jankp's Full Review: Walter Dean Myers - Fallen Angels
NOTE - Dr. Freudine is a fictitious psychiatrist and my inspiring alter ego who sometimes helps me to review books, movies and music. Last time she had fun watching Deathtrap by the late Sidney Lumet. ****************** In the morning I wake up to a bushy cat tail swishing my nose and I growl at Bengal, one of Irish's mangy cats. He growls back, licking his lips, then haughtily turns away and leaps off the bed. It doesn't take long to realize that I'm on my own today despite it being Saturday, confirmed by a note from Irish reminding me of play rehearsals. So I decide to check out the public library down the street and enjoy my walk there. Strolling towards the display shelves, I notice a sign announcing Banned Books Week and my curiosity leads me to discover what kind of books are being banned these days.
I've just started reading the top ten list of the twenty-first century's banned books, getting as far as the Harry Potter series, when a black librarian (a name tag says Matt) pauses beside me and points out that Walter Dean Myers' Fallen Angels from 1988 is still banned. I regard him with interest.
"See, here it is, ma'am," he softly says while picking up the hardbound book and offering it to me. "I can highly recommend it if you don't min' a graphic story about ‘Nam."
"Mind? No...I don't think so." I smile pleasantly and open the book to read the flap. When he doesn't leave, I glance up. "Well, thanks, Matt. This sounds like a great young adult read, especially since it scares some people."
He now crosses his arms and grins broadly. "Ah, you're not jus' sayin' that, are you? You look like you could be mighty scared of violent, honest-type books like this."
"What? Me?" I simply stare at him, at a loss for words. Is he flirting out of boredom or trying to get a rise out of me because I'm white and female? When he pulls a sad face and nods, I take a deep breath. "Okay, I realize that white conservatives probably don't like this book about a seventeen-year-old boy from Harlem signing up for the Vietnam war and describing his fears and confusions about what he got himself into, but I like books that make others nervous or...or feel offended."
"Is that so now? You wouldn't fin' it difficult reading'?"
I bristle. "How do you define difficult reading? Is there terminology I wouldn't understand?"
"Well, that's usually explained. You shouldn't have a problem with terms." He thinks for a bit. "The difficulty might lay in reading about his friends getting killed, him fearing for his own life on missions that go real bad, his homesickness and wondering about his family and what he'd do after he got back to the World as he puts it..."
"Go on."
"Or him killing kids as scared as he was and wondering what he was doing there and when the war would end. You know? It's jus' such a real story Myers couldn't have just made up. I think he was remembering his time in 'Nam and puts his heart into it...and some dark humor not everyone'll get."
I nod, flipping the pages of Fallen Angels. "An anti-war novel, unpatriotic. There have been others for young adults, haven't there?"
"Do you notice any others on that list?" he asks and I shake my head with raised eyebrows. "No is right, ma'am. Myers, he's the man from Harlem, had some guts to write that book and a lot of his other ones, too. The protagonist, Richie Perry, didn't take no drugs, just an occasional whiskey, and he still felt like...his mind was cracking up. Like, he was aware of it. He watched his friends cracking up, waiting to die and not able to do anything about it. One of his friends signed up to prove he wasn't a...um, fairy...and thought it'd be like a movie, not reality, but, man, he stopped talkin' like that after a friend died."
"Hmm." This does sound good. "It felt unreal and real at the same time?"
"Yeah, I guess so, like your brain fightin' itself."
"Or the two hemispheres of your brain fighting," I correct with a smile. He looks puzzled at first and then his whole face beams.
"Hey, are you a shrink or something? Damn, no wonder you like banned books! You'll have a good ol' time reading this book since you're so used to listening to messed-up folk." He laughs a little, flushing. "Heck, guess I'm kinda messed up myself and you were prob'ly analyzing me!"
I grin back at him. "Nah, I was too fascinated with hearing about the book, but if you ever want to see me..." I dig in my purse for a business card and hand it to him. "Really, thanks, Matt, for telling me about Fallen Angels. I'll enjoy reading it."
"Ah, no problem, doc. One more recommendation. Read this after watching a paranoid animated comedy like A Scanner Darkly and it'll really come alive."
"Ha ha, great idea! See you around."
"Oh, need that checked out?"
"Okay, thanks!" And we head over to the check-out counter.
************
This has been an entry in epinionator pestyside's Banned Books Week write-off. For more info and entries please see http://www.epinions.com/user-pestyside.
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