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4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Lewis, April 29 2003
Kingsblood Royal is largely successful at what it attempts. The reason I didn't give it five stars is because there are a few one dimensional characters in it. Though Lewis tries for complexity in his African American characters, in a few of them, he misses the mark. And occasionally the book suffers from that "can't we all just get along" ness that enlightened Caucasians can't help but aim for in books like these. Overall, though, the book is a great success. What struck me time and time again, was the rage with which this nation has demonstrated its belief in the resolute inferiority of black African genes. That having only 1/32nd black African ancestry could cause people to view you entirely differently, proves the potency of the belief that one drop of identifiable black African blood, poisons the entire pool. I recommend this book to anyone who seeks to really understand the racial craziness of America.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Truth in black and white, Aug 20 2002
What if you discovered you were part black? Only 1/32nd, not enough to darken your skin, but beyond the pale in 1947. When Neil Kingsblood uncovers his heritage, he also discovers his conscience, finding it difficult, finally impossible to not express his outrage at the racial status quo. It is important to note that Kingsblood has so internalized the beliefs of his community about racial purity that he soon comes to see himself as being a "Negro," and not simply the bearer of a small amount of nonwhiteness (something not unusual in America). When he comes out--a phrase Kingsblood often uses and one that takes on additional resonance today--the white community instantly sees him as being a racial imposter, a black outsider. He understands his transgression, he knows what he is losing, but does it anyway, and even when further experience reveals just how much is at stake, he does not back down, giving Kingsblood a nobility he lacked before the revelation. Lewis's characters are felt-through creations, not cardboard cutouts. Although the novel's violent conclusion was considered melodramatic by white critics back then, several decades of truth-telling since 1947 have proven the hard-core truth of Lewis's premise: racism and violence go hand in hand. But what gives the novel its emotional drive is Kingsblood's relationship with his wife, Vestal. Not an outright bigot--she's too well-bred for that--Vestal is both fiercely loyal to her husband and dismayed by his annoucement, yet over the course of the novel you see her attempts at growth and in the novel's denoument, her final decision. It's a novel that is suited for adaptation to the screen, with the added advantage nowadays of there being so many well-known African-American actors. A quality movie, in fact, would be much in line with Lewis's ethos of writing in an accessible style to reach the masses but with a social activist message. It would be an eloquent rebuttal of the novel's initial poor reception.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent portrayal of racism, Jun 21 2002
There was never an author who understood the mind of the Middlewest better than Sinclair Lewis. I liked his characterizations in Main Street, Babbitt and Arrowsmith. When I found this book, I didn't know what to expect. It's a little like jazz: if I have to explain it to you, you don't understand it. (Only in the Middlewest would the Blue Ox National Bank Building be the tallest building in a town called Grand Republic.) Here, Lewis describes the racist attitudes of the folks in progressive Democrat-Farmer-Labor Minnesota. This would be an excellent novel for high school students. They most likely won't grasp the sarcasm, but it will help them get a better grasp of racism and white "priviledge". The US in 1947 was still a white man's country. Considering how many people have conniptions over Huckleberry Finn, I wonder how many high schools have this on their reading lists, or even know the novel exists.
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