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WHITE BOY

Name: WHITE BOY
Author: Tom Graves
ISBN: 978-1-942531-31-9

A MEMOIR

by Tom Graves ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2019

The book’s erotic focus is a prolonged objectification of black women.

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Graves recounts his efforts to address his racist upbringing and outlines his fascination with black culture.

“I am from a racist family” is the stark opening line of this tell-all about seeking sexual and professional fulfillment. Growing up in Memphis in the 1950s and 1960s, Graves (English/LeMoyne-Owen College; Aesop's Fables with Colin Hay, 2017, etc.) felt the notion of white superiority “was in the very air we breathed.” As a boy, he knew that black people lived in slums and had their own water fountains and exclusive days at the zoo. He didn’t get to know any black people, though, until his school integrated when he was 11. In the years to come, Graves was increasingly drawn to African American culture, researching the African origins of blues music. He also had sex with multiple black women, who appear to be racially fetishized (“a bevy of brown-skinned beauties”). After an unfulfilling 23-year marriage to a white woman, he writes, “I wanted to make up for what I considered lost time,” and “black women seemed to find me more attractive and interesting.” He met Fatima Magoro, from Sierra Leone, through Match.com. Despite his uneasiness over her inconsistent accounts of her past, he got her a fiancee visa for the U.S. Her existing pregnancy by another man nearly derailed the relationship, but after Fatima’s abortion they proceeded with a volatile relationship that lasted six years. The book’s sudden ending positions this experience as the pivotal one of the author’s life: “I will never know if she truly loved me,” he laments in conclusion. His experience of teaching seventh-grade creative writing makes for lively material, breaking up what can otherwise be a slightly dull chronological tour through the author’s life story. A classroom setting that initially appeared to be “the third circle of hell” gradually became a place where he had meaningful everyday encounters with minority students. Unfortunately, the overall effect here is a cataloging of black women's physical features that reads like racial stereotyping.

The book’s erotic focus is a prolonged objectification of black women.

Pub Date: June 1, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-942531-31-9

Page Count: 272

Publisher: DeVault-Graves Agency

Review Posted Online: June 6, 2019

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.