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readingwithmygoldens 's review for:
Darktown
by Thomas Mullen
I wasn't quite sure what to expect with Darktown because it was billed as a mystery and also had a historical fiction element to it with this being about the first African American police officers in Atlanta. I enjoy a good mystery and love historical fiction (especially about a topic I know very little about) and I thought this was so well done. The mash up between the two genre's blended perfectly and to be honest, I felt the mystery took a backseat to the every day life of the characters we were introduced to.
To be frank (and share my ignorance) I couldn't believe everything I learned about the absolute nightmare of what it was like to even BE the first African American cops in the south. The local government passed a law saying that there had to be African American police (this done so only because enough black people came together to vote that they wanted this in the first place - in a time where even voting as a black person could quite literally get you killed), yet they couldn't arrest white people, couldn't drive squad cars, couldn't visit the police station and couldn't wear their uniforms to and from work. Another shining example of how great white people were to fellow human beings that unfortunately continues today. (I'm talking about you white lady calling the police on a group of black people having a BBQ in a public park!).
To me, the author's prose was so beautifully written. I could feel how hot and sticky it was and see 1950's Atlanta as if time traveling. This is one of my favorite passages demonstrating the complex feelings of the sympathetic white character and simple expectations in the black man's response:
It was so difficult to walk this line. To let colored people know that just because you were the same color as fire-breathing racists didn't mean you agreed with them. And at the same time, just because you were talking to a colored person and desperately trying to impart some wisdom and necessary advice, that didn't mean that you agreed with what Calvin was doing to his wife and kids, or to your own neighborhood.
"All I'm doing is living," Calvin said. "Working my job, and sleeping at night. That's all I ask and all I expect."
I gave this 4 stars, but it really is 4.5 to me. It would have been 5 stars, but the resolution of the mystery was a little underwhelming to me. I was actually mad at myself for not figuring it out earlier, but I honestly was just so happy reading this book and absorbing all the information that the resolution of the mystery became almost a backdrop. With that being said, I am so happy that stories like this are being told and they should be promoted more heavily. It's hard for me to understand how human beings can go out of their way to be so cruel and unjust to other fellow human beings. It is with books like these that we can all learn from one another so as to try and spread love and peace, instead of hate and intolerance.
To be frank (and share my ignorance) I couldn't believe everything I learned about the absolute nightmare of what it was like to even BE the first African American cops in the south. The local government passed a law saying that there had to be African American police (this done so only because enough black people came together to vote that they wanted this in the first place - in a time where even voting as a black person could quite literally get you killed), yet they couldn't arrest white people, couldn't drive squad cars, couldn't visit the police station and couldn't wear their uniforms to and from work. Another shining example of how great white people were to fellow human beings that unfortunately continues today. (I'm talking about you white lady calling the police on a group of black people having a BBQ in a public park!).
To me, the author's prose was so beautifully written. I could feel how hot and sticky it was and see 1950's Atlanta as if time traveling. This is one of my favorite passages demonstrating the complex feelings of the sympathetic white character and simple expectations in the black man's response:
It was so difficult to walk this line. To let colored people know that just because you were the same color as fire-breathing racists didn't mean you agreed with them. And at the same time, just because you were talking to a colored person and desperately trying to impart some wisdom and necessary advice, that didn't mean that you agreed with what Calvin was doing to his wife and kids, or to your own neighborhood.
"All I'm doing is living," Calvin said. "Working my job, and sleeping at night. That's all I ask and all I expect."
I gave this 4 stars, but it really is 4.5 to me. It would have been 5 stars, but the resolution of the mystery was a little underwhelming to me. I was actually mad at myself for not figuring it out earlier, but I honestly was just so happy reading this book and absorbing all the information that the resolution of the mystery became almost a backdrop. With that being said, I am so happy that stories like this are being told and they should be promoted more heavily. It's hard for me to understand how human beings can go out of their way to be so cruel and unjust to other fellow human beings. It is with books like these that we can all learn from one another so as to try and spread love and peace, instead of hate and intolerance.