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A review by kjcharles
A Champion's Heart: Born to Win Men by Piper Huguley
I wish someone wrote English histrom like Piper Huguley writes American histrom.
I've been following the adventures of the Bledsoe girls since the first, A Virtuous Ruby, and I am in awe of the way this author handles the setting, the characterisation, the appalling cruelty of American institutional racism and the way it affected people, black and white. Some of the detail in here is jaw dropping--the "breeding" of boxers, God help us; what it was like for black people to travel in the Depression era South with the risks inherent in stopping for petrol--it is just extraordinary to read. Really incredibly powerful and vivid.
I loved Champ, the boxer hero, and Delie, the wilful girl he left behind. The basis of the conflict, Champ's uncertainty about the parenthood of Delie's child, could have been more strongly developed, and didn't quite carry the weight it had to bear as the source of their conflict. But the romance was intense, and I teared up at the end. Secondary characters terrific as always and lovely to see the Bledsoe girls again (and Jay, always my favourite hero).
This is very much an inspirational, with a lot of focus on faith, which isn't to all reader taste, but hey, I'm a humanist and I loved the book. I strongly appreciated the different perspectives on that, including the characters for whom genuine faith doesn't necessarily translate to love or charity.
An author going from strength to strength.
I've been following the adventures of the Bledsoe girls since the first, A Virtuous Ruby, and I am in awe of the way this author handles the setting, the characterisation, the appalling cruelty of American institutional racism and the way it affected people, black and white. Some of the detail in here is jaw dropping--the "breeding" of boxers, God help us; what it was like for black people to travel in the Depression era South with the risks inherent in stopping for petrol--it is just extraordinary to read. Really incredibly powerful and vivid.
I loved Champ, the boxer hero, and Delie, the wilful girl he left behind. The basis of the conflict, Champ's uncertainty about the parenthood of Delie's child, could have been more strongly developed, and didn't quite carry the weight it had to bear as the source of their conflict. But the romance was intense, and I teared up at the end. Secondary characters terrific as always and lovely to see the Bledsoe girls again (and Jay, always my favourite hero).
This is very much an inspirational, with a lot of focus on faith, which isn't to all reader taste, but hey, I'm a humanist and I loved the book. I strongly appreciated the different perspectives on that, including the characters for whom genuine faith doesn't necessarily translate to love or charity.
An author going from strength to strength.