The Book of Harlan Paperback – May 3, 2016

Wow! What didn't I think about "The Book Of Harlan by Bernice L. McFadden? The ending left a noise in my head. That's all I will write about that part of the book. Don't sneak a snoop! The novel happens during the Second World War. That war is written about often and talked about often as well. Still, there were subjects in the Historical novel which had never been heard about by me.One subject is passing. Of course, I've heard about Black people passing for White. I'd never heard of a White male wanting to pass for White except in Black Like Me. Sorry, I have forgotten the author. Lizard is the one who passes or wants to pass. Anyway, he loves the Black race. He loves Harlan, his friend. His feelings break his family's heart. The author Bernice L. McFadden uses a broken dish to describe the parents feelings about Lizard's actions. I could see and hear the plate breaking. What was so terrible about their son befriending Harlan's family? I wanted to cry.Then, there is Harlan's story. His stay in Europe, Paris, is heartbreaking too. When I read about Negroes living in a concentration camp called Shark's Island, I did look up Ms. McFadden's bibliography. That page is strong with a list of books. She mentions Jesse Owens and the Olympics during that time in History. I worried would she write that Negroes suffered equally as much as the Jews. I hope that was not the point. I felt uncomfortable. I think six million Jews died in The Holocaust?Thankfully, there are many themes in the novel. There is Musical History. There is the bonds of family and there is the atrocities committed by war heroes. There are newspaper stories about war criminals coming to trial and hiding out in other countries like South America, etc. Perhaps it is my lack of reading. I do not hear of the people who committed these atrocities coming to justice any longer. In "The Book Of Harlan," Bernice L. McFadden writes about the people who experienced injustice wanting the war criminals to come to justice. This is closure for them.This is a topic hard to think about or examine. Where does forgiveness begin and punishment end? Where? I wait anxiously for Bernice L. McFadden's next novel. Until that book's arrival, there is the realization that life is fragile. As the old people would say "here today and gone tomorrow." Those words were not to be taken lightly. Will we see over and over again a man as hateful as Adolf Hitler? If we do not talk about it, it will happen again.I do admit to not liking the beginning. I almost gave up. It didn't seem like the author's writing. I felt like she was looking for a way to begin the story. Then, she found her wings. Once she took off I was there with her. The novel flowed and did not stop. Then at the end a jolt, a breath of fresh air, freedom, for Harlan. Is there more to Harlan's story? I'm still thinking about him.

This is Bernice L. McFadden's best book ever! Her prose is stunning, gliding over an epic of horrific proportions.We meet Harlan's parents Sam Elliot, and Emma Robinson before he was conceived, while Emma was too innocent to protect herself. But they did the best they could, leaving Harlan with his doting grandmother while the young couple went off seeking their fortune from Macon to Louisville to Michigan, returning home to Macon when Emma's father Tenant Robinson died. When Tenant's estate was settled, Emma and Sam move on to Harlem where Emma's best friend Lucille a famous blues singer, has settled in a large home, with rooms to spare.McFadden weaves her story around historical facts of life in Harlem with famous singers and musicians of the 1920's. When Emma and Sam go back to get Harlan to join them in Harlem, he is at first defiant, but goes with his parents to New York where he discovers a life he never imagined. When Harlan learns to play the guitar, Lucille invites him to go on the road with her. But Harlan, who never had any personal discipline was often late, or drunk, until Lucille had to fire him and send him home.Harlan lacked discipline, but he did love the music enough to form a jazz band. He found his partner in music in one Leo "Lizard" Rubenstein, who could play trumpet like Satchmo. Harlan called him his "brother from another mother." The band was invited to play in L'Escadrille in Montmarte in Paris. And so they went. Harlan, still lacking discipline, had a wild partying time in Paris, not aware of the Nazi invasion of France. (No spoilers here, it's in the book-blurb.)McFadden continues the heartbreaking part of the story, leaving me in tears. The story ends in the 1960's, the Viet Nam War, "riots" in the cities, Imamu Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones), "free love." And a wonderful denouement.

“The Book of Harlan” by Bernice L. McFadden was a book I couldn’t put down. Non-stop narrative momentum takes us from Macon to 1930s Harlem to 1940s Paris to Buchenwald to 1950s Trenton and beyond with many stops in between. Lives centered on blues and jazz elicit passages of pure poetry: “On Saturday nights, white hankie in hand, Lizard showcased his gift--blowing high notes that scraped the ceiling, notes so low people half-expected to see clefts and trebles scuttling across the floor. Happy notes, sad notes, sexy notes, deep-in-the-bone weary notes. Notes that recounted stories so primal, Lizard couldn’t have had an earthly acquaintance with them--but there they were, streaming from his trumpet like ribbons.”Harlan builds a life out of his music that takes him places, though his parents’ home in Harlem remains the heart of it all. In Harlem he meets his “brother from another mother,” Lizard, brushes shoulders with jazz greats like Louis Armstrong, drinks endlessly, smokes pot, sleeps with women, plays his guitar.In the midst of all this living there’s tragedy. In youth and in adulthood come events so shocking and sad (and so brilliantly, memory-searingly written) that I had to put the book down and take deep breaths and wait for the numbness to fade before I could resume. Fortunately, McFadden has a deft touch when it comes to injecting humor into the story, and there were countless times where I found myself grinning or chuckling.“The Book of Harlan” is a book about a life. A man and those who live in his orbit. The story of Harlan but also the story of his mother and father and friends and lovers. From the Harlem Renaissance to World War II to the Civil Rights Movement, here is the American history of a man and those who loved him. Read it.

This book is just amazing. I did not know that could happened during the WW2 and the trauma about memories during and after the war.

Very good

I enjoyed reading this book it kept me entertained all the way through. I did not expect a few of the turns that happened and this kept the book interesting. The ending was quite surprising also. It also includes bits of historical events as the years go by.

Another good read and worth a buy. It is an unusual book with great characters.