Roy DeCarava (1919-2009)

Do you know Roy DeCarava's work? If not, I recommend that you take a look here.

On Oct. 27, photographer Roy DeCarava died at the age of 89. He co-authored a book with Langston Hughes called The Sweet Flypaper of Life (love that title, btw). He is known for having rejected the photojournalism espoused by so many photographers of the period, instead reaching for an artistic visual imagery that used shadows and movement so beautifully that his photographs were like exquisite paintings.

In an interview with the NYT in 1982, he said, "One of the things that got to me was that I felt black people were not being portrayed in a serious and in an artistic way."

I am sure that many photographers are mourning the loss of this great pioneer. As am I.

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Buika (2009)

I am writing about the beautiful Spanish singer Concha Buika again (see my earlier post here) because she has yet another album out. This one is a compilation album, so it's a good one to buy if you still haven't gotten with the program.

By the way, when is she going to do a song with El Cigala? Their voices would just go perfectly together. I would positively faint if I could see them in concert together. I'm not kidding. It would be one of the high points of my entire life.

I hope you'll check her out. You'll be glad you found her.
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Tayari Jones' The Silver Girl

I am so happy to announce that the novelist Tayari Jones will be publishing her 3rd novel with Algonquin Books!! It's called THE SILVER GIRL. If you don't know this writer's work, I suggest that you take a look at one of her first two novels LEAVING ATLANTA or THE UNTELLING. She is a must-read.

She also has a fabulous blog here. I have blogged about her before here. Take a look.

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Picking Bones from Ash (2009)

Hello bloggers!! Long time no talk to. I hope you'll forgive my absence when I tell you about this fabulous novel I've just finished. It's called Picking Bones from Ash, and it is the debut of a very talented writer Marie Mutsuki Mockett. Oh my goodness, y'all, Marie's style is so lush and thoughtful and ethereal. And her delightful sentences are reflected in the storyline...if you like stories that invoke the magical then you will love this novel. If you liked Amy Tan's The Bonesetter's Daughter, rush out right now and buy Picking Bones from Ash.

Picking Bones from Ash is about mothers and daughters and their secrets and their deep-seated longings. At the very beginning of the novel, the protagonist's mother tells her that she will be safe is she is "fiercely, inarguably, and masterfully talented." Yet as the novel unfolds, we learn that this lesson is fraught with complexity, as being "safe" and protecting oneself can also result in a kind of emotional unavailability. Mockett has skillfully crafted a story that reveals the awkward initial encounters between Japanese characters--an isolated country for centuries--and the West--which has often exoticized the East with troubling consequences. The real beauty of this novel, I think, lies in its captivating descriptions of Japan and the respectful way Mockett treats a very ancient culture.
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Annual Southern Reading Challenge 2009

Thanks to the "Pages Turned" blog for turning me on to Maggie's Annual Southern Reading Challenge. The challenge is to read three southern books between May 15 and August 15. As a southern author myself, I am always looking to see what other contemporary writers are doing with this magical part of the country. So I joined! And I'm counting Randall Kenan's The Fire This Time as my first book. I'm still trying to decide on the other two. Hmmm... Read more!

The Sugar Babies (2007)

I could have sworn that I blogged about Edwidge Danticat's The Farming of Bones some months ago. But when I look back at my entries, I can't find a post. So...once again...something moved through my head as if I'd actually done it.

Danticat's novel is good. But what would you expect? It is no secret among booklovers that Danticat is one of our bright young stars. This novel tells the story of a young Haitian domestic worker living in the Dominican Republic during the 1930s, in the immediate time leading up to the Haitian-Dominican massacre of 1937 carried out by then dictator Rafael Trujillo. In the novel, Annabella's fiance is a sugar cane worker.

But I'm not writing to review Danticat's novel. I'm writing (thanks to Ana-Maurine) about a recent documentary--narrated by Danticat, no less--created by filmmaker Amy Serrano about the present-day industry of sugar production in the Dominican Republic. Still composed mainly of Haitian workers with no legal status in the country, Serrano's film is described thusly, "Sugar Babies examines the moral price of sugar--present and past--from the perspective of the conditions surrounding the children of sugar cane cutters of Haitian ancestry in the Dominican republic, and the continuing denial of their basic human rights."

Hmm. Sounds like a must-see to me. Click here to see if there is an upcoming screening near you.
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The Last Flight of Jose Luis Balboa (2006)

Some characters stand up and demand for you to tell their stories. This is the way I felt with Gonzalo Barr's collection The Last Flight of Jose Luis Balboa. Barr's stories capture the complex cultural hodgepodge of Miami. It's the kind of book that makes you never look at a city the same way again. Barr won the Bakeless Prize in 2005, and I heard him read from "Braulio Wants His Car Back" that following summer. I loved that story then and I still love it. It's my favorite story in the collection. But that's not all. From a wealthy heir crippled by a dysfunctional relationship with his mother to a bartender trying to escape his past, Barr's collection is full of wonderfully complicated characters. I've always appreciated flawed characters, and Barr is unafraid to bruise his. This is definitely one worth checking out.

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