Moon and the Mars - A Novel

Informationen zum Autor Kia Corthron Klappentext "In Moon and the Mars, set in the impoverished Five Points district of New York City during the Civil War, we experience neighborhood life through the eyes of a young girl named Theo. We follow her from childhood to adolescence, as a mixed-race orphan living between the homes of her Black and Irish grandmothers. Over the course of the novel we encounter history from the draft riots that tear New York City asunder to the post-slavery period to Black people being a key part of the Union victory. Theo witnesses everything from the creation of tap dance to P.T. Barnum's sensationalist museum as white America's attitudes towards race, people of color, and slavery are shifting - painfully, transformationally - as the nation divides and marches to war. Corthron's use of dialogue brings her characters to life in a way that only an award-winning playwright and scriptwriter can do. As Theo grows and attends school, her language and grammar change, as does her own vocabulary when she's with her Black or Irish families. It's an extraordinary feat and a revelation for the reader"-- Leseprobe Lucky Mutt I am. Irish and the black, black and the Irish, colored, Celtic, County Kerry, Afri-can! What you sayin in there? call Grammy Brook from the front-room.  Nothin! Talkin to yourself again, mutter Grammy Brook to herself. Throw the cover off, jump outa bed, brrrrr! Woke up alone in the bed I share, alone in the bed in the bed-closet in the apartment in the tenement a Grammy Brook. Come out to the front-room grinnin. Whatchu grinnin for? she ask, smilin. Then hold out somethin warm, somethin sweet: johnnycake! Happy birthday, birthday girl. Thank you, Grammy! Careful—hot. Ah! Toldja—hot! How old’s Miss Theo today? ask Mr. Freeman. Seven! Seven. That’s a good one. Mr. Freeman nod, Mr. Freeman our boarder sit in the chair havin his bread n coffee breakfast, his bedroll rolled up, rolled to the corner. Our apartment have two rooms: front-room and bed-closet. Our apartment have two rooms, two windas—both windas in the livin room facin the street, none in the bed-closet. Gran-Gran sit in her chair nex to the front winda near the door, Gran-Gran always at her winda lookin down on Park street. Gran-Gran is Grammy’s mammy. So whatchu gonna do today, Miss Seven? Grammy ask, ironin her whites for the whites. The wet ones hung all over our apartment. Door fling open, in come Hen. My cousin Hen, carryin in the pail. Three, Hen say, then dump the water into Grammy’s pot on the stove. Hen strong! Hen only nine years of age, carryin the full water bucket: heavy! Soon as Hen empty it, she turn back around, head out our apartment, down the stairs for more. I’d better be getting on to work, say Mr. Freeman. All right, say Grammy. I just want to say again how much I appreciate it, Mrs. Brook—you not raising the rent. Didn’t get mine raised, no call to raise yours. The barbering business not what it used to be, Mr. Freeman say, more to hisself. Then put his tin cup on the shelf and our barber boarder out the door. I’ll sing a song for you, Grammy, that what I wanna do for my birthday! Good girl. Grammy switch irons. Grammy tole me why ironin need two irons: one to use hot till it cool while the other gettin hot on the coals. Hark! the herald angels sing! Oh, that’s that new pretty one. That song old, Grammy! Two years old, that song come to be when I was five! New to old me. Glory to the newborn King! Your papa woulda been proud a you. I knew she say that! Every time I have a birthday Grammy Brook smile teary and say my dead father her dead son Ezekiel woulda been proud a me. In come Hen. Four, she say, emptyin the water into the pot. After five, I gotta get to work myself,...

Product details

• Authors: Kia Corthron
• Publisher: Seven stories press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 12.09.2023
• EAN: 9781644213162
• ISBN: 978-1-64421-316-2
• No. of pages: 592
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 229 mm x 31 mm
• Subject: Fiction > Narrative literature