Decent People by De'Shawn Charles Winslow

Monday, Jan. 30, 2023--San Antonio

Decent People by De'Shawn Charles Winslow is a follow-up novel to In West Mills (see review previous to this one) by the same author.  Some of the same characters from the first novel are in this one, but most of the main characters are new ones.  Plus, the time period is more recent.  This novel is a murder mystery.  Almost every major character has a reason to be suspected as being the murderer, but I guessed who it was at the 75% point of reading the novel.  That seems a little too early for knowing who likely did it.  The novel does a good job of showing how racism affects so much of life in the South--from blatant racism expressed by members of the KKK and older white people to more subtle ways such as where and how suspects in a murder investigation are interviewed by the police.  Another theme within the novel deals with gossip that runs rampant with members of the public jumping to conclusions that are not justified by the information known yet.  The book was better than okay but not great.  I gave it 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

In West Mills by De'Shawn Charles Winslow

Saturday, Jan. 28, 2023--San Antonio

In West Mills by De'Shown Charles Winslow is a short novel about the people living in the Black section (across the canal) of a town in North Carolina.  The main character is "Knot," a woman who has moved there to be the local school teacher.  Her father, a dentist, has arranged the job for her in hopes that she will "settle down" a little in life.  Instead, she remains stubbornly strong and intent on living life as she prefers--drinking moonshine, carousing at the local juke joint, making the husband in a nearby family her best friend, having a local gay man as her "closest" friend (the one to whom she can tell and discuss anything), getting pregnant from random guys and giving the newly born babies to good local families who want a child.  The book covers the lives and secrets of many within the community and some who have left to live their lives elsewhere.  The story ranges over a period of about 60 years.  It provides a broad picture of the lives of Black people through those years that range from being sharecroppers, to going to war, to going through the civil rights movement and the changes it brought, and eventually to the late 1900s.  I read the book because of the great reviews for a new novel by the same author entitled Decent People which I am no going to read.  I have this book 4 stars out of 5.

Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu

Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023--San Antonio

Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu is a collection of short stories.  Each is well written and interesting and several of them involve science fiction themes.  Each story is very original--unlike any others I have read.  TIME listed it at #8 among best fiction books of 2022.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5. 

Greenland by David Sanchos Donaldson

Monday, Jan. 9, 2023--San Antonio

Greenland by David Sanchos Donaldson is a bit confusing at times, because he uses magical realism to make connections between what is happening in the protagonist's personal life and the lives of the charactors in the two novels that he is writing about the relationship between E. M. Forster, a British author, and Mohammad el Adl, a tram conductor, that developed when Forster was in Egypt.  One of the novels tells the story with Forster as the central character, and the other tells it with Mohammad as the central character.  The protagonist for this book is a writer who feels his chance to be published is passing away.  At the same time, he is having problems in his relationship with his life partner which make it seem that the relationship is coming to a rough end like the one between the main characters of his two novels.  Plus, he has alienated his best friend who hasn't spoken to him in several months.  It has become two novels because the only person who showed interest in the original novel written from Forster's perspective said she couldn't publish it in that form.  She said that re-writing it from the perspective of Mohammad would make it more interesting to the potential audience of readers.  But there was a catch; she would be retiring soon, and he had to get the second version of the novel written from Mohammed's perspective in 3 weeks to be able to get it accepted for publication.  He locks himself in the basement with limited food resources so he can work without interruptions and seems to eventually have some hallucinations.  Then he heads out of the country to find a wilderness he feels he must experience to understand Mohammed's life situation.  Topics of colonialism, racism, spirituality, etc., are brought up repeatedly.  I often set the book down for a day or two at a time, but I found it to be interesting.  I gave it 4 stars out of 5.