Litsy Reading Challenge 2017 discussion
12: Set in the 1970s
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I read Burn Baby Burn, it was excellent! I'm not a huge fan of YA but this one was a winner! Loved all the references and historical details
This list looks promising for YA!https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/7...
I would personally recommend Burn Baby Burn and Aya (the latter is an awesome graphic novel that you can read in a sitting!)
Maybe Ice Storm by Rick Moody. I have NOT seen the movie. Takes place in 1973.
If you like horses or you want something a little different, The Horse God Built is a pretty good read. It's about Secretariat (who won the Triple Crown in 1973) and his groom, Eddie Sweat.
I finished Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson earlier this week and most of it is set in the 1970s. It's also very good (and short!) and written by a woman of color.
I'm reading Burn Baby Burn for this one. Story fascinates me
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Me too! I just bought it and I'm so excited!
I had to get some outside help with one for this task but I think I am going with Serpico. Although, Meg Medina's Burn Baby Burn is still a possibility.
Just started listening to Stephen King's Roadwork, which he wrote under the Bachman pseudonym. It takes place in the 70's. The unexpected checkmark!
Finished Burn Baby Burn this morning for this category. Loved it!
I just finished this book and then I found the challenge. So, book one in the books for me.
The book I just finished Setting Free the Kites takes place in the 1970s. (And is written by a person my age.)
The popular answer here looks to be Burn Baby Burn. I'm glad I picked it up. Definitely worth the read.
I read New Boy (by Tracy Chevalier)
FULL REVIEW:
'Othello' is William Shakespeare's tragedy about the jealous rage of the eponymous Moor, the fate of his fair and artless wife, Desdemona, and the machinations of Othello's Ancient, Iago. Set on the exotic eastern Mediterranean island of Venetian Cyprus, Othello's role as defender is rendered moot when the Ottomon Empire's fleet founders in a storm; but isolates the key players in a foreign milieu.
Tracy Chevalier has chosen to re-interpret Shakespeare's play through the lens of her own experience as a white "minority... growing up in Washington, D.C." (from tchevalier.com.) The author has set 'New Boy' in a public elementary school in the DC Metro area (in 1974) wherein a Ghanian boy is the student introduced into a playground of all white children and teachers. Setting the action of the novel in a place where "kids get together at recess and break up at lunch time," and where such trial relationships are often intense if ephemeral, rings true; and mirrors Shakespeare's Cyprian island in its physically limited venue away from home. But it also poses the first issue of the novel in that in inverting the racial composition of the community completely subverts the WDC culture, and readers familiar with the area and time period will immediately sense the forced contrivance.
Where Ms Chevalier succeeds is in the POV of Dee (the Desdemona surrogate,) the white girl who becomes quickly fascinated with the black student, Osei (Othello surrogate); Dee seems to have the most depth of the characters, though the aggressive pursuit of a relationship with Osei seems a bit mature for a pre-pubescent; and ahead of her time in its progressive aspect. Nonetheless, she negotiates the school with an artlessness that seems genuine. Unfortunately, the other characters are rendered as flat stereotypes such as the racist teacher, the popular boy, the schoolyard bully, etc.
Moreover, while The Bard's play includes the issue of racism (as epitomized in Desdemona's father,) the issue of Othello's blackness is muted by his military successes and the esteem of his colleagues. Ms Chevalier touches very briefly on non-racial themes in her novel; but it is, by and large a book reduced to the racial aspect. The jealousies of Osei (Othello,) Rod (Rodrigo) and Ian (Iago) are all predicated on the issue of Osei being black. By reducing Othello into a story solely about race, the other themes are underdeveloped and/or nonexistent in Tracy Chevalier's re-telling.
Overall, this was an extremely disappointing read; and underscores a personal suspicion that the idea of the Hogarth Shakespeare series is more appealing than any of its actual executions.
FULL REVIEW:
'Othello' is William Shakespeare's tragedy about the jealous rage of the eponymous Moor, the fate of his fair and artless wife, Desdemona, and the machinations of Othello's Ancient, Iago. Set on the exotic eastern Mediterranean island of Venetian Cyprus, Othello's role as defender is rendered moot when the Ottomon Empire's fleet founders in a storm; but isolates the key players in a foreign milieu.
Tracy Chevalier has chosen to re-interpret Shakespeare's play through the lens of her own experience as a white "minority... growing up in Washington, D.C." (from tchevalier.com.) The author has set 'New Boy' in a public elementary school in the DC Metro area (in 1974) wherein a Ghanian boy is the student introduced into a playground of all white children and teachers. Setting the action of the novel in a place where "kids get together at recess and break up at lunch time," and where such trial relationships are often intense if ephemeral, rings true; and mirrors Shakespeare's Cyprian island in its physically limited venue away from home. But it also poses the first issue of the novel in that in inverting the racial composition of the community completely subverts the WDC culture, and readers familiar with the area and time period will immediately sense the forced contrivance.
Where Ms Chevalier succeeds is in the POV of Dee (the Desdemona surrogate,) the white girl who becomes quickly fascinated with the black student, Osei (Othello surrogate); Dee seems to have the most depth of the characters, though the aggressive pursuit of a relationship with Osei seems a bit mature for a pre-pubescent; and ahead of her time in its progressive aspect. Nonetheless, she negotiates the school with an artlessness that seems genuine. Unfortunately, the other characters are rendered as flat stereotypes such as the racist teacher, the popular boy, the schoolyard bully, etc.
Moreover, while The Bard's play includes the issue of racism (as epitomized in Desdemona's father,) the issue of Othello's blackness is muted by his military successes and the esteem of his colleagues. Ms Chevalier touches very briefly on non-racial themes in her novel; but it is, by and large a book reduced to the racial aspect. The jealousies of Osei (Othello,) Rod (Rodrigo) and Ian (Iago) are all predicated on the issue of Osei being black. By reducing Othello into a story solely about race, the other themes are underdeveloped and/or nonexistent in Tracy Chevalier's re-telling.
Overall, this was an extremely disappointing read; and underscores a personal suspicion that the idea of the Hogarth Shakespeare series is more appealing than any of its actual executions.
Litsy Reading Challenge 2017
Books mentioned in this topic
Another Brooklyn (other topics)Another Brooklyn (other topics)
Kindred (other topics)
Another Brooklyn (other topics)
White Teeth (other topics)
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A book set in the 1970s