Customer Reviews

Free Burning: A Novel

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In his second novel (his first was 47th Street Black Boy), Bayo Ojikutu explores one man's struggle to survive by dancing on the thin ice of the two worlds he inhabits. On one hand he is young black father and husband trying to survive amid the temptations of thugs and drugs on Chicago's south side, and on the other, he's a black college graduate trying to make it in a white man's world. You will struggle along with Tommie Simms and he interacts sweetly with his wife and child, and you will brace yourself, as well, against the fear, hopelessness, and injustice that await him around every street-lit corner.

This is provocatively written fiction, and an intermittently interesting read. Reviews chronicled by Kirkus, Black Issues Monthly Book Review, Essence, the Miami Herald, and the critique written by Donna Seaman of Booklist seem to hit the work's merit in most apt fashion. BURNING is strong urban literature, a welcome reprieve from common guttural, oblivious and nonsensical takes on contemporary "Black life" -- but it surely is not a read well-suited to those seeking easy "alleluias", "amens" and "yes ma'ams".

This was a very dissappointing read. Although the characters were well crafted and clearly defined, there isn't a single likable person in the novel. Overall, the writing is good, but the subject matter and point of view is so depressing that you wondered why any of these people bother to get up in the morning. While I believe Bayo Ojikutu is a talented writer, this novel was just not my cup of tea. There was no point to the whole thing. No lessons learned, no moral; the story just ended in same place it began. I don't always need a happy ending, but I do need to feel like there was a point to the whole thing.