gene garber letter
good peoples…my fault for not being on the radar recently…had to finish up the last doctoral push for the first year…a lot of things are taking place, but wanted to share this letter that came in on the book…it’s a real good look…
more in a second…for real…
Dear Editors,
tor’cha is a remarkable book, a credit to the writer and to the adventurousness of Swank Books. Several things give the book its special power, for me at least: 1) the mix of various idioms (African American street, biblical, formal, and maybe especially a kind of deliberately unidiomatic standard English, as though not only was my consciousness being invaded by the perceptions of another culture but so was my language); 2) the existential struggle against deprivation and ruin carried out by most of the characters; 3) the moral and religious anguish to get right and do right in a hood that has been virtually cordoned off by the dominant culture. To contain such powerful themes and feelings within a controlled work is a special credit to the writer. Virtually every minute I am reading the book I feel that I am walking through a field of potential land mines–hyperbole, angry rant, black despair, naked unrestrained polemics, etc. What I get instead is passion and at the heart of that passion faith, hope, and love–just what the good book says. Not to say that there isn’t hideous suffering and tragedy, but it seems to me never irredeemable. I am not equipped to speak about the Islamic elements–only to say that I found them engaging and moving.
I listened to the CD, out of my element. I really did like the social and political protest, but most effective for me were those few pieces in which a kind of frail melodiousness and sweetness appears briefly only to be shattered by pain, staccato. Those pieces seemed very close to the root conflicts of the book itself.
So bully for you guys and for Todd Craig. Thanks for the read and for the listen.
Stay in touch.
Eugene Garber
Author of Vienna ΓΈΓΈ