Review: A Man Called White

A Man Called White: The Autobiography of Walter White. Walter White. University of Georgia Press reprint.

Man, I loved reading this. Now, I'm on the hunt for the newly published biography of Walter White. It's  White Lies: The Double Life of Walter F. White and America’s Darkest Secret, by A.J. Baime  (Mariner, 2022). I first heard about the first chapters of this memoir fifteen years ago, on the anniversary of the 1906 Atlanta riots, which young White witnessed personally. He grew up not far from where my maternal grandfather was born; I wish he was alive to discuss this with me. White gets around, before and during his tenure with the NAACP. There is so much here. 

Recently, I read the great two-volume graphic novel series by Mat Johnson Incognegro, a historical fiction seemingly drawing from the experiences White narrates in the first part of this memoir, investigating hate crimes, lynchings, and jailed black people, by passing for white while investigating.  But the stories get quite deep, especially, to me, the negotiations for blacks in the armed services before the integration of the services, just after this was published.

Read this book. Highest recommendation.

View all my reviews: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1297492-brent

Once Upon a Time in Atlanta, by Raymond Andrews

From https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48593831-once-upon-a-time-in-atlanta---the-chattahoochee-review

Once Upon A Time in Atlanta - The Chattahoochee Review (Volume XVIII, Number 2) Raymond_Andrews 

This is so fine, and deserves republication, together with the rest of Andrews' work.

I knew Raymond a little bit in Athens, just before he took his life, leaving behind this manuscript. This coming-of-age of exploration while staying at the YMCA is a joy to read. I started reading before the pandemic, had to return it to the library, and, upon starting again, reread the early chapters with pleasure. And it gets better... We lost a great one in Raymond Andrews. I want to find both Baby Sweets [harder than it used to be; may have to check ugapress.com] and The Last Radio Baby, soon.

Thanks to The Chattahoochee Review, part of GSU Clarkston, formerly Georgia Perimeter College, for publishing this as a Special Issue of The Chattahoochee Review. Thanks for the loan(s), Fulton County Public Library.

Highest recommendation.

View all my reviews: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1297492-brent

My Antonia

[clumsily reworked from my Goodreads review of my personal Summer reading favorite]

Why did I never read Willa Cather before? Reasons pale.  There is so much life here, so well described and portrayed. Nebraska farms and towns come to vivid life. In my most surprising moment of recognition, there is a traveling performer who appears under a different name, in a concert in a Nebraska hotel on tour, described as a Louisianan but a sure enough ringer for Blind Tom Wiggins, the Georgia pianist: refer to Wikipedia, here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_Tom_Wiggins . This is only one small chapter of a lovely book, in which a young male narrator and immigrant women including Antonia, all come of age together.

Got to read some more Cather.

Highly recommended. 

View all my reviews: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1297492-brent