I said, "No, sir. I don't know why, but my eyes don't cry no more." Steady Eddie said, "I like that, 'my eyes don't cry no more.' You mind if I borrow that? That sounds like a great name for a song." I said, "No, sir, I don't mind at all." I'm not sure why this section made left a strong impression on me. Perhaps it's because of how simple it is and how much it reveals through its simplicity. A ten-year-old boy says his eyes don't cry anymore. It's heartbreaking and poetic--and this little exchange makes us notice both. Bud, Not Buddy is a precious book, bursting with the kind of innocence that makes my heart ache, much like The Mighty Miss Malone, which I read and loved several years ago. Armed with a set of rules to have a funner life and be a better liar, Bud sets out to look for his father. All he has to help him is a suitcase full of his treasures. Some of his … [Read more...]
The Mighty Miss Malone
Deza Malone's teeth are rotting, but her family cannot afford the luxury of a dentist. Her elder brother Jimmie has achieved the grand height of a twelve-year-old and does not seem to be growing any further. Eating welfare food - sometimes filled with bugs - is normal for the Malones. Set in the years of the Great Depression, The Mighty Miss Malone, the story of a Black family in Gary, could have been a tale of woe that would make me weep. In fact, that is what I expected when I picked the book up. But The Mighty Miss Malone is, instead, a story of hope. Every character in the book speaks of love, optimism and sweetness. Sweetness in literature goes, for me, with a slowness of pace. Books that are sweet are not thrilling or action-packed. Rather, they are hopeful and gentle, full of life and the belief that something delightful is about to happen. And this … [Read more...]