Books & Culture for September 1
This week’s reviews include Leonard Pitts Jr.’s powerful novel about the civil rights march to Selma “54 Miles” and Asha Thanki’s family drama “A Thousand Times Before.”
Sunday Books & Culture is edited by Vanessa Sekinger
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54 MILES
by Leonard Pitts, Jr.
Published by Agate (July 23, 2024)
Reviewed by Penny A Parrish
In March of 1961, I was a freshman at North Central College in Naperville, IL. The enrollment totaled 832 students, most white and from rural or suburban Chicago areas. My little college had a chaplain, Rev. George St. Angelo, who focused not only on his young academic flock but also on the problems faced by society, especially racism.
George, as we called him, organized a bus trip for NCC students to Selma, where they would join the Rev. Martin Luther King in a March to Montgomery. The goal was to obtain voting rights for blacks in the South. 50 students had permission slips signed by parents and were allowed to go if they paid $26 for the bus and promised not to bring a camera.
My parents refused to let me join the group, so I did my best to help load the buses with food, water, and supplies. It took 20 hours for my classmates to reach Selma. They arrived in time to hear a sermon by Dr. King, and then they marched. I watched on TV as my naïve friends encountered intense hatred from white people and joy, support, and kindness from blacks. I have always felt both guilt and a sense of loss that I was not there.
54 Miles is the distance from Selma to Montgomery. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Leonard Pitts, Jr. takes us along on the march, but he also brings us inside the lives of one family.
Thelma Simon is a black attorney living in Harlem with her white husband, George, a minister, and their 21-year-old son Adam. She left Alabama decades ago after a traumatic incident. Her brother Luther remained there, opening a barbershop after serving his Country in World War II. Thelma and Luther were orphaned at a young age, when their parents were brutally murdered in front of them by a white mob. (The description of their deaths is horribly vivid and difficult to read).
Much of the story focuses on family dynamics. George is estranged from his brother and sister, who disowned him when he married Thelma. His father, Johan, however, remained supportive and loving. Now Johan is in a senior care facility, with dementia slowly taking over his mind and his memories. He does have a visitor every two weeks: Luther comes to cut his hair. Their friendship, their attempts to share insight into being white or being black, is thoughtful and real.
An incident forces Thelma to return to Alabama. The story culminates in the actual march, and how each character is involved in that event. Pitts has done intense research, and puts everything into the context of history. The names of the famous who marched with King, the names of those who died there, the names of politicians and law enforcement who tried to stop the march – all are part of this story.
Less than six months after the march, LBJ signed the Voting Rights Act with Dr. King and Rosa Parks by his side. This unforgettable novel brims with both hate and compassion, and touches on issues that still resound today. It is one of the most haunting and powerful books I have read in years.
Penny A Parrish is a long-time book reviewer and artist. Learn more about her by visiting her page at Brush Strokes Gallery, which is in downtown Fredericksburg.
A THOUSAND TIMES BEFORE
By Asha Thanki
Published by Viking (July 9, 2024)
Hardcover $23.49
Audiobook $17.72
Reviewed by Ashley Riggleson
I love South Asian literature and family sagas. So, Asha Thanki’s debut novel, A Thousand Times Before, seemed right up my alley. It did not disappoint! A Thousand Times Before was all I expected and more.
Set in India, present day Pakistan, and the United States, this novel tells the story of three generations of women possessed of a remarkable power and connected by a magical tapestry. As the novel opens, readers first meet Ayukta when she and her wife Nadya are discussing having a child. For reasons initially unclear, Ayukta has reservations, and she believes that, if she tells her family’s story, Nadya will understand what is at stake.
Readers soon discover that the family has a magic tapestry in which women from each generation are depicted. When a new generation is added to the tapestry, they inherit their forebears' memories, and the ability to change the future is also passed down the family line.
Amla, Akuyta’s grandmother, is a young child when readers first meet her in Karachi. She loses her mother (who would presumably have taught her about how to navigate this complex inheritance) to religious violence related to India’s Partition and is, unsurprisingly, not cognizant of the many implications of this power. When her actions later lead to tragedy, Amla is forever changed and so are the future generations. Ayukta knows that, if a female child is born, she and Nadya will have to decide whether to pass on a power that is both a gift and a burden.
As the story progresses, Thanki shows how the history of this family is intimately connected with the history of India as a nation. And, although I initially thought that the use of a magical tapestry to explore the history of India would be a risky bet, in Thanki’s story, it works.
In lesser hands, the tapestry would merely serve to provide connective tissue between the generations, and while it does fill that function here, Thanki uses this conceit for much more. She explores themes like fate, time, familial bonds, intergenerational trauma, and the complex relationships between mothers and daughters. The impact of the tapestry and the power it bestows are also explored with a surprising amount of depth.
Additionally, the setting is richly depicted. Every time I picked up this book, I was submerged for hours, giggling with Amla and her best friend Fiza in Karachi and grieving with her in Gujarat.
Thanki’s rich yet clear prose, beautifully constructed plot, and sympathetic characters also work together to build a story with considerable emotional heft. And, while not everything is solved in the end, A Thousand Times Before is a deeply satisfying read and an original and assured debut. Thanki has already proved that she is a gifted storyteller, but I predict even greater things for her future as a writer. She is a talent to watch.
Ashley Riggleson is a free-lance book reviewer from Rappahannock County. When she is not reading or writing book reviews, she can usually be found playing with her pets, listening to podcasts, or watching television with friends and family.
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