Smith is being hailed as a lyrical writer. I would say that is true. Sometimes it felt that I was reading poetry instead of a novel. He writes beautifully. The story itself speaks to what happens to a young man as he travels through a difficult life. When it ended , I had a lingering sense of sadness. If you like lighter reading then I would take a pass on this one. If you're up for a meatier read, give it a try.
February 8, 2017
There may be shortcomings to this book, but the thoughtful infusion of poetic style into intelligent prose is engaging. Not a book to mindlessly plow thorough.
November 14, 2015
Goodreads win. This book is about a young man who flees his home in Chattnooga accused of killing a white man. While on the run a man who runs a funeral home takes him in and teaches him the trade. He flees again and rides the rails where he falls in love. This book is a portrait of life in the 1920's and 30's where rascism was rampant.
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