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A review by lpm100
Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush by Virginia Hamilton
2.0
A parent's Book Review
***Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush***
2/5 stars
"This one is not going to be making it into recommended pile for my sons"
*******
1. This book is scratching an itch that started about 32 years ago.
The original cover of this book (featured on the left) was very interesting--and made me want to look into reading it. (I saw it at our local public library.)
As it happens, I never got around to it and so here is that resolution--a few decades later.
2. It also happens that I'm in the habit of pre-reading books that my children might find useful read to monitor for content issues, and I thought I might as well put this one in the rota and kill two birds with one stone
After reading this book, I'm going to have to say: give it a miss.
Several reasons:
1. I don't know any black people who talk like this. (And that's saying something, because both of my parents and all of my relatives are.... black! Also, it is set at a time that was roughly coincident with my own childhood, so it's not an era issue.)
A lot of times when people try to write books about black people or make movies about them, the presentations that they will give are way over the top/ have no basis in empirical reality--and that's because they never had any basis for comparison.
I get the distinct impression that Virginia Hamilton (who appeared to be a mulatto, and was also married to a white husband up until the end of her life) was not raised in any proximity to the black side of her family--because if she was, she would be able to write passably decent AAVE.
2. The characters in this book don't seem to be the sharpest pencils in the box, and I'm trying to steer my kids away from that image of black people.
For instance, we have a mother who is gone for weeks at a time leaving her child unsupervised to handle the genetic condition of her oldest child.
And it's not like she even wrote down some notes or made a folder or gave her a FAQs file.
Or, for that matter, any types of heads up about his sickness.
She just dumped both of the children for a week or two at a time, and when it became a problem (about 36 hours before the child's actual death)..... Oh, then let's think about it now!
3. This is not exactly back from an era where having a car was a real big to do--even though the book hyped up this automobile. (It is from 1982.)
I got my first car in 1993.
4. Okay, so there is a black father that got tired of playing the parenting role and then just got up and disappeared.
Did we really need to seek out a book to see this happening?
5. You remember that book by Harriet Beecher Stowe, where she wrote an entire narrative after having seen a single slave?
It seems like Hamilton took this and ran with it.
For instance:The form of address toward Teresa's mother is distinctly Southern.
For a mother: My Dear--> M'Dear--> Madea (just like on all those Tyler Perry movies!)
Viola--->Vy---->My Vy---->M'Vy
No other part of the book has Southern color (and this is set much too far after the Great Migration for there to be any residual influences).
6. These funeral rituals are not the ones that we use, and there is lots of Christian imagery here.
I really can't ask my own Jewish kids to do anything with this.
Our family follows the Jewish tradition (there are no viewings and funerals are done within 24 hours; Mourning is also prescribed in a very specific way).
There are other books that do a slightly better job dealing with guilt and death for children of this age. I have in mind "Bridge to Terabithia."
7. I just don't see what is the point: a silent ghost comes to a girl to dredge up a bunch of family secrets that she would have been fine just not knowing.
So, all of these skeletons are taken out of the closet... So now what?
8. The plot is unrealistic in a lot of ways:
-Older Brother Dabney doesn't have sense enough to even speak, but he somehow manages to have a string of girls in and out of his bedroom.
Also, he later has money to buy barbiturates, but where does that come from?
-The protagonist meets the person that will be her future stepbrother and she finds him hot.
Less than one day after the funeral of her brother.
Creepy.
-The mother leaves her kids alone for weeks at a time, and it seems like half of the time they don't even go to school.
CPS was not the faintest bit interested?
Nobody at school noticed?
******
Verdict: Not recommended.
New vocabulary word:
Streak o’ Lean
***Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush***
2/5 stars
"This one is not going to be making it into recommended pile for my sons"
*******
1. This book is scratching an itch that started about 32 years ago.
The original cover of this book (featured on the left) was very interesting--and made me want to look into reading it. (I saw it at our local public library.)
As it happens, I never got around to it and so here is that resolution--a few decades later.
2. It also happens that I'm in the habit of pre-reading books that my children might find useful read to monitor for content issues, and I thought I might as well put this one in the rota and kill two birds with one stone
After reading this book, I'm going to have to say: give it a miss.
Several reasons:
1. I don't know any black people who talk like this. (And that's saying something, because both of my parents and all of my relatives are.... black! Also, it is set at a time that was roughly coincident with my own childhood, so it's not an era issue.)
A lot of times when people try to write books about black people or make movies about them, the presentations that they will give are way over the top/ have no basis in empirical reality--and that's because they never had any basis for comparison.
I get the distinct impression that Virginia Hamilton (who appeared to be a mulatto, and was also married to a white husband up until the end of her life) was not raised in any proximity to the black side of her family--because if she was, she would be able to write passably decent AAVE.
2. The characters in this book don't seem to be the sharpest pencils in the box, and I'm trying to steer my kids away from that image of black people.
For instance, we have a mother who is gone for weeks at a time leaving her child unsupervised to handle the genetic condition of her oldest child.
And it's not like she even wrote down some notes or made a folder or gave her a FAQs file.
Or, for that matter, any types of heads up about his sickness.
She just dumped both of the children for a week or two at a time, and when it became a problem (about 36 hours before the child's actual death)..... Oh, then let's think about it now!
3. This is not exactly back from an era where having a car was a real big to do--even though the book hyped up this automobile. (It is from 1982.)
I got my first car in 1993.
4. Okay, so there is a black father that got tired of playing the parenting role and then just got up and disappeared.
Did we really need to seek out a book to see this happening?
5. You remember that book by Harriet Beecher Stowe, where she wrote an entire narrative after having seen a single slave?
It seems like Hamilton took this and ran with it.
For instance:The form of address toward Teresa's mother is distinctly Southern.
For a mother: My Dear--> M'Dear--> Madea (just like on all those Tyler Perry movies!)
Viola--->Vy---->My Vy---->M'Vy
No other part of the book has Southern color (and this is set much too far after the Great Migration for there to be any residual influences).
6. These funeral rituals are not the ones that we use, and there is lots of Christian imagery here.
I really can't ask my own Jewish kids to do anything with this.
Our family follows the Jewish tradition (there are no viewings and funerals are done within 24 hours; Mourning is also prescribed in a very specific way).
There are other books that do a slightly better job dealing with guilt and death for children of this age. I have in mind "Bridge to Terabithia."
7. I just don't see what is the point: a silent ghost comes to a girl to dredge up a bunch of family secrets that she would have been fine just not knowing.
So, all of these skeletons are taken out of the closet... So now what?
8. The plot is unrealistic in a lot of ways:
-Older Brother Dabney doesn't have sense enough to even speak, but he somehow manages to have a string of girls in and out of his bedroom.
Also, he later has money to buy barbiturates, but where does that come from?
-The protagonist meets the person that will be her future stepbrother and she finds him hot.
Less than one day after the funeral of her brother.
Creepy.
-The mother leaves her kids alone for weeks at a time, and it seems like half of the time they don't even go to school.
CPS was not the faintest bit interested?
Nobody at school noticed?
******
Verdict: Not recommended.
New vocabulary word:
Streak o’ Lean