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The Rev. Jonah Dove is the son of a legendary Harlem minister, and a man troubled in both mind and spirit. He feels himself unworthy and incapable of taking up the burden of running his church from the larger–than–life figure who is his father. He is haunted both by his own, shameful history of "passing" as a white man in college, and by the prospects for his people in the harsh, new, racist age he fears the world is entering. Malcolm Little –– better known as Malcom X –– is a show more teenage hustler from Lansing, Michigan by way of Boston, a young man on the make, trying always to be something bigger, tougher, savvier, and more confident than he really is. On his way to New York, Malcolm happens to come to the rescue of Jonah and his wife, Amanda, when they are attacked by some drunken soldiers on the train. From then on, their paths cross repeatedly as they each go about trying to find what they really want out of the roiling, wartime city, until the moment when Harlem finally erupts around them, as a people driven beyond endurance strikes out blindly at all the forces keeping it entrapped in misery and hopelessness. Stranded on the streets of a rioting city, Jonah and Malcolm meet each other once more, as they come to grips with what they are and what the future will hold for them. African American Fiction. Historical Fiction. Fiction. show lessTags
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This is third in a series of books known as the City of Fire, where Kevin Baker delves into the drama of everyday lives among the ordinary, working class communities of historical New York. The books are always richly detailed and well-told. This time the story is set in Harlem in 1943 against the backdrop of World War II and racial tensions ratcheting up. This story is framed around two main characters: the Reverend Jonah Dove who feels unworthy of his leadership role compared with his legendary father and is sometimes able to pass as white, and a fictional version of Malcolm Little who would become Malcolm X. Choosing Malcolm X for a character in a novel is a daring move, especially since Baker takes liberties with the timeline of his show more discovery of the Nation of Islam. But overall both his characters are rich, flawed, fully-human, and have a feeling of authenticity. The novel is peppered with historical events and the characters reactions to them. Like the previous two novels - Paradise Alley which ended with the Draft Riots and Dreamland which ended with the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire - Strivers Row culminates in a major event in New York City, this time the Harlem Race Riots of 1943. I think Baker did a better job overall with the previous two books, but this is an entertaining and though-provoking novel show less
It feels like I've been reading this book forever!! I thought it was two weeks, but then I remembered I started another book or two and abandoned them as not worth my time before starting this one. So, maybe it wasn't so bad.
Anyway, it was a really fat book. 500+ pages. But it was pretty good. It's fiction, but it's peopled with fascinating historical characters. The main character is Malcolm Little; you probably know him better as Malcolm X. Baker does a great job bringing Harlem in the 1940s to life. There are jazz clubs, zoot suits, conked hair, and torch singers. And racism. I was particularly captivated by the descriptions of the powerful black preachers in the novel. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. has a couple of cameo appearances, but show more Jonah Dove, a fictionalized version of Powell, was a main character. Through the book, you could see how they cultivated power--political, social, and spiritual.
Though I liked the details in the book, I wasn't as impressed with the overall plot. It was telegraphed pretty blatantly from the beginning of the book and required too many implausible connections and "chance" meetings between three of the characters. Still, it wasn't bad.
This is an ARC, so they may end up editing it down a bit. It could be tighter by 100 pages or so without losing too much of its power. I may have to check it out when it's released just to see if they cut it some.
I guess I'd recommend this one, but not as enthusiastically as some of the other books I've read this year. show less
Anyway, it was a really fat book. 500+ pages. But it was pretty good. It's fiction, but it's peopled with fascinating historical characters. The main character is Malcolm Little; you probably know him better as Malcolm X. Baker does a great job bringing Harlem in the 1940s to life. There are jazz clubs, zoot suits, conked hair, and torch singers. And racism. I was particularly captivated by the descriptions of the powerful black preachers in the novel. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. has a couple of cameo appearances, but show more Jonah Dove, a fictionalized version of Powell, was a main character. Through the book, you could see how they cultivated power--political, social, and spiritual.
Though I liked the details in the book, I wasn't as impressed with the overall plot. It was telegraphed pretty blatantly from the beginning of the book and required too many implausible connections and "chance" meetings between three of the characters. Still, it wasn't bad.
This is an ARC, so they may end up editing it down a bit. It could be tighter by 100 pages or so without losing too much of its power. I may have to check it out when it's released just to see if they cut it some.
I guess I'd recommend this one, but not as enthusiastically as some of the other books I've read this year. show less
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Author Information
16+ Works 2,278 Members
Kevin Baker was born in August 1958, in Englewood, New Jersey and grew up in Rockport, Massachusetts. He graduated from Columbia University in New York City in 1980. He began his writing career directly after graduation. His first novel, Sometimes You See It Coming, based loosely on the life of Ty Cobb, was published in hardcover in 1993 and in show more paperback by HarperPaperbacks in the spring of 2003. Dreamland, part of Bakers New York City of Fire trilogy, was published by HarperCollins in 1999, and in paperback the following year. Paradise Alley was published by HarperCollins in 2002. Kevin was the chief historical researcher on Harold Evans' best-selling history, The American Century, published in 1999. He currently writes the monthly "In the News" column for American Heritage magazine, and has also been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, The Frankfurter Rundschau, Harpers magazine, Talk, and The Industry Standard. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Awards and Honors
Distinctions
Series
Common Knowledge
- People/Characters
- Malcolm X; Jonah Dove (Rev.)
- Important places
- Striver's Row, Harlem, New York, New York, USA; Harlem, New York, New York, USA
- Important events
- World War II (1939 | 1945)
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, General Fiction, Historical Fiction
- DDC/MDS
- 813.54 — Literature & rhetoric American literature in English American fiction in English 1900-1999 1945-1999
- LCC
- PS3552 .A43143 .S775 — Language and Literature American literature American literature Individual authors 1961-
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 192
- Popularity
- 169,680
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.42)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 10
- ASINs
- 5
