Maya Angelou: Steady Going Up

Deal Me In 2021 – Week 48

Robert sat down in his seat. ‘Yes’m. I’m sorry. I didn’t have time to get you a Dr. Pepper.’

Robert rides a bus from Memphis to Cincinnati to see his sister in Maya Angelou’s story “Steady Going Up”. He sits in the back where he’s required to sit.

Something about the way Angelou writes this story gives the impression that she is playing with toy figurines that she moves around to tell the story. As strange as it sounds, it works giving the relationship between the characters a detached feeling. Given that nobody knows anyone on this bus trip, it makes sense.

The elderly lady that sits near Robert comes the closest to developing a “bond” between herself and Robert. When he tells her he didn’t have time to get her a Dr. Pepper, it’s kind of a brilliant understatement given the encounter Robert has with two white men during a stop.

This is a story that grew on me after I read it.

This story is included in Black American Short Stories: A Century of the Best edited by John Henrick Clarke. I read it for Week 48 of my Deal Me In 2021 short story project. Check out my Deal Me In list here. Deal Me In is hosted by Jay at Bibliophilopolis.

Frank Yerby: The Homecoming

Deal Me In 2021 – Week 47

Up on the edge of the skyline, a man stopped his plowing to wave at the passing train.

‘How come we always do that?’ Willie speculated idly. ‘Don’t know a soul on this train – not a soul – but he got to wave. Oh, well…’

Sergeant Willie Jackson comes home from World War II with a purple heart and an artificial leg in Frank Yerby’s “The Homecoming”. We don’t get too far into the story before we realize that the homecoming isn’t the grand type we usually associate with the word.

Willie encounters racism in the violent manner almost right away. He then encounters it with the white man who seems to think he is some sort of family to Willie. Telling Willie how lucky he was as a kid to go from back door to back door in town to beg for food.

Willie wants to find a new home but leaving isn’t as easy as he thought it might be. The story’s shocking and bizarre ending reveals just how trapped Willie is – after fighting for his home.

This story is included in Black American Short Stories: A Century of the Best edited by John Henrick Clarke. I read it for Week 47 of my Deal Me In 2021 short story project. Check out my Deal Me In list here. Deal Me In is hosted by Jay at Bibliophilopolis.

Arna Bontemps: A Summer Tragedy

Deal Me In 2021 – Week 46

Jennie sat on the side of the bed, and old Jeff Patton got down on one knee while she tied the bow knot. It was a slow and painful ordeal for each of them in this position. Jeff’s bones cracked, his knee ached, and it was only after a half dozen attempts that Jennie worked a semblance of a bow into the tie.

In Arna Bontemp’s “A Summer Tragedy”, Jeff Patton and his wife Jennie are getting dressed up. As the reader, we don’t know why; however, given the title, we sense something foreboding. Jeff thinks thoughts of desperation and fear. Jennie asks Jeff questions that give the sense that something bad has happened or will happen.

If it wasn’t for the wonderful writing and the strong characterizations of Jeff and Jennie and the presentation of such a long lasting marriage, this story would be less a tragedy and more a gimmick. Instead, we ache for Jeff and Jennie and recognize the strength alongside their despair.

This story is included in Black American Short Stories: A Century of the Best edited by John Henrick Clarke. I read it for Week 46 of my Deal Me In 2021 short story project. Check out my Deal Me In list here. Deal Me In is hosted by Jay at Bibliophilopolis.

Broken Horses by Brandi Carlile

I think I first stumbled across the music of Brandi Carlile when I was surfing YouTube and found a performance of hers with The Avett Brothers on Letterman. I think it was about 2015 (for both the performance and the surfing) and they sang the Carter Family song “Keep On the Sunnyside”. I’ve been a fan of hers ever since ( I was already a fan of The Avett Brothers).

With each new album, I’ve appreciated her lyrics (and those of band mates Tim and Phil Hanseroth) more and more. The same heartfelt thoughts and ideas come through in this memoir.

Whether she’s gushing over her friendships with Elton John and Joni Mitchell or lovingly letting the reader see glimpses of her life with her wife and two daughters or describing the manual labor she does on their land in rural Washington, she does it with honesty and a manner that realistically mixes humility and confidence.

And of course she talks about her music. In any musical memoir, that’s the part I enjoy the most and it’s definitely the case here. As she’s telling stories, she inserts lines from her songs that relate making both the story and the song more meaningful.

The story she tells that stands out the most to me is that of her fondness as a teenager for a Baptist church in her small Washington town and the excitement she felt when she decided to be baptized only to be told on the “day of” that she couldn’t because she was gay (apparently the pastor already knew this but waited until the last minute to tell her). Looking back, she doesn’t tell this story with anger and indignation but with forgiveness and grace. Forgiveness becomes a central theme in her stories and songs as she contemplates how radical it is and how much of a game changer it can be:

Looking back on it now, I see grace everywhere. There was grace in the outrage my public rejection incited in my family and in that tiny town. I hadn’t fully seen it until then. That’s how real ‘heart change’ is made. Consciousness that shifts not as the result of triumph, but of sacrifice, even sometimes humiliation. That’s where the mercy creeps in.

Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis

Then, at Aslan’s command, Peter bestowed the Knighthood of the Order of the Lion on Caspian, and Caspian, as soon as he was knighted, himself bestowed it on Trufflehunter and Trumpkin and Reepicheep, and made Doctor Cornelius his Lord Chancellor, and confirmed the Bulgy Bear in his hereditary office of Marshal of the Lists. And there was great applause.

Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis is #3 in the “old school” order of publication (the way I read them as a kid), #2 in the movie tie-in editions (the movies from the 2000’s) and #4 in the chronological (rearranged) editions.

I love the premise of the novel in which Caspian lives with his Uncle and Aunt who are the King and Queen of Narnia. Caspian hears stories of a time when Narnia was inhabited by talking animals and all things magic abounded. However, his Uncle and most “normal” people of Narnia consider this nonsense. This loss of innocence that Caspian doesn’t quite realize is lost provides the perfect backdrop to another Narnia adventure.

Dire situations require the four Pevensie children be called back to Narnia to help Caspian regain his rightful place as King of Narnia.

Through sheer bravery, High King Peter (or former High King Peter) defeats Caspian’s uncle in a duel for the ages.

As the magical beings and the talking animals re-establish themselves in the enchanted version of Narnia, they march through the towns with all the joy of childhood and all the glory of innocence found.

This story is delightful in all the best ways.

John P. Davis: The Overcoat

Deal Me In 2021 – Week 45

It was late fall. The leaves outside the church lay dead and brown on the frozen earth. There was a smoky greenwood fire in the stove. Somebody, little David didn’t know who, was singing Nearer My God to Thee.

In John P. Davis’ “The Overcoat”, David is young enough to not fully understand everything going on in his life at the time that his mother dies. He’s sent to get the black doctor but finds him unavailable. Because of some racially charged incidents occurring prior to this situation, David decides not to bother the white doctor even though time is of the essence for his mother.

Davis tells the story from David’s point of view but it’s in third person. This kind of pulls the camera back and gives the reader a fuller story of why David doesn’t get the white doctor. While David is old enough to ask questions about his mother’s death, the author doesn’t give him a sense of regret (at least not an obvious one) because the bigger picture shows it wasn’t David’s fault.

This story is included in Black American Short Stories: A Century of the Best edited by John Henrick Clarke. I read it for Week 45 of my Deal Me In 2021 short story project. Check out my Deal Me In list here. Deal Me In is hosted by Jay at Bibliophilopolis.