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shannanh's review against another edition
3.0
This book was an older book, and it took me a minute to get into the story, but I enjoyed it.
arisbookcorner's review
3.0
IQ "I used to think maybe if I went to an all-black college things would have been different. Maybe an all-black experience would have been better. But it would probably have been the same shit-I mean stuff-no, I mean shit. Shit. It would have been the same shit, just different-color noses pointed in the air, and there's something more painful about being rejected from what you believe to be your own. So the familiar seemed less painful and for me familiar was white. I know how to deal with that. I guess what I'm saying, or trying to say, is I thought you were one of my own Someone who would give me chance" Mason/Malik, page 216
This is one of those books that I picked up on a whim, I was visiting a used bookstore (s/o to Myopic books) and the title caught my eye. By now my obsession with the Harlem Renaissance is well documented so I knew I needed to read it especially because the premise was vastly different from anything I've ever read. Furthermore I knew I would identify with Malik, we came from similar backgrounds and while I would not have gone to the extreme lengths he did to fit in (he acts like an idiot for a good portion of the book), I completely understand the feelings behind his odd decision. I selected the featured quote precisely because I had often had self doubts and regrets about not attending an HBCU and I felt the author perfectly captured my mixed feelings on the matter. The fun facts about Harlem woven in made the story as enjoyable as I expected and I was able to picture all the parties and history in my mind with little difficulty.
The characters felt truly original, ones that I'd met in my life but people who are rarely portrayed in literature. This fact made it even more frustrating that the book was so short, I wanted more, more, more. More Kyra, more Malcolm, more talk about Mason's college years. The characters have wonderful conversations with each other that we're privy to on the topics of class, education and race, making astute observations such as this one on activist student protestors; "Then one day I was in this cell with all these people and it felt like a party and I realized everyone in that cell could afford to get arrested. We weren't going to get lost in the system. It was like Monopoly. But not everyone has a Get out of Jail Free card" (158). Conversations like this made me not want the book to end. It also would have been nice to see how Mason's gap year changed him when he went to law school. The ending was pleasantly unexpected, I knew there was a mystery concerning Carmen but I didn't expect how it played out so I also wanted a lot more Carmen, she deserves a sequel of her own.
This is one of those books that I picked up on a whim, I was visiting a used bookstore (s/o to Myopic books) and the title caught my eye. By now my obsession with the Harlem Renaissance is well documented so I knew I needed to read it especially because the premise was vastly different from anything I've ever read. Furthermore I knew I would identify with Malik, we came from similar backgrounds and while I would not have gone to the extreme lengths he did to fit in (he acts like an idiot for a good portion of the book), I completely understand the feelings behind his odd decision. I selected the featured quote precisely because I had often had self doubts and regrets about not attending an HBCU and I felt the author perfectly captured my mixed feelings on the matter. The fun facts about Harlem woven in made the story as enjoyable as I expected and I was able to picture all the parties and history in my mind with little difficulty.
The characters felt truly original, ones that I'd met in my life but people who are rarely portrayed in literature. This fact made it even more frustrating that the book was so short, I wanted more, more, more. More Kyra, more Malcolm, more talk about Mason's college years. The characters have wonderful conversations with each other that we're privy to on the topics of class, education and race, making astute observations such as this one on activist student protestors; "Then one day I was in this cell with all these people and it felt like a party and I realized everyone in that cell could afford to get arrested. We weren't going to get lost in the system. It was like Monopoly. But not everyone has a Get out of Jail Free card" (158). Conversations like this made me not want the book to end. It also would have been nice to see how Mason's gap year changed him when he went to law school. The ending was pleasantly unexpected, I knew there was a mystery concerning Carmen but I didn't expect how it played out so I also wanted a lot more Carmen, she deserves a sequel of her own.
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