Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
We've Come A Long Way, June 9, 2009
This review is from: Crossing the Lines: A Novel (Paperback)
Richard Doster pens a heartfelt, powerful, thought provoking book that gives a broad view of when things started to forever change in the South. It was as much of a surprise to Martin Luther King, Jr. as it was to the rest of the world when a group voted him to lead a fight of justice, for all! Martin Luther tells a reporter, "There comes a time when people get tired of being plunged across the abyss of humiliation."
Martin Luther tries to explain that this movement is not about desegregation - it's about community. "We want the same things. We might come at it from a different direction; might see things from a slightly different angel, but we both want a place were people thrive, where they're free, where everybody loves his neighbor." Jack Hall, reporter for the Atlanta Constitution, doesn't see this happening in a peaceful way--he's scared to be part any of this movement--what will his neighbors and friends think?
To Jack, Martin Luther King says, "Justice is love correcting that which revolts against love. .... True peace--the kind the Bible talks about--has got to be more than the absence of hostility. It's got to be the presence of something good. You can't have peace until you've got justice and goodwill and honest-to-goodness brotherhood," Jack starts to think about life in a new way after hearing Martin Luther's speeches and his pastor's sermons. He thinks God just might want to use him to get Martin Luther's story out to the world.
Richard Doster has a section in the back of the book called "Fact or Fiction," In it he describes what is real in the book and what he's changed to help the story along. I found this helpful since I haven't done an in-depth study of Martin Luther King Jr. or that time period before. I could never understand the hatred people had back then or why everyone was so angry; even the governor was angry enough to bring out the National Guard to stop `Negro' children from entering a white school after a law had been passed to make this legal. Oh, My!! All that I read was mind boggling.
In the "author notes" page of the book, Richard says, "This is a story about how a contented Southerner grows uncomfortable with his region. It is a book about how attitudes--individual and collective--were changed, not only by events, but by the flesh-and-blood humans who transformed the Old South into the new one." I loved this story and think it's an important read. The author doesn't give an account of detailed history that will put you to sleep. Instead Richard centers the story around Jack Hall and his family dynamic, as well as Jack's relationship with Martin Luther King Jr.
The author used parts of Martin Luther's speeches and parts from a book Martin Luther King Jr. wrote called Stride Toward Freedom (published in 1958)--along with several resources he mentions in the back of the book. This is one fascinating well-rounded glimpse into how we got closer as a country- a country moving toward the brotherhood that King envisioned. We have a long way to go, but this book tells how Martin Luther King, Jr. helped us as a nation - take one huge step for man kind, in a direction to help us love our neighbor- the way the bible tells us we can.
Finding Hope Through Fiction
Book Club Servant Leader
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A satisfying read. An eye opener., June 2, 2009
This review is from: Crossing the Lines: A Novel (Paperback)
As a kid growing up in a quiet northern California suburb, the early days of the civil rights movement in the late 1950s came only as close as our black & white TV screen and the occasional photo-spread in LIFE magazine. Richard Doster brings those images to real life in Crossing The Lines, his second novel set in the south.
Crossing The Lines continues the story of newspaper reporter Jack Hall whose big break comes when he is asked to join the sports writing team of a major Atlanta daily. Because he had some experience reporting on the "negro" community at his previous paper, Hall's editor sends him to Montgomery, Alabama to report on a minor incident involving a woman who refused give up her seat in a WHITES ONLY section of a city bus.
There's news out of Montgomery that there might be a short-lived bus boycott and Hall agrees to go, despite the protestations of his wife.
"I seem to possess an unusual background; I guess I'm one of the few reporters in the world who's actually seen a boycott, who's been to a Negro church, and interviewed a Negro pastor."
Hall meets a young Martin King, a young pastor who impresses the cynical newspaperman with his faith and quiet demeanor. The two form a relationship built on mutual benefit and Hall becomes an eye witness to some of the civil rights movement's most pivotal events.
Doster weaves his fictional characters into stories of actual events so seamlessly that it is difficult to know where reality ends and fiction begins. The dialog given King and others is historically accurate based on the author's exhaustive research.
As he sees and learns more about the struggle for justice, Jack Hall also confronts long-held racial stereotypes held by the white Christians with whom he goes to church, including his wife Rose Marie who can't understand why people are making such a fuss.
Doster gives his fictional characters honest feelings and doubts. The dialog between reporters in the newsroom is a bit tamer than I suspect it really is, but other than that, Crossing The Lines is a good read that opened my eyes to an important period of American history I didn't realize I had missed.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Entertainment plus education, June 20, 2009
This review is from: Crossing the Lines: A Novel (Paperback)
Here's what I like: to be thoroughly entertained while I learn something worth knowing.
Crossing the Lines provided me with that experience. I heartily recommend it to several populations: 1) boomers happy to relive that era when "our" music and other cultural phenomena began hitting the scene; 2) younger readers who might not know the background of the birth of rock 'n' roll, country music, blues and other sounds the South contributed so mightily in the 1950s and '60s; 3) Southerners (and wannabes) nostalgic for a period when the South rose again to take leadership in important ways, including literature, music and -- certainly -- social justice and opportunity for all; 4) both black and white readers interested in reviewing incredible events and the brave people behind them in an era when America was on the cusp of major change in race relations; 5) all readers who enjoy a fabulous yarn, a literary masterpiece and a novel whose characters, events and settings stay with you long after you reluctantly finish the last page.
Did I leave anyone out? Hope not...Crossing the Lines is really THAT good! It's fiction that matters, which -- let's face it -- can't be said about all novels.
Carolyn Curtis
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
