Echoes of a Distant Summer [Paperback]

Guy Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 30, 2005

“You done lived a tough life, boy, and I know I’m part responsible for that. I ain’t askin’ you to excuse me or forgive me. Just know I did the best I knew to do. I was just tryin’ to make you tough enough to deal with the world. To stand tall among men, I knew you had to be strong and have yo’ own mind.”

“You were preparing me for war, Grandfather.”


Guy Johnson, the author of the critically acclaimed debut Standing at the Scratch Line, continues the Tremain family saga.

Jackson St. Clair Tremain hasn’t spoken to his grandfather King in nearly twenty years. Disgusted by the violence and bloodlust that seemed to be his grandfather’s way of life, Jackson chose to distance himself from King and live a simpler life. But now King is gravely ill, and his impending death places Jackson’s life—as well as those of his family and friends—in jeopardy. Reluctantly, Jackson travels to Mexico to see King. But after a brief reconciliation, his grandfather is assassinated, and Jackson suspects that his grandmother Serena may have had a hand in it. Jackson takes control of King’s organization, and as he does, he reflects on the summers he spent in Mexico as a child and the lessons he learned there at the knee of his strong-willed, complex grandfather.

In Echoes of a Distant Summer, Guy Johnson introduces us to a new hero, Jackson St. Clair Tremain, who learns that, like his grandfather, he must be willing to protect those he loves—at all costs.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in 1982, this marvelously entertaining sequel to Johnson's well-received first novel, Standing at the Scratch Line, continues the mythic saga of King Tremain, a knife- and gun-wielding Prohibition-era Robin Hood. Leaving a bloody trail of corpses from the bayous of Louisiana to New York and San Francisco, King's fight for survival against overwhelming odds offers a deeply affecting metaphor for black America's struggle for dignity and rights in the 20th century. The sequel picks up with San Francisco civil servant Jackson Tremain being summoned to the deathbed of his estranged grandfather, former mob-enforcer King, who has spent the past 28 years exiled deep in Mexico after being framed for the murder of white cops in San Francisco. Jackson flies to Mexico just in time to learn that he is the heir to a $50 million fortune. Returning to the Bay Area, Jackson learns that contracts are already out on his life from enemies determined to claim the fortune, and soon both he and his girlfriend are imperiled by King's old nemesis, bayou crime patriarch Pug DuMont, who's in cahoots with Bay Area mafiosi. Secret treasure, gang wars, voodoo, illegitimate heirs, damsels in distress in the hands of a lesser writer, this would be cheap pulp fiction, but the gifted Johnson gives sweep and emotional resonance to the action-packed hijinks.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Jackson Tremain, a successful and respected urban professional in Oakland, CA, in the early 1980s, is dragged back into a violent world he thought he had left behind when his dying grandfather, the legendary African American mobster King Tremain, summons him to his hideout in Mexico for a final meeting. Jackson learns that control of his grandfather's enormous financial empire will pass to him, but only on the condition that he first settles the score in a family feud stretching back 30 years. Jackson initially resists, but when thugs capture his elegant girlfriend, Elizabeth, he quickly remembers the lethal skills his grandfather taught him years before and swings into action. Johnson's sprawling narrative jumps back and forth from the 1950s to the 1980s, providing a capsule history of postwar Oakland. Partly an African American version of The Godfather, with a similar body count, this sequel achieves the high standard of page-turning readability as the first volume in the saga, Standing at the Scratch Line. For all public libraries. Edward B. St. John, Loyola Law Sch. Lib., Los Angeles
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 688 pages
• Publisher: One World/Ballantine (August 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345478045
• ISBN-13: 978-0345478047
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1.5 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #55,671 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb Writing Runs In This Family, August 20, 2002

By 

D. LEE "dml48221" (Palo Alto, California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Echoes of a Distant Summer: A Novel (Hardcover)

This sequel to Standing at the Scratch Line is as good as, if not better than, Standing.. It is superb!! For those who have read Standing At The Scratch Line, this novel continues with the saga of the Tremain family. This story picks up with the adult grandson, Jackson, who has been estranged from his grandfather King Tremain for several years. As King is near death, Jackson flies to Mexico to see his grandfather and leaves with a mission and desire that proves he truly is the grandson of King Tremain, whether he likes it or not.

Although this is a lengthy novel, the auhtor uses every word, phrase,page, etc., to draw an in-depth, complete and wonderful picture of who Jackson is, but more importantly the Tremain legacy and past that King has left to his grandson...whether he wants it or not. Although King is assassinated very early on in the book, through well placed, smooth and poignant flashbacks to the 1950's and 1960's, the reader gets much more insight into King Tremain and his life and legacy. Finally, to sum it up "you better ask joe 'cause you sho' don't know" what you are missing if you miss out on the chance to read this wonderful novel.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What Must Be Done - It's time for that movie!, August 12, 2006

By 

BeyondAtlanta "Michael W" (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Echoes of a Distant Summer (Paperback)

Do we have to get find and send a director to Guy Johnson with a planeful of actors... someone get this to the big screen! If Tyler Perry can commercialize Madea, I am confused why we can't have these books made into a movie. Heck, I have someone willing to do it! Let's face it, the world isn't a perfect place and less than perfect personalities bring out some interesting public discourse (Black women made Madea). Not all our inspirational people are noble God fearing and pious so why should our make believe "larger than life" folk be any different. One reviewer examined the historic accuracy of the book. While being a noble observation it misses the point that Black Folk, African Americans ...and for that fact Americans and the world need to be able to tell the truth in real historic events let alone the fictional stories. Further, in bring on a sense of Black Folk place in this world, there is still much to do with dismantling the rediculous vision of the timid, unlearned, unpatriotic, lazy, morally bankrupt Black Male that American has underwritten for all these hundreds of years. How long will these perpetuate? Answer: Until Black Folk change these images and begin telling their own stories... one by one; fiction and non-fiction alike. Lord knows, currently there aren't enough Black Historians to undo the less than honest works of the legions of half-truth historians America has seen and not enough Jewish historians to care (much Black is written by our Jewish friends). These stories will, like the lies that preceded them, go a long way toward gaining a foothold on the destiny of human kind everywhere.. not just Black Folk! Our destiny is tied together and human kind will never be whole nor great until nobody is allowed to be viewed as "less than."

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Tremain Saga Continues, October 10, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Echoes of a Distant Summer: A Novel (Hardcover)

Guy Johnson, once again, has written another un-put-downable novel. The plot is so intricate and compelling that the reader reflexively considers the various permutations of the plot-lines as if the story is reality. I am grateful to Johnson for writing about strong, black male characters. He has reinvigorated my interest in black literature. His research is extremely thorough because he creates multilayered and textured settings. From a technical standpoint, Johnson needs to work on his dialogue. No one, especaily not in the '80s, talked with such high-handed vocabularies. His prose remains outstanding, but the characters often sound like talking dictionaries. For instance, instead of saying that a person is preachy, a Johnson character will say "He's didactic." And that's another criticism of the book --Johnson preaches constantly about how blacks should be and what they should be about. His messages -- while true -- are not subtle and, ultimately, off-putting. Dialogue and didacticism notwithstanding, Johnson has shown that he is without question his mother's son. This is a must read for black men everywhere.