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I just finished reading, "Sport of the Gods," by Paul Dunbar, and I am going to devour every piece of prose I can find by him. The man is also a fine poet, but I have a harder time understanding poetry than the Devil has understanding the ways of the good angel. His prose style in this book is excellent, eloquent, and engaging.
It hard for me to find good black authors. Honestly, it's hard for me to find good authors of any race, but worthy black novelists are few and far between, and in my estimation, we lost one this weekend.
Charles Johnson is good, but not great. Terry McMillan is good but not great. Apparently Toni Morrison is great, but her prose styling is too hand wavvy for me. I just don't get a whole lot of what she is saying. Richard Wright is fine. I respect him as I respect Upton Sinclair, good, worthy, writers but they lack a clear-sighted eye for story.
Paul Dunbar's "Sport of the Gods," is perfect, perfect in the way the best of Salinger's short fiction is perfect. Terse, clear-sighted, well-plotted, and wise.
Bery Hamilton is wrongly accused and convicted of theft in a small southern town. As his conviction sullies the Hamilton name, his wife and two children are forced to move to survive, the Family chooses New York, and the story takes off from there. All of the minor individual faults and virtues of this family, which were charming and petty when the family unit was in tact and working, are exacerbated, frightening, and violent when the family moves to New York, and the individuals are prey to forces beyond their control. What Dunbar does well is portray the fragility of their lives, and yet, he makes it clear that the decisions that are put before the members of the Hamilton family are their own. This story is a deeply tragic, in the true greek sense, story that lays bare the human condition in all of its glory and delicacy. It's a tiny, extraordinarily well-written book.
Posts: 5600 | Registered: Jul 2001
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quote:This story is a deeply tragic, in the true greek sense, story that lays bare the human condition in all of its glory and delicacy.
Here's a question, before I pick it up: what does this book think the human condition IS? I quite frequently find myself disagreeing with authors on this point. Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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The author portrays an ensemble of characters(the human condition is plural) changing in lieu of their interactions with each other, struggling to secure both the necessities of life, and the dignity which goes along with living well. What this book does well is show the blend between individual agency and the sway of external forces that constitute negotiating this human world.
There is ignorance, arrogance, fine prejudices, wisdom, cleverness, devotion, betrayal, violence, humility, piety, humility, and keen sight displayed in this book. Nobody is merely a product of their circumstance, and nobody is in complete control of his/her destiny. All of this in remarkably elegant prose.
Posts: 5600 | Registered: Jul 2001
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