Brief Summary
In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life.
From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson compares this epic migration to the migrations of other peoples in history. She interviewed more than a thousand people, and gained access to new data and official records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves.
With stunning historical detail, Wilkerson tells this story through the lives of three unique individuals: Ida Mae Gladney, who in 1937 left sharecropping and prejudice in Mississippi for Chicago, where she achieved quiet blue-collar success and, in old age, voted for Barack Obama when he ran for an Illinois Senate seat; sharp and quick-tempered George Starling, who in 1945 fled Florida for Harlem, where he endangered his job fighting for civil rights, saw his family fall, and finally found peace in God; and Robert Foster, who left Louisiana in 1953 to pursue a medical career, the personal physician to Ray Charles as part of a glitteringly successful medical career, which allowed him to purchase a grand home where he often threw exuberant parties.
Wilkerson brilliantly captures their first treacherous and exhausting cross-country trips by car and train and their new lives in colonies that grew into ghettos, as well as how they changed these cities with southern food, faith, and culture and improved them with discipline, drive, and hard work.
Both a riveting microcosm and a major assessment, The Warmth of Other Suns is a bold, remarkable, and riveting work, a superb account of an "unrecognized immigration” within our own land. Through the breadth of its narrative, the beauty of the writing, the depth of its research, and the fullness of the people and lives portrayed herein, this book is destined to become a classic.
ISBN:9780679444329
Author:Isabel Wilkerson
Empress –
I loved this book by JM Rogoi.
I could just stop there, because it’s that simple. From the cover, which is weird, cos there’s nothing but the title and author’s name on it, to the paper quality, to the simply woven language to the font.
It’s a story revolving around an unfortunate family run by a single mother, stretching over three or so decades, from the 90s. You should have seen me smile when the author gave Ngonya wa Gakonya space in the book. You see, I think Ngonya is the reason I left Christianity – him and my father, who was his faithful. I digress.
I wasn’t sure whose story was being told between the two brothers, Kioria and Cutha, or even their mother. But it is a story about the struggles and sometimes triumphs of life in the slums. It’s the gory details, it’s giving colour to the shady bits. In the end, their three stories become one story.
However beautifully it is written, it’s a sad story. Consolation is the beauty of the storytelling prowess.
The author is a first-timer and although he has a history in journalism, not all journalists can tell a story so beautifully. I am looking forward to reading another book from him. A happy one.