Five-Carat Soul

“The under Graham railroad box car set”
A Jewish toy dealer finds out that a one-of-a-kind toy, a train set that could be a weapon and that belonged to the son General Robert E. Lee, is in the possession of a Black preacher, Spurgeon Hart. He can think of nothing but how to get possession of this toy, which will make his fortune, but the encounter with the reverend and his wife is not at all what he expects.

The Five-Carat Soul Bottom Bone Band
“Buck boy”
“Ray-Ray's picture box”
“Blub”
“Goat”
These four stories each deal with members of the “The Five-Carat Soul Bottom Bone Band” in Uniontown, Pennsylvania and are narrated for us by Butter, a young adolescent boy. “Buck boy” was a story I’m not sure would be show more written the same way post-2020 and George Floyd. A boy is killed in a botched robbery and the town is torn apart by the aftermath, which includes a rather ineffective protest. “Ray-Ray’s picture box” starts with a young boy innocently saying he knows where naked pictures of his mother are, and an older boy takes advantage and starts selling the photos - but a form of justice is meted out in the end. “Blub” tells the story of a boy who is gentle and kind, but eventually in the wrong place at the wrong time, perhaps the most heart-breaking of the quartet. And “Goat” was just behind it, starting out with a boy who was a great runner but couldn’t get prizes because he had no birth certificate, and ending with Butter learning a little more about the complexities of the adult world.

“Father Abe”
In the aftermath of the Civil War, a Black unit is working in a small town, where an orphanage is - and one believes the soldiers’ teasing, that he is the son of Abraham Lincoln.

“The moaning bench”
A ragtag bunch finds them on the “moaning bench” after death, where a mysterious figure is ready to send them all to hell, before the boxer makes a deal.

“The Christmas dance”
The story begins with Herb interviewing the Judge and Carlos trying to get an oral history of Black World War 2 stories for his Ph. D. This one wowed me and it packed quite the emotional punch.

“The fish man angel”
A whimsical story of how President Lincoln may have had his idea for a famous phrase in the Emancipation Proclamation - one day, falling asleep in the stable while mourning the death of his son, Lincoln overhears a Black worker telling a story to his son about the “fish man angel” and the prediction he once made to the boy’s mother.

“Mr. P & the wind”
It’s hard to know what to call this - a short story? Novelette? It’s one complete story, but broken into 5 chapters and only about 60 pages long. Our narrator is Get Along, Go Along, a lion who lives in a zoo but remembers being free. He and his other animal friends are Higher Order beings and communicate through Thought Speak. They’re all taken aback when a zoo worker, Mr. P, demonstrates his own ability to communicate with them, and the stories they tell each other. Living in captivity has changed the animals, and so do the stories. I enjoyed the ending but felt like some of the story eluded me by being too clever for my reading.

All in all, this was a really enjoyable collection that included a lot of stories that seemed to be going in one direction and then had a reveal that cast everything else in a different light. The author’s note mentions that the origin of the collection was the final story, written in 1986. Since it was published in 2017, I assume McBride wrote the rest of the stories over the ensuing decades. Each is unique but, like his longer fiction, showcase the ability of a wonderful storyteller and wordsmith. show less

(audio) These short stories are lively and thought-provoking, as befits the author of so many fine novels. The first involves an antique toy buyer who is able to purchase the rarest of rare train sets, originally owned by Robert E. Lee, but is astonished to find out more than he could imagine about the owner. The next four stories features the trials and tribulations of life in The Bottom, featuring the eleven year old members of the The Five-Carat Soul Bottom Bone Band, a murder, some racy photos, and the surprising secret uncovered by a beloved teacher. A story about a prizefighter and other is Hell's Waiting Room has a sentimental and satisfying ending. Next up is a star turn by President Abraham Lincoln and his decision about show more slavery following the death of his beloved son Willie. The fourth is a touching WWII mystery story, where a PhD candidate researches a horrendous battle in Italy but finds the survivors and their tribute to a fallen hero. The last story tales place in a zoo, where a zookeeper learns to speak the mental language of the animals but pays a heavy price. The four narrators are uniformly excellent, with voices mellow and adding richness to the humor and the pathos. show less

Wow, what a versatile, fluid, imaginative writer. The stories have a wide range of subject matter, but they all have in common a solid core of humanity. In this coarse and divided time, I drank these stories in deeply, like someone who’s just come from the desert.

4.5 McBride shows us in this fantastic grouping of stories, a wide range of experiences from the viewpoint of blacks. They cover different points of history, from the Civil War and on. The Five-Carat Soul was the band name of a group of youths, starting from the age of nine, telling of life in the Bottoms, the section of a town in Pennsylvania that they called home. There are several of these connecting stories, narrated by a young boy called, Butter. Chronicling daily life but also some notable happenings. I enjoyed these stories, very realistically portrayed and experiencing them from the viewpoint of a young boy made them even more noteworthy.

I did, however, have three favorites. The first story about a white toy collector who covers show more and has the opportunity it to acquire a one of a kind train set. Made to order for Robert E. Lee, who gave it to his young son, it is discovered in the home of a black preacher. What happens is surprising and the ending even more so. Two stories made me cry. One set shortly after the Civil War and concerns a young boy named Abe Lincoln. Some of the black soldiers tell him his daddy, Abe Lincoln would be visiting soon. The boy believes him, and in fact Abe does come, accompanied by someone unexpected. The ending of the story is also unexpected. The second story is the Christmas dance and the story within is told by a few men who had been part of the Buffalo Soldiers. Again the ending is unexpected and quite beautiful.

This may be my favorite book of short stories this year. Though will admit that I didn't care for the last, those were a bit of a let down. All in all though these stories are in and of themselves complete, something that in shorts is not always the case. I think McBride is a natural born storyteller, which is what makes this genre a perfect fit.

ARC from Edelweiss. show less

This group of short stories are very wide ranging in their subject matter and style. They use different times in history, deal with fantasy, animals communicating, and mostly deal with the black experience. McBride won the National Book Award for "The Good Lord Bird" which I read and thoroughly enjoyed. This collection deals with black soldiers in both the Civil and World War II. He also has a very creative story about a toy collector and a train created specifically for General Robert E. Lee. Not al the stories work perfectly but there is no denying the creativity. This is a good introduction to McBride and if these work for you, then you should definitely read "The Good Lord Bird".

Not the most remarkable collection of short stories, but I liked the structure and the use of different readers on the audio. Mr. P and the Wind was my fave.

Of all the stories in this book I found 3 that were worthwhile/memorable though not in a significantly as compared to other short story authors. Most stories emanate from the Five Carat Soul band, a group of black teens whose lives are impacted by a variety of events. The first story however was about a successful toy collector who stumbles into a one of a kind toy train set handed down to a dedicated black Reverend who had no idea of its worth. Regardless, these stories were OK in my opinion