Reviews

Scottsboro by Ellen Feldman

Only show reviews with written explanations

jackie_shimkus's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Scottsboro is a fictionalized account of the infamous Scottsboro trial of 1933. Alice Whittier is a journalist working in New York for a Communist newspaper when she hears about nine black men pulled off of a train in Alabama for fighting with white men and then accused of rape by the two white women found riding the rails. Ruby Bates is one of the two women, an unemployed mill worker and sometime prostitute whose conscience eventually is awakened to what she did. The book follows the two women, focusing on Alice, through the multiple trials and American political life during the Great Depression. It is well told, the research flawlessly folded into an intriguing story.

margaret_j_c's review

Go to review page

"8 BLACK BOYS IN A SOUTHERN JAIL
WORLD, TURN PALE!"
-Langston Hughes

This novel is a fictionalized look at one of the most horrific triumphs of injustice in the 20th century. Feldman clearly did her research. In Scottsboro she paints a vivid portrait of Alabama in the Thirties, warm, hospitable - and deeply sinister. The book is fascinating and sickening. With a careful hand and brilliant prose, Feldman brings something fresh to a well-documented event. Her fictional characters are multi-dimensional and genuine, and the real people from the past who appear in the narrative are written in such a way that doesn't feel derivative or romanticized.

This is how historical fiction should be done. Books like these are why the genre is so crucial to literature. Through the power of story and the importance of hindsight, Scottsboro is at once both a cautionary tale and a celebration of how far we've come.

missymouse's review

Go to review page

4.0

The injustice these young men faced, makes you sick to your stomach. It's a brilliant read, which will have you shaking your head at people's prejudices and how ill educated they were. Racism is sadly still prevalent across the globe, but hopefully one day it will be just a distant memory.

Ellen Feldman has a fantastic way of getting into character's heads and making them jump off the page. She's a brilliant and truly creative writer.

towardinfinitybooks's review

Go to review page

3.0

I'd only ever heard about the Scottsboro boys in passing before reading this book, which is shocking now that I think about it. I'd heard about the town of Scottsboro, Alabama, the setting of an infamous trial in which nine African American boys were convicted on sketchy evidence for raping two white girls. But that's really all I knew about it.

As one might expect, there's a lot more to this story. Feldman traces the incidents from aboard the freight train in 1931 on through to the many trials, reversals, and appeals of the case. She identifies the main players - the nine young men, defense counsel Sam Leibowitz, state attorney general Thomas Knight, the two young women, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates, and others. And she provides historical context for the events, with reference to FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt, American sentiment regarding Jews and Communists, and the extreme poverty of the Great Depression. I learned a lot from this book.

At the same time, I feel a bit cheated. Feldman's book is billed as historical fiction and while it's true that the main protagonist and narrator, a female journalist, is entirely the author's creation, I felt that the book lacked a certain something. The best historical fiction novels weave fact and fiction together almost seamlessly. Here, it was as if the book was entirely fact. The fictional elements were missing.

Further, even though the story was in her own voice, the protagonist seemed two-dimensional, stiff, and cold. I didn't know her any better at the end of the book than I did at the beginning. She notes she wrote sympathetic stories about the Scottsboro boys and the two girls, but none of that emotion made an appearance in her voice. Even when discussing her own family, the protagonist is almost scientific. We are told this is what happened, but very rarely what she actually feels about it. Maybe Feldman did this deliberately. I don't think it was an effective technique, though.

I liked this book - but I didn't love it. With some books, I waver between a 3-star and 4-star rating, but not with this one. The story of the Scottsboro boys is compelling on its own, but Feldman's writing was not.

regalexander's review

Go to review page

4.0

It took me a little while to get into this book, but it was well worth it. The protagonist, Alice Whittier, is likeable but not by far a Mary Sue. Historical characters were very human and events weren't presented in a boring manner, but not chaotic either. All in all a book I'd certainly consider buying.