Scan barcode
A review by cyndin
Driving the King by Ravi Howard
3.0
I have to say, had I known what the novel was about, I wouldn't have read it. But I grabbed it from the library after a hasty glance at the inside covers. I love historical fiction and I would have loved a story about a real life figure as interesting as Nat King Cole. What I don't like is historical fiction where a real life person is part of the fiction. Did Nat Weary really exist? Or was his very existence pulled out of thin air? I don't know. I will look it up but wanted to write the review based only on what the book told me (which was that it was a work of fiction set in real times).
The novel itself had many fascinating moments. Weary's story (even Cole's story) grabs your attention. The main problem was the pacing and the settings. The author chose to tell the story through flashbacks, which in and of itself is fine. But there were several levels of them and it was confusing. The current time was only a bit of the novel and nothing was happening. The chapter on the main day was broken into half a dozen chapters, all set a few minutes apart. Cole preparing for a historic show (I don't know if this happened in real life either). Then we set Weary's time in prison, preceded by what brought him to the prison, and followed by his first few weeks with family and in Cole's employ. Another thread is set a year or so later and shows the decision for the historic show and other trips to his home town, including showing the Montgomery bus boycott.
I finished the book a couple days ago and my sense of time and story from this novel are mostly faded. I'm just left with impressions. Insane, violent racism. The price people paid for being on the wrong end of the power stick. The extreme price for anyone who fought back. And the slow changes over time. Those parts the author did well with. I just wish the story itself had been more coherent and sensical. Though I suppose the times weren't either of those things.
The novel itself had many fascinating moments. Weary's story (even Cole's story) grabs your attention. The main problem was the pacing and the settings. The author chose to tell the story through flashbacks, which in and of itself is fine. But there were several levels of them and it was confusing. The current time was only a bit of the novel and nothing was happening. The chapter on the main day was broken into half a dozen chapters, all set a few minutes apart. Cole preparing for a historic show (I don't know if this happened in real life either). Then we set Weary's time in prison, preceded by what brought him to the prison, and followed by his first few weeks with family and in Cole's employ. Another thread is set a year or so later and shows the decision for the historic show and other trips to his home town, including showing the Montgomery bus boycott.
I finished the book a couple days ago and my sense of time and story from this novel are mostly faded. I'm just left with impressions. Insane, violent racism. The price people paid for being on the wrong end of the power stick. The extreme price for anyone who fought back. And the slow changes over time. Those parts the author did well with. I just wish the story itself had been more coherent and sensical. Though I suppose the times weren't either of those things.