- Hardcover: 560 pages
- Publisher: Harper (Jan 19 2006)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0060195835
- ISBN-13: 978-0060195830
- Product Dimensions: 22.6 x 16 x 4.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 885 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #818,096 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Played out against the backdrop of Harlem in 1943, this generally engaging, sometimes dense third novel from Baker (following the bestselling Dreamland and Paradise Alley) reimagines the early days of Malcolm Little—the man who became Malcolm X. As depicted by Baker, the young Malcolm is quick-witted, eager, reckless and impulsive, but also sensitive and possessing a strong sense of justice. These qualities lead to a chance encounter in which he helps Jonah Dove (the Dove family is familiar from Paradise Alley), a young Harlem minister who is struggling with his own demons as the fair-skinned leader of a black church that has not truly embraced him, despite his being the only son of the church's much-beloved founder; Dove's unfolding story (including his struggles with passing) deepens Malcolm's. The book stays within what's already known about Malcolm X's early adulthood, but Baker covers the territory carefully. He also thoroughly captures the figures (Adam Clayton Powell Jr., West Indian Archie, the Collyer brothers, etc.) and micropolitical climate of wartime Harlem: munitions factories have brought jobs to the struggling community, but low wages, rationing, racial hostilities and an increasing military and police presence makes for possibly explosive combinations. When these tensions do reach the breaking point, Baker lends the resulting fray a visceral reality. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Following the intricate yet gripping novels Dreamland (1999) and Paradise Alley (2002), Baker offers the last and equally compelling installment of his City of Fire series, which is set during critical periods in the history of New York City. But the true significance of the trilogy lies in its transcendence. Regardless of the novels' setting in the nation's megalopolis, what the characters experience, and the cultural trends that define and shape those experiences, reflects the trends and conditions in the country at large. In his new novel, Baker tracks within the robust atmosphere of 1940s Harlem two separate paths toward personal empowerment taken by two black men with very different backgrounds. As usual for Baker, he mixes actual historical figures with fictional ones: in this case, Malcolm Little, a young man who knew only poverty and hardship growing up in Michigan and fled to Harlem to find the opportunity to improve his life--and became Malcolm X; and Jonah Dove, a Harlem preacher (in Baker's endnotes, he reveals that Jonah is an "amalgam of Harlem ministers, past and present") who was raised in privilege, sent to college, and bears the advantage and disadvantage of being light enough to pass as white. With considerable historical knowledge and narrative fluidity, Baker renders their conflicts and choices as paradigmatic of the situations in which blacks found themselves during that era before the civil rights movement began in full. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
He thought about the rabbits sometimes, lying awake at night in the little room in Ella's house, under the eaves. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
He thought about the rabbits sometimes, lying awake at night in the little room in Ella's house, under the eaves. Read the first page
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
MODERN HISTORICAL FICTION AT ITS FINEST,
By
This review is from: Strivers Row Unabridged Cd (Audio CD)
Kevin Baker has already proven himself to be a master of modern historical fiction with Dreamland and Paradise Alley. Now, he completes his City of Fire trilogy with the unforgettable Strivers Row, the story of a time as reflected in the lives of two men, Malcolm and Jonah.We first meet Malcolm when he's still a boy after his mother has been taken ill. He is out hunting for hares with Mr. Gohannas and others. He describes the group by saying, "All of them darker than he was, their skin the color of burnt coffee or railroad coal, faces lined and creased like worn car seats. Wearing their field overalls and work boots, redolent with the scent of men's sweat and dirt. Some of them with their boys next to them -- wearing their handed-down overalls; faces exactly the same only smoother, as if all the creases had been ironed out. Their ragged hair knotted up in burrs and tangles, like the farmers they were and would always be." As a 12-year-old Malcolm may be unfamiliar with how to use a .22, but he's clever and soon figures out the path that the frightened hares always take when rousted by the dogs. Soon, he's off by himself shooting the frightened creatures as they run, bagging more than any of the others. When he reaches adulthood he remembers the rabbits, as an adult he is civil rights leader Malcolm X. Set in Harlem in 1943 the scene is one of trouble waiting to happen. At this time Malcolm is young, self-important, without direction. Reverend Jonah Dove is the minister of one of the largest churches in Harlem and lives in the heart of that area known as Striver's Row. Fate steps in when it is Malcolm who saves Jonah and his wife from the brutal hands of some drunken white soldiers. For Malcolm this is something he soon forgets; the assault and rescue affects Jonah quite differently. However, despite the pleasures he enjoys Malcolm has never found peace within himself, which haunts him and brings about a dramatic change in his thinking. Yet life is about to be changed for many as race riots begin and before long Malcolm and Jonah are thrown together once again. Each must confront this devastation in his own way. Baker's description of the Harlem that was with the Apollo Theater and vendors selling trinkets on street corners is so intensely real that one can almost hear the sounds and feel the tension. Thomas Anthony Penny offers a fine voice performance, becoming by turns a self indulgent man who battles racism in his own way and a minister who could pass for white and is often unsure of exactly where he belongs. All the while Penny recreates a pivotal era in American history with his attention to the nuances of Baker's story. - Gail Cooke
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.3 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews) 4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Least Fiery of Baker's Trilogy,
By David Zimmerman - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Strivers Row (Hardcover)
The third in Baker's "City of Fire" trilogy of historical fiction about New York City, this book is set in the early `40s in Harlem with the story told through the eyes of a young Malcolm Little, who in later life would become Malcolm X, and the fictional Rev. Jonah Dove (based on Adam Clayon Powell, who also appears as himself in the book.)Baker's meticulous research results in Harlem scenes that resonate with believability. Laid against the backdrop is the story of Malcolm and Elijah Muhammad (founder of the Black Muslims), which has to be dealt with on a symbolic level. While an enjoyable read, this one didn't quite measure up to the promise generated by Baker's first two parts of the trilogy, Dreamland and Paradise Alley. 6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Master literary historian, great novel (what else is new?),
By BIg Daddy - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Strivers Row (Hardcover)
I've been a Kevin Baker fan since his brilliant book about Coney Island: Dreamland. His next one, Paradise Alley, may have been even better. No one writes about New York City as well as Baker does -- no novelist, no historian, no one. This new book is a novel about Harlem in the era of jazz greats and secret cults, the era of war and hope. I think it's his most ambitious work yet -- it tells the sotry of young Malcolm X, in the days before he was famous, and -- better than anything I know of about the man -- it gets at the heart of a great American engima. There are other great characters, too --- The Reverend Jonah Dove, who may be a real life figure, as well (I don't know) -- but the story itself is so riveting, I was totally into the book from page one.Anyway, I really recomend it. The dude can write. 3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Extraordinary Experience,
By Rob Gordon "Book and Vinyl Lover" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Strivers Row (Hardcover)
For six years and three books, Baker has been building, brick by brick, his own city, and it is a classic. With Striver's Row, the high-rises are inhabited, the streets are paved, the corners are teeming. You see how the country came together, and you understand that the world of books has been resting in sure hands. Baker has a detective's eye and a preservationist's heart: but most of all, he has a writer's head, and the proof is on every page. This book tops off a trilogy, but Striver's can be read alone; if it were a first novel, it'd be a cause for celebration. As the end of a series, it's an occassion for gratitude.
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