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A review by inherbooks
Some Great Thing by Lawrence Hill
3.0
I wanted to love this book, I really did.
Some Great Thing narrates the life of Mahatma Grafton, a journalist starting a new job at The Herald in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He returns to his hometown to live with his father, hoping the arrangement would be temporary, and is exposed to issues he actively removed himself from as a child – namely French-Anglo tensions and racism against his own Black skin.
Lawrence Hill writes this novel drawing inspiration from his experience as a newspaper reporter in Winnipeg. I found his cynical take on the media in the 90’s refreshing with characters such as Betts and Slade (who seem to have no ethics) that will stop at nothing to get the scoop in the morning’s paper. Even if that means questioning murder victim’s families as they mourn. If you know me and my relationship with the news, you’ll know just much I enjoyed this.
As for the main character, Mahatma was frustratingly passive that left me feeling indifferent and taking long breaks between reads. His meh personality sharply contrasted his father’s commitment to memorializing Black history in Canada, that it felt like a waste of directed energy. I was anticipating an epiphany, one where Mahatma would finally value his father’s knowledge of history and would use that to deepen his writing but that avenue was left sorely untouched. There were a significant number of characters that made story feel scattered, sometimes stagnant, and incomplete. I would’ve preferred to know more about his father, Ben Grafton, and his narrative.
I picked this one up with high expectations, especially having read Book of Negroes and The Illegal, and left bemused. Lawrence Hill’s writing is nonetheless poignant and clean. He never fails to deliver a true-to-life tale which makes me keen to pick up more of his novels given his versatile writing style.
Some Great Thing narrates the life of Mahatma Grafton, a journalist starting a new job at The Herald in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He returns to his hometown to live with his father, hoping the arrangement would be temporary, and is exposed to issues he actively removed himself from as a child – namely French-Anglo tensions and racism against his own Black skin.
Lawrence Hill writes this novel drawing inspiration from his experience as a newspaper reporter in Winnipeg. I found his cynical take on the media in the 90’s refreshing with characters such as Betts and Slade (who seem to have no ethics) that will stop at nothing to get the scoop in the morning’s paper. Even if that means questioning murder victim’s families as they mourn. If you know me and my relationship with the news, you’ll know just much I enjoyed this.
As for the main character, Mahatma was frustratingly passive that left me feeling indifferent and taking long breaks between reads. His meh personality sharply contrasted his father’s commitment to memorializing Black history in Canada, that it felt like a waste of directed energy. I was anticipating an epiphany, one where Mahatma would finally value his father’s knowledge of history and would use that to deepen his writing but that avenue was left sorely untouched. There were a significant number of characters that made story feel scattered, sometimes stagnant, and incomplete. I would’ve preferred to know more about his father, Ben Grafton, and his narrative.
I picked this one up with high expectations, especially having read Book of Negroes and The Illegal, and left bemused. Lawrence Hill’s writing is nonetheless poignant and clean. He never fails to deliver a true-to-life tale which makes me keen to pick up more of his novels given his versatile writing style.