Park Hill Community Bookstore suggests snapshots of diverse cultures

Each week as part of SunLit — The Sun’s literature section — we feature staff recommendations from book stores across Colorado. This week, the staff from Park Hill Community Bookstore in Denver recommends a ’60s portrait of a streetwise Black man, a Jerusalem personal and political drama and a novel about a Nigerian family.

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From the publisher: This thinly fictionalized account of Claude Brown’s childhood as a hardened, streetwise criminal trying to survive the toughest streets of Harlem has been heralded as the definitive account of everyday life for the first generation of African Americans raised in the northern ghettos of the 1940s and 1950s. When the book was first published in 1965, it was praised for its realistic portrayal of Harlem — the children, young people, hardworking parents; the hustlers, drug dealers, prostitutes, and numbers runners; the police; the violence, sex, and humor. The book continues to resonate generations later, not only because of its fierce and dignified anger, not only because the struggles of urban youth are as deeply felt today as they were in Brown’s time, but also because the book is affirmative and inspiring.

From Sheryl Hartmann, volunteer: Sonny Boy somehow knows that he can only get away with being a criminal until he is old enough to get a “sheet.” Surprisingly, he knows that he should never do heroin even though he smokes pot and does the occasional line of cocaine — there’s just some force within him that keeps pulling him back from total self-destruction even as most of his peers OD, are killed, or spend the rest of their lives in prison.

Something that really stood out to me is the way the authorial tone changes and matures as Sonny grows up. The narrative ends up not only portraying life in Harlem at a particular time but the evolving nature of Sonny’s relationships as he moves from childhood into adulthood.

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From the publisher: Five-year-old Milad Salama is excited for a school trip to a theme park on the outskirts of Jerusalem. On the way, his bus collides with a semitrailer. His father, Abed, gets word of the crash and rushes to the site. The scene is chaos ― the children have been taken to different hospitals in Jerusalem and the West Bank; some are missing, others cannot be identified. Abed sets off on an odyssey to learn Milad’s fate. It is every parent’s worst nightmare, but for Abed it is compounded by the maze of physical, emotional, and bureaucratic obstacles he must navigate because he is Palestinian. He is on the wrong side of the separation wall, holds the wrong ID to pass the military checkpoints, and has the wrong papers to enter the city of Jerusalem. Abed’s quest to find Milad is interwoven with the stories of a cast of Jewish and Palestinian characters whose lives and histories unexpectedly converge.

From Sheryl Hartmann, volunteer: One of the things you’ll get from reading this book is an understanding of how the political and local dynamics of Israeli governance can dramatically affect Palestinian lives. Although the author, a Jewish-American journalist based in Jerusalem, is critical of Israel, he does not demonize Israelis nor does he glorify Palestinians; he just reports.

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From the publisher: Fifteen-year-old Kambili’s world is circumscribed by the high walls and frangipani trees of her family compound. Her wealthy Catholic father, under whose shadow Kambili lives, while generous and politically active in the community, is repressive and fanatically religious at home.

When Nigeria begins to fall apart under a military coup, Kambili’s father sends her and her brother away to stay with their aunt, a University professor, whose house is noisy and full of laughter. There, Kambili and her brother discover a life and love beyond the confines of their father’s authority. The visit will lift the silence from their world and, in time, give rise to devotion and defiance that reveal themselves in profound and unexpected ways.

From Sheryl Hartmann, volunteer: “Purple Hibiscus” was Adichie’s first novel written when she was 25 years old. What you will get from this novel, besides the beautiful writing and rich characterizations, is a stark contrast between religious practice within two families. Kambili’s home life is rich, miserable and severely Catholic; a legacy perhaps of the colonial missionaries prior to Nigerian independence. On the other hand, the poor but happy household of her aunt and cousins is focused on kindness, questioning, and intellectual flourishing.

Type of Story: Review

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