On 10/3/20 9:44 AM, Michael Meeropol wrote:
Louis, that blurb you quoted sounds like a reference to DEACON KING
KONG, McBride's most recent novel -- WHICH IS FABULOUS ....
Yes, my mistake. But I still have big problems with:
"Henry Shackleford is a young slave living in the Kansas Territory in
1857, when the region is a battleground between anti- and pro-slavery
forces. When John Brown, the legendary abolitionist, arrives in the
area, an argument between Brown and Henry’s master quickly turns
violent. Henry is forced to leave town—with Brown, who believes he’s a
girl."
John Brown believes that he is a girl? Really? This review persuades me
that McBride should have left John Brown alone:
https://theconversation.com/in-the-good-lord-bird-a-new-version-of-john-brown-rides-in-at-a-crucial-moment-in-us-history-146653
John Brown the … clown?
Which brings us to McBride’s novel, the inspiration for Showtime’s
miniseries.
Among the most distinctive features of McBride’s novel is its bizarre
humor. Americans have seen a devout John Brown, a vengeful John Brown
and an inspirational John Brown. But before “The Good Lord Bird,”
Americans had never seen a clownish John Brown.
McBride’s Brown is a tattered, scatterbrained and deeply religious
monomaniac. In his ragged clothes, with his toes bursting out of his
boots, Brown intones lengthy, discursive prayers and offers obtuse
interpretations of Scripture that leave his men befuddled.
We learn all of this from Onion, the narrator, a former slave whom Brown
“rescues” from one of the families living on Pottawatomie Creek. At
first, all Onion wants is to get back home to his owner – a detail that
speaks volumes about the novel’s twisted humor. Eventually, Onion
embraces his new role as Brown’s mascot, although he continues to mock
Brown’s ridiculously erratic behavior all the way to Harpers Ferry.
Like manyreviewers
<https://www.latimes.com/books/la-xpm-2013-aug-30-la-ca-jc-james-mcbride-20130901-story.html>–
and apparentlyEthan Hawke
<https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/09/21/the-many-faces-of-ethan-hawke>,
who plays Brown in the Showtime series – I laughed loud and hard when I
read “The Good Lord Bird.”
That said, the laughter was a bit unsettling. How and why would someone
make this story funny?
At theAtlantic Festival <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urOO9cedz54>,
McBride noted that humor could open the way for “hard conversations”
about America’s racial history. And Hawke’s hilarious portrayal of
Brown, along with his commentary about the joys of playing this
character, suggests he shares McBride’s belief that humor is a useful
mechanism for fostering discussions about both slavery and contemporary
race relations.
While one might reasonably say that the history of American race
relations is so horrific that laughter is an inappropriate response, I
think Hawke and McBride may be on to something.
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