Were almost 100,000 black people in San Francisco. Back in the day when Alan and I changed the oil in our cars in adjoining driveways and jawed about whether Muhammad Ali would regain the title, there According to a 2005 demographic study, there are probably less than 40,000 Black people left in the city. When Alan passed away a few years ago, working class Black people had already become an endangered species in San Francisco. Within that time, he bought a home and raised a family. He was a Black man from Marshall, Texas, who had moved to San Francisco during WWII and worked as a machinist for twenty five years in the shipyards of Hunters Point. Poster from 1967 when Muhammad Ali, world heavyweight boxing champion who had relinquished his title when he became a draft resister and went to jail rather than going to Vietnam, was celebrated at a rock festival in Hunter's Point-a time when rock music was still enjoying a multiracial enthusiasm prior to its full immersion in the music business.Īlan Goodspeed was my next door neighbor in the Ingleside District on the south side of Ocean Avenue in San Francisco. Appolonia Jordan, San Francisco Bayview They don't feel that poor Blacks or other people of color deserve to have a view like that." "They want to kick you out so they can build housing they know you can't afford and allow rich San Franciscans to enjoy it. The last bastion of concentrated Black life, Hunters Point, is slated for ethnic cleansing designed to rob African Americans of not only a spectacular view of the Bay, but of any hope of remaining in the city. Today, the Fillmore is gone, wiped out by "Negro Removal" in the guise of "redevelopment," and the city's Black population has shrunk to 40,000. Somehow talking seemed a waste of the little time they had left.Not so long ago, San Francisco was home to about 100,000 Blacks, and the Fillmore district was a thriving Mecca of African American life. They didn’t say much, even if they hadn’t seen each other for most of the last three years. Absolutely no idea why that would be other than the novels under the ‘Deas’ name were more YA in plot and tone.Absolutely no blurb on either the front and back cover.And what a cover it is! There is no title on the front cover and the illustration by Alejandro Colucci is just outstanding perfectly capturing the mood and content of the book.Highly recommended as long as you have read the first two books. The author trusts his readers to be able to recall all the events of the past 2 books as there is no ‘what has come before’ but as I have read them in fairly quick succession, I did not struggle too much at all.The changes in POVs are handled well and although, the female characters are not developed as well as the male characters, the stereotypical female personages are present and accounted for.I know that Nathan Hawke is a pseudonym of Stephen Deas and for some reason I much prefer the writings done under Hawke. Because that was really the only one worth reading.Ĭ2013: FWFTB: blood, revenge, swamps, Fateguard, stronghold.Having enjoyed the first 2 books, it was a no-brainer to decide to get my grubby hands on this book. If I could do it all over again, I would read the first book in the series as a stand alone, and then stop. And I didn't give a damn about any of them. Round and round we go.īy the time we get to Medrin's conversation with Oribas, nothing is making any sense. Wait, now these other guys are going to capture it. I feel like Hawke just keeps going over the same ground over and over again. It's also hard to care about their fates since they all seem about the same. It's hard to understand the motivations of any of the different peoples. Gallow has become increasingly unsympathetic as the series has gone along and most of the other characters seem to be cut from the same cloth as Gallow. This third book continues the dog's breakfast of a plot that's left after the previous two entries in the series. This trilogy seems to be one of diminishing returns.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |