![]() ![]() As their family begins to fall apart, Walter and his sister Josie are drawn into the burgeoning protest movement. The black community in Birmingham has begun to fight back, however, using non-violent means. The city’s public safety commissioner, Bull Connor, is a malevolent racist and rumored to be a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan. More than fifty black homes and churches have been bombed in the city during Walter’s childhood, and no one has ever been arrested. The Burkes’s family drama plays out against a backdrop of extreme racial tension. Burke begins to drink heavily, spending more time in local bars than at home. ![]() Burke, who believes in “thinking scientifically,” is furious with her. ![]() Burke decides not to seek medical treatment. One afternoon, Walter’s father tells him that his mother has a brain tumor, making him swear not to broadcast the news outside the family. ![]() However, the novel returns intermittently to the present day in Vietnam, where Walter must navigate racial tensions within his unit, and in particular, his relationship with his white comrade, Bright Eyes. The bulk of the novel is set in Birmingham and follows eleven-year-old Walter. Walter imagines telling Haywood’s parents about his own childhood, in Birmingham. ![]()
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May 2023
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