Anthony Grooms

This book had such an impact on me that I can barely think of the words that I want to use to describe it. I think it needs to be read by middle school and high school children and their parents so that they can have an open dialogue in their homes about race. Even though the book is set mainly in 1946, it still resonates in today's racial problems in this country.

Here is the synopsis: Inspired by true events, The Vain Conversation reflects on the 1946 lynching of two black couples in Georgia from the perspectives of three characters--Bertrand Johnson, one of the victims; Noland Jacks, a presumed perpetrator; and Lonnie Henson, a witness to the murders as a ten-year-old boy. Lonnie's inexplicable feelings of culpability drive him in a search for meaning that takes him around the world, and ultimately back to Georgia, where he must confront Jacks and his own demons, with the hopes that doing so will free him from the grip of the past.

The perspectives of each of the three main characters tells the same story but it is different based on their belief system. Betrand had just come back from WWII where he helped liberate a concentration camp and fought to keep America free. He felt that once the war was over he would be respected as a black man in American. Jacks, a farm owner who employed many black workers, was a victim of the belief system of Georgia at this time. And Lonnie, a 10 year old boy, who felt that Betrand was his friend and mentor, who never realized that hatred like this really existed, was set on a path of wandering the world looking for what would make his life right again because of what he witnessed.

The cruelty and the hatred in this book are difficult to read but need to be read and understood - not just in the perspective of 1946 and also for the understanding of racial inequality that exists in 2017. This is a must read book!… (mais)

Reviewed by Mr. Overeem (Language Arts)
As Walter Burke, a black U. S. soldier, moves in with his platoon on a North Vietnamese village, a sudden moment of violence sends him reeling back to his youth in Birmingham, Alabama--the "Bombingham" of the title. The year is 1964, Dr. King has come to town, and Walter's family finds itself fraught with division. A novel about responsibility and denial, gifts and losses, desolation and hope, humiliation and pride, love and death--and a call to remember.… (mais)

An excellent fictional depiction of race relations in 1960's Birmingham "Bombingham" Alabama. Grooms does a fantastic job of creating an empathetic child character whose innocence and curiosity fuel the sadness of the days when a child felt as if he or she had to fight for God-given freedom, or fight "in the place of" parents who could not afford to lose their jobs by marching themselves. He gives a well-rounded view of the different levels of "involvement" during that time in American history and the different levels of apprehension and caution not found in history books. (Oftentimes, history books show that ALL blacks were fighting for the cause, or only a select few of "movers and shakers" were leading a small group. This book actually shows a couple of rational characters, those who felt trapped by the loss of hope they were feeling, but who knew that their jobs kept food on the tables and that marching was an unaffordable luxury.) The story also entails a good deal of factual history, and the reader watches as the protagonist, Walter Burke, actually witnesses Dr. Martin Luther King's preaching in the flesh, something extraordinary and awe-inspiring in itself. (Readers know that little Walter has no idea how much of an impact Dr. King would have on the history of America in the future.) The direct link to Walter being in war in Bombingham and in war in Thoybu was thought-provoking and well-written. My only criticism is the lack of effect readers see in Walter after Lamar is shot in the head in front of him by white boys around his same age. We didn't receive the event in a scene, but rather as an epilogue way at the end, and I would have liked to have witnessed more of Walter's reactions and seen that young child's funeral compared to Walter's mother's, since Lamar was in the story as much as Walter's mother was. I'm unsure as to how young Lamar's death was a symbol of the overall struggle, other than the fact that his mother and soon-to-be-stepfather were strong activists, and that his death represented their continuous strive for freedom. The story ends on a note of hope, however, as Walter dreams about he and Lamar's aspirations to become the first "Negro" astronauts while writing the lovely note to Haywood's parents. This rounds out the theme of hope embedded in the impossibility of hellish ordeals during that time and how that glimmer of hope could make or break an entire life.… (mais)