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Ladee Hubbard

Autor(a) de The Talented Ribkins

3+ Works 316 Membros 24 Reviews

About the Author

Image credit: Author Ladee Hubbard at the 2017 Texas Book Festival. By Larry D. Moore, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64091714

Obras de Ladee Hubbard

The Talented Ribkins (2017) 142 cópias
The Rib King (2021) 128 cópias

Associated Works

Tampa Bay Noir (2020) — Contribuinte — 35 cópias
The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2023 (2023) — Contribuinte — 19 cópias

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Membros

Resenhas

Intriguing story with a few exceptions

Rating 3.75

While the characters and plot are unusual, I can't help but feel it's missing the mark due to far too many characters, subplots and its lackluster ending. A racially driven tale about a cook, grounds keeper and others that evolves into the marketing of a stolen recipe for a rib sauce. The plot is extremely convoluted using characters whose objectives keep changing. The central figure is Sitwell, a black gardener who gets promoted to butler then is given credit for a meat sauce due to fine tuned fragrance skills he'd become known for. When his appearance is used for the label the company brands it Rib King and plans using him to promote it. A closet drinker, he finds himself in the middle of a fiasco while racial protests rage. From here the story spins into a new direction focused on one of the women he worked with when he was groundskeeper. While its well written and paced, I found that the lack of depth and repetitive subplots took away from the momentum, though overall, I enjoyed the story. Having researched the author, it turns out this was her second story, so I'm reading the debut novel for comparison. Its worth reading if you enjoy stories from the years when segregation was in the throws of being resolved AND if your preference is drama.… (mais)
 
Marcado
Jonathan5 | outras 12 resenhas | Feb 20, 2023 |
A journey into family

Of the various pleasures associated with reading, uncovering new voices is a favorite. This was the author's debut though I wasn't aware of it until reading her second, The Rib King. Here we learn of Johnny Ribkin and others from the Rib King family as he sets out to right the wrong of his deceased brother Franklin. Filled with surprises and insights, Johnny's map making skills come to light though the term is a disguise for their true nature, a fact held secret until the end. After years in prison he meets his teen aged niece and takes her on a life changing journey. Hidden motives, Johnny must dig up buried 'treasure' in order to save his skin; in the process his niece meets the entire family. Brilliantly executed, the characters, plot and theme immerse the reader into a story unlike most where compassion reigns over wrong doing. Having known about the famous Rib King, learning more about him and the family was heart warming as were details about a devious political figure that met his demise. Her ability to engage readers with story using themes that raise our spirits, it's no wonder the book was heralded by critics. Highly recommended regardless of the genre of preference.… (mais)
 
Marcado
Jonathan5 | outras 10 resenhas | Feb 20, 2023 |
This has been a great year for audiobooks, and I’m so glad this popped up on my radar. I don’t remember how or why it did, but hooray! Kevin Kenerly is the kind of reader I listen to and then look for what other recordings he’s done. Great performance!
I loved the road trip team of 72-year-old Johnny Ribkins and his 13-year-old niece Eloise. Their present day journey and Johnny’s reflections back to his Justice Committee days complemented each other nicely and drifted back and forth at a reasonable pace. I loved the different Ribkins talents and the themes of family, regret, and second chances. The surprises at the end were fantastic.
Highly recommended, especially on audio.
… (mais)
 
Marcado
Harks | outras 10 resenhas | Dec 17, 2022 |
An enjoyable, well-written story that I easily sank into and looked forward to getting back to when I had reading time. A strong debut from an imaginative writer who gracefully incorporates big issues such as race, class, gender, family and more.

The protagonist of this strong debut novel is Johnny Ribkins, a 72-year-old African American man who is in debt to a mobster that doesn’t mess around. Johnny has one week to pay back the money he owes this ruthless man or else. Over the years, Johnny had buried bags of money and jewelry around the state of Florida, so he starts to drive around digging them up. Fearing Ribkins is trying to run away, the mobster sends two henchmen to keep an eye on Johnny.

Johnny is a man who seems to have been coasting through life for years, floating in a cloud of grief over the death of his brother and the loss of days gone by — from his days as a math teacher trying to educate plantation workers to the years he was part of a group called The Justice Committee during the Civil Rights movement.

Pieces of Johnny’s life and family are revealed as he drives from place to place. Hubbard also seamlessly weaves in cultural trends and historical and contemporary discrimination against African Americans. Early on Johnny meets Eloise, a niece that he didn’t know he had who, surprisingly, ends up in his care. More of Johnny’s backstory rolls out as he slowly awakens to the reality of the girl traveling with him. It’s a bit of an odd couple/buddy road trip story.

With each family member he stops to visit, Johnny pieces together more about his brother’s life and in the process gains understanding and self-awareness. His niece meets and learns about her father’s family for the first time and she also gains some valuable lessons along the way. The members of Johnny’s family all have “special powers” that they’ve not always used lawfully or with integrity, but these powers bind them together. The special powers were a bit of a weakness or distraction for me. They didn’t seem to go far enough, be developed enough within the plot, or perhaps I just didn’t read as carefully as I could have to better understand their nuances and metaphorical purposes.

The members of Johnny’s family all have “special powers” that they’ve not always used lawfully or with integrity, but these powers bind them together. The special powers were a bit of a weakness or distraction for me. They didn’t seem to go far enough or be developed enough within the plot. Perhaps I just didn’t read as carefully as I could have to better understand their nuances and metaphorical purposes. I admit I’m not a fan of magical realism.

On the other hand, one of my favorite aspects of this novel is its realism about aging. I appreciate how Hubbard shows the recalibration that’s sometimes necessary in life as we age. When Johnny first tries to find the location of one of his stashes, he’s unsuccessful. He paces off, digs a hole, finds nothing. Tries again from another angle with no luck. He feels tired and old. Then it hits him:

“He stood up, positioned himself on the bottom step and started walking again, this time channeling the cocky stride of his much younger self. He narrowed his eyes, pursed his lips and tilted his shoulders so that his left side rolled back below his right. He dropped his hips and let his legs slide out in front of him and then sidled across the yard in this manner for a full twenty paces. When he stopped he realized he was almost twice the distance his careful plodding steps took him now. He cocked his head to the left and took ten more winding steps toward the oak tree. He hoisted his shovel and started digging. Yes, sir, he thought. How do you think you got this old? Been around for years and trust, this ain’t nothing. If there’s one thing you do know it’s how to survive this world. Johnny Ribkins always lands on his feet. He lowered his shovel and felt the sudden crack of metal against metal.”

Later he realizes that he’s no longer seen as a threat with his young niece at his side. He’s a gray-haired grampa figure. In his new understanding of himself as a senior and as a caretaker he feels, “old age, the illusion of frailty, a warm sense of anonymity flooding his entire body.”

This story is told with such warmth and tenderness that it was sometimes jarring to remember Johnny is on a life or death mission.

Overall, a highly original story from a gifted storyteller. If you’re looking for a socially conscious yet easy going novel with characters that you want to care about, The Talented Ribkins is for you.

This review originally posted on my blog: https://wildmoobooks.com/2017/08/09/book-review-the-talented-ribkins-by-ladee-hu...
… (mais)
 
Marcado
Chris.Wolak | outras 10 resenhas | Oct 13, 2022 |

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Estatísticas

Obras
3
Also by
2
Membros
316
Popularidade
#74,771
Avaliação
½ 3.7
Resenhas
24
ISBNs
28
Idiomas
3

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