First sentence: The crowded red double-decker bus inched its way through the snarl of traffic in Aldgate. It was almost as if it was reluctant to get rid of the overload of noisy, earthy charwomen it had collected on its run through the city--thick-armed, bovine women, huge-breasted, with heavy bodies irrevocably distorted by frequent childbearing, faces pink and slightly damp from their early labors, the warm May morning and their own energy.

Premise/plot: Historical fiction/autobiographical novel. Set in the East End (I believe) of London during the mid/late 1940s. [I *want* to say that the year 1947 was used???] Mr. Braithwaite doesn't want to be a teacher. He really doesn't. But with limited opportunities for employment--complicated in part by the color of his skin--he accepts the job reluctantly and with some bitterness. [In the movie, the bitterness was disguised much more. Here the text ripples with anger, bitterness, dare I say hate???] He doesn't seem to enjoy teaching, for the most part, or like most of his coworkers [with the exception of a few], and he definitely doesn't enjoy being around his students--not really. But over the course of a year--a little less than a year--he comes to better terms with his life. I wouldn't say he ever comes to love it though.

My thoughts: The book may be a thousand times truer to life. But. I will always prefer the movie. I knew a little of what to expect from watching the movie, but, nothing really prepared me for the author's narrative style. It was a little earthy/crude for my personal taste. [Like did every thought the teacher had about breasts have to be included??? Like noticing his students, coworkers, fellow bus riders, etc.] It is definitely a race book--for better or worse. He felt less discriminated against during the war, and settling back down he was unprepared for how much prejudice he would [still] encounter in his day to day life. He does date one of his white coworkers--a fellow teacher--and the two do face some problems. ( )

Good teaching / students in poor London area story. Read it after seeing movie. ( )

Okay, seriously? My fourth one-star rating in a row as of recently? I am going to sit down and read my favorite book soon, to clear my mind of bad books and remind myself good ones await me. I am listening to Enya's "A Day Without Rain" album to soothe my crankiness, even.

I tried to read this when I was eleven. I read anything I could get my hands on. I vaguely understood it. My aunt brought the movie over, and I understood that a lot more clearly. Twenty years later, I saw tons and tons of ads for a romance with a strikingly similar name, and wondered if it had been re-released. I was curious to learn if I'd think differently of the book as an adult. I did.
This is a memoir that was published in 1959. It takes place in 1950s England. There's many references to WWII and its effects. So I'd consider this also classic literature: it being published more than sixty years ago. If this were a novel, my review would continue henceforth: "I'm not one for classic literature. The first fifty pages could have easily been cut. The plot was boring and predictable. It was undoubtedly revolutionary for its time in terms of race relations, plot, and reflections on racism." But this is a memoir, so...this guy has a -lot- of inner monologue and he goes on and on, especially when describing how people look and sound. There's an enormous amount of misogyny in this. I don't care that it was probably very typical for the time period. It was awful to read, and to have a teacher freely announce he thought that way of his students especially. Sir refers to his female students as sluts and women around him--ones who ride the same bus, ones who are more senior in teaching, just women in general--as bitches. He drools over several female students while simultaneously despising how they dress. So, he's got a massive madonna/whore complex. Towards girls he has power over. Who haven't even finished puberty yet. GROSS. One student wears a gray sweater regularly and no bra, and Sir cannot shut up internally about her greasy sweater and huge, wobbly breasts. She's probably too poor to have a bra, weirdo. When it's hard to put food on the table, water and electricity aren't always manageable, either. I had to make these choices for a long time until I went on a bunch of welfare by moving to a different city. Now I'm being kicked off some of it and will have to make those decisions all over again. Sir would yap at me inwardly too, certainly.

Sir describes everyone ever in ways I find odd. He teaches typical teenagers and is offended by this, and by their grinding poverty over which they have no control. They're trashy, though, and have terrible manners, which he sets out to correct while mentally calling them horrible names. If this were a novel, I'd call him a Gary Stu: he's rude to students, considers many other senior teachers beneath him, is hired on the spot, was trained in an entirely different field, can't stand teenagers or poor people; and is still praised and turns the kids' lives around. Perhaps his arrogance and condescension are defense mechanisms against the racism and hardships he does face. It's increasingly grating to read on the page, though. The movie cuts a bunch of this--his inner monologue that makes up 80% of the book is dropped, and he's just a stern teacher, not a creep. The adaptation does a great job with the action in the book, or what little there is. Watch it instead of reading the thoughts of a creepy, bitter teacher. ( )

You know those American films about the white female teacher who goes and teaches at some rough disadvantaged inner-city school full of Black/minority kids with attitude and disrespect towards authority, and somehow she connects with them and changes their attitude and they all become starry-eyed students grateful for her guidance?

Well, this is the same story, but with a black British Guiana male teacher teaching at a tough East End school, with the complexities of the racial barriers being re-raised now that WWII is over.

On the one hand, it is very well done the way we are just told of the racism the protagonist encounters and - without further discussion - the compounded secondary racism from the underlying tensions and condescension around how the white characters thought he should handle these encounters.

On the other hand, it's another extremely idealistic story of the inexperienced saviour-teacher who somehow succeeded where more experienced teachers have failed because they are all just too jaded to care anymore.

Great thought-provoking themes albeit with very worn teacher tropes. ( )

This is the heartwarming tale, supposedly autobiographical, of a black teacher at an East London school in the years following World War II. A little clichéd, as the friend who gave this book to me quipped, I found it an absorbing read. Enjoyed it! ( )