wilsonchristopherp-1
Autor/a de Cotton
wilsonchristopherp-1 és Christopher P. Wilson (1). Per altres autors anomenats Christopher P. Wilson, vegeu la pàgina de desambiguació.
Obres de wilsonchristopherp-1
Etiquetat
Coneixement comú
- Gènere
- male
- Nacionalitat
- UK
- Llocs de residència
- London, England, UK
- Educació
- London School of Economics
Membres
Ressenyes
Llistes
Premis
Estadístiques
- Obres
- 8
- Membres
- 348
- Popularitat
- #68,679
- Valoració
- 3.6
- Ressenyes
- 20
- ISBN
- 52
- Llengües
- 4
Originally published in the United Kingdom as The Ballad Of Lee Cotton
Leifur Nils Kristjansson Saint Marie du Cotton (called Lee) is born to a mixed-race mother and an Icelandic fisherman father. From his father he gets his white complexion, blond-white hair and startling blue eyes. From his mother he gets his identity as black. Born in segregated Mississippi in 1950, it’s the “black” that counts, not his white skin. Lee also inherits a gift for “seeing” from his Grandmother Celeste. He can hear other people’s thoughts and while this sometimes helps him it mostly confuses him.
I was intrigued by this idea of a “white-skinned black boy” in the segregated South of the mid-20th century. I wanted to see how his special gifts would help him as he moved through life. But the novel took a decided turn for the weird.
After he is nearly beaten to death, Lee awakens in a Missouri hospital. He’s without identification and his head injury makes him rather incoherent. Going along with the assumptions of the hospital staff, Lee begins life as a white man. Until another accident …. Let’s just say that Lee changes skin color and/or gender like some women change hair color. Oh, wait ... he does that, too.
Wilson is a British man, living in London. I’m not sure how – or why – he chose to write about America’s segregated South. While the premise was intriguing, for me, the execution failed to deliver. I will say this about the writing. Wilson gives Lee a unique voice – with an odd mixture of local dialect and educated English. Lee’s a great reader and student of literature, sprinkling his observations of life with references to a variety of works from Huckleberry Finn to Madame Bovary.
On the whole, however, I found this just too fantastically absurd to be believed. I never warmed up to Lee or any of the other characters, and I found it a chore to finish.… (més)