Your Blues Ain't Like Mine

by Bebe Moore Campbell

Book Overview

"ABSORBING...COMPELLING...HIGHLY SATISFYING." --San Francisco Chronicle "TRULY ENGAGING...Campbell has a storyteller's ear for dialogue and the visual sense of painting a picture and a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345383958
• ISBN13: 9780345383952
• Release Date: August 1993
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful

This book is clearly based on the tragic story of Emmett Till, the young boy brutally killed for whistling at a white woman in the 1950s. However, it takes on a life and depth of its own, and is remarkable for its sensitive portrayal of how racism destroys both victim and perpetrator. One of the most compelling aspects of Campbell's narrative is that she does show compassion and a deep understanding for the lives of poor southern whites. She tries to penetrate their consciousness without excusing their acts of violence. This leads to a greater understanding of why such atrocities could take place. The villains are mostly motivated by fear-fear of being seen as weak, for instance. It would be easier to not see them as human, but healing and prevention of future tragedies can only come from greater understanding. Campbell's insights and skills as a storyteller make this a wonderful read, and her retelling of one of the most horrendous miscarriages of justice in the civil rights period (Emmett Till's murderers never did jail time) make this a book no one should miss.

Riveting and Intense

There is nothing HAPPY in this book at all. But it's well written, and the story draws you in from the beginning and holds you until the end. I had to stop after every couple of chapters and kind of regroup emotionally because it was so intense.

A very compassionate book!

This is the first book by Bebe Moore Campbell I have ever read and I fully intend to read the others. I felt that she had a very deep connection with all of her characters, regardlesss of color. I have read some black others that wrote with an obvious bias, and with this book I felt none of that. I also thought she did an excellent job of portraying the woman's role in a marriage and in society. I noticed that in with both the black and the white characters the woman were going through very similar trials. It was very interesting that when it came to an issue of social class as the years went on that the citizens of Hopewell became divided by how much money they had and no longer by the color of their skin. It just shows that money still transcends everyhting else to determine one's role in the social pyramid. Overall I would recommend this book to anyone, it gives a true understanding of the process of desegregation and the mindset people were living in.

A Joy to Read!

Campbell's novel is one that is to be commended. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and her writing style. Sticking to detail but not adding too much is just what any reader appreciates and she comes through time and time again. Campbell wrote a book that contains so many characters and covers the span of nearly four decades and not once did she lose my attention or respect for her genious. Lovers of Toni Morrisson and Maya Angelou will certainly want to give Bebe Moore Campbell a try.

A Beautiful Yet Painful Novel Of Survival And Suffering.

I became familiar with Bebe Moore Campbell's work only after reading "Brothers & Sisters" because like Esther, I did identify with the challenges of being black and female on the job. In "Your Blues Ain't Like Mine", she shows the horror of how one misunderstanding can affect the lives of the people of a small town. Floyd is more interested in proving his manhood to his father and brother than protecting his wife's reputation. Delotha is wracked with guilt and shame for not keeping her son Armstrong the victim, and Armstrong's father Wydell realizes that his inability to be a father has to do with his own inability to come to terms with the horrible relationship that had with his father. Lily, the unintentional instigator of this whole affair realizes that as she grows older, life is harder, men aren't always going to be there when you need them and that things aren't as rosy for other people as they seem especially when she discovers how bad off her in-laws have become, but at least in the book the characters try to come to terms with the past and struggle to live in the present. I would recommend this book to anyone who would want to read it.