Youngblood by John Oliver Killens

Youngblood Reviews

• 
  Haengbok92

  Youngblood is one hell of a good book. It traces the history of Joe and Laurie Lee Youngblood, their family, and how they change their world. The narrative voice takes a little bit to get used to, but is exactly the perfect choice to really take you into the world and characters of the book. After a few pages, I was completely encompassed by the world. The book is also beautifully structured, each event building on the next to bring you to a stunningly moving conclusion.
  
  This book also had a deep personal impact on me, as my grandmother spent her early childhood very close to where the events in the book were happening, and related similar experiences to me from her childhood. This wasn't in my mind as I was reading, but when I finished the book, it really hit home for me.
  
  Overall, this book is well worth reading, whatever your race, culture or experience. In many ways, I've taken racial equality (though we as a society still aren't perfect with regards to racism) and access to history/information for granted. This book reminded me that it wasn't so long ago attitudes were very different. Ordinary people, fighting as best they could, are what really helped create the world we live in today. This book is an excellent testimony to those people. It's also, in summary, one hell of a good read. Put it on your list.
• 
  Eric

  A good book, though I think I would have enjoyed it more if I read it closer to its publication year of 1954 when books on racism weren't such a trite issue. I love these types of books, but I've read so many, and I think the extent to which this book went in on the different sides of racism wasn't as powerful since I've heard the second rate renditions of this sense of understanding. Almost 4 stars. In the beginning it went on for a while without the reader knowing where exactly it was going to go, like a Richard Wright story, but for such a long book it bothered me a bit in the beginning. I got really into it there after. Powerful.
• 
  William Sandles

  I love this book. I can't tell you how much. I don't know if it was the last year in lockdown, the last 4 years in fascism, the last 50, or the last 400 that made this book move me so. (All of the above I'm sure.) Killens is 1 of those you-should-have-read authors; authors I should have read when I was much younger but never got around to it. My mistake, but I'm glad that I got around to it. This book is like a living person; a cherished relative that won't turn their back on you right or wrong; who makes you laugh, cry, think, provokes you to anger, and ultimately boundless Love. It's what many great novels are about--you know the list, but here it is again anyway: faith, family, the dispossessed--but Killens puts a Black Stamp on (not to say this book isn't--cliche alert--Universal) this letter to the reading world. If you are waiting for me to stop gushing and *critique* this book: 1) Writing for free ain't my kink and 2) well, actually, #1 is reason enough. This is a book of social protest, but I would assert that there is Black Romanticism as well. Black Lovers in sylvan settings, Black Heroes answering calls to conscience ...yeah. Maybe it's b/c I'm more of a Southerner than I'd like to admit. Ralph Ellison said he was a proud southerner, and we'd have no reason to doubt him. Killens makes you *feel* that. Does that mean occasionally overwrought, or sentimental writing? You decide for yourself. In a world where anyone who has a heart feels as if the world just keeps getting meaner, bigger, and claustrophobically smaller at the same time; where retro Jim Crow politicians smirk at democracy; this book is like an ancestor's prayer from the past, urging you to *fight* for your place in this region, in this nation, in this World. I wanted to say more...but I don't think I have to.
• 
  Lydia

  This is fictional story of the Youngblood family of Crossroads, GA, that spans the beginning of the 20th Century to the end of the Depression (the stirrings of the WWII). It highlights the racial prejudices endured by blacks in the Jim Crow South. It speaks of youth attempting to find themselves in a very controlled environment. Their lack of access to quality education, i.e. schools for Negroes only went to the 10th grade, while their white counterparts went to the 12th and the types of jobs that were available to Negroes in that era, i.e. laundresses, field workers and factory work at its lowest levels.
  
  There is allusion to the Southern penal reformatory system when son Robbie gets into an altercation with a white youth and the discipline that meted out to him. It tells the story of racial discrimination in the workplace and the fact that Negroes had no redress for their plight legally. It also chronicles attempts to marshal Negroes into unions and to joining organizations that worked for their collective good.
  
  This is one of the last books that my brother read before he passed away. I am not sure how he arrived at this choice, but it was an interesting read.
• 
  Sydney Pollock

  This one is going down as one of my all time favorites.
• 
  Tasha

  Although set deeply in patriarchy, this book teems with warmth and beauty. It depicts some of the harsh struggles for labor rights in the Jim Crow South. I recall it as a super cozy read.