Strivers Row (City of Fire Trilogy) - Softcover

Baker, Kevin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060955198 ISBN 13: 9780060955199

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2017

Synopsis

The Rev. Jonah Dove is the son of a legendary Harlem minister, and a man troubled in both mind and spirit. He feels himself unworthy and incapable of taking up the burden of running his church from the larger-than-life figure who is his father. He is haunted both by his own, shameful history of "passing" as a white man in college, and by the prospects for his people in the harsh, new, racist age he fears the world is entering. Malcolm Little -- better known as Malcom X -- is a teenage hustler from Lansing, Michigan by way of Boston, a young man on the make, trying always to be something bigger, tougher, savvier, and more confident than he really is. On his way to New York, Malcolm happens to come to the rescue of Jonah and his wife, Amanda, when they are attacked by some drunken soldiers on the train. From then on, their paths cross repeatedly as they each go about trying to find what they really want out of the roiling, wartime city, until the moment when Harlem finally erupts around them, as a people driven beyond endurance strikes out blindly at all the forces keeping it entrapped in misery and hopelessness. Stranded on the streets of a rioting city, Jonah and Malcolm meet each other once more, as they come to grips with what they are and what the future will hold for them.

About this title

Review:

"Genius ... sprawling, chaotic, noisy and intriguing as its setting, New York City."--Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

"Nobody makes historical fiction burn like Kevin Baker."--Washington Post

"Transporting ... Baker's evocation of old Harlem is intoxicating and jampacked with colorful details."--Washington Post MediaMix

"Ambitious, at times transcendent .... brings to vibrant life a notable chapter in New York City history."--Entertainment Weekly

"An ambitious, cinematic tale...Kevin Baker is a rare talent."--Boston Globe

"Kevin Baker, the lit world's sharpest chronicler of New York's past, scores again."--Rolling Stone

"A grand historical drama ... captivating ... the novel comes fully alive, rife with possibilities."--Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"Ambitious [and] well-researched."--USA Today

"Daring ... [Baker is] the best writer of historical fiction currently practicing."--Los Angeles Times

"Baker plunges audaciously into the world of Harlem in the early 1940's ... fresh and new."--New York Times Book Review

Synopsis:

The dramatic and riveting final installment in Kevin Baker's New York Trilogy, "Strivers Row" is the story of two young men trying to find their way through the temptations and pitfalls of life in World War II Harlem. The Rev. Jonah Dove is the son of a legendary Harlem minister, and a man troubled in both mind and spirit. He feels himself unworthy and incapable of taking up the burden of running his church from the larger-than-life figure who is his father. He is haunted both by his own, shameful history of "passing" as a white man in college, and by the prospects for his people in the harsh, new, racist age he fears the world is entering. Malcolm Little, better known as Malcom X, is a teenage hustler, a young man on the make, trying always to be something bigger, tougher, savvier, and more confident than he really is. On his way to New York, Malcolm happens to come to the rescue of Jonah and his wife, Amanda, when they are attacked by some drunken soldiers on the train.

From then on, their paths cross repeatedly as they each go about trying to find what they really want out of the roiling, wartime city, until the moment when Harlem finally erupts around them, as a people driven beyond endurance strikes out blindly at all the forces keeping it entrapped in misery and hopelessness. Stranded on the streets of a rioting city, Jonah and Malcolm meet each other once more, as they come to grips with what they are and what the future will hold for them.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0060955198
• ISBN 13: 9780060955199
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 594