The House on Childress Street: A Memoir [Paperback]

Kenji Jasper (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 10, 2006

In this vivid and piercing memoir of his grandfather, noted novelist Kenji Jasper captures the story of his family and sheds a keen light on the urban and rural experiences of Black America.

Author Kenji Jasper only knew his maternal grandfather, Jesse Langley Sr., as a quiet man who smoked too many cigarettes, drank too much liquor and quoted the Bible like it was the only book he’d ever laid eyes on.

Jesse’s children rarely hugged him, and his nearly sixty years of marriage to Sally seemed cold and complicated. But when the man who declared himself “The Lone Ranger” passed away in late 2002, Kenji began a long and life-changing journey to learn more about the grandfather he barely knew. From the streets of his native Washington, D.C., to rural Virginia, North Carolina, and his home in Brooklyn, Jasper’s journey to find the truth leads him through three generations of stories, through tales of love and loss, loyalty and betrayal, addiction and redemption.

The House on Childress Street examines life, love, and survival through the eyes of one little family on one little block that somehow manages to speak for us all.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Journalist and novelist Jasper (Dark) shares insightful, though often tedious moral lessons on black manhood. With the recent death of his 83-year-old grandfather, Jesse James Langley Sr., Jasper delves into his forebear's difficult, angry journey in America. Orphaned early in rural Greenville, N.C., Jesse left home, finding work at the Pentagon, where he met and married Sally Helen Smith. They moved to Childress Street, in a Washington, D.C., suburb, and for the next 60 years Jesse proved a steady provider, if embittered by the scarring of racism and an inability to express emotion. His stoic example wasn't duplicated in the next generations, throughout eras transformed by the historic movements of Civil Rights, Black Power and feminism, as well as by drugs decimating black neighborhoods. In erratic chapters, Jasper presents histories of significant family members, including his mother, Angela, an emancipated working woman, divorced over conflicting roles of husband and wife; Uncle Gary and his purposeless life chained to heroin; and success story Latanya Langley, a cousin raised in Norwalk, Conn., so educated and privileged she was considered a "bourgie," or someone who wanted to be white. Jasper asks some tough questions of the black community in his search to understand his own identity.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Jasper's maternal grandfather, Jesse Langley Sr., mostly sat apart from the family at holiday gatherings, maintaining his distance though he was loved and revered. Jesse's 60 years of marriage to Sally wasn't always so distant. Kenji sets out to discover how the "Lone Ranger," who died in 2002, came to prefer the distance even as he remained in the family house in Washington, D.C. In his probing, Kenji speaks to family, friends, and acquaintances to piece together a portrait of a man who survived harsh conditions and limitations imposed by racism to provide for his family in the bosom of a close-knit community. Kenji contrasts the struggles of his parents' generation and their divorce versus the grandparents' stoic marriage. In the process, Kenji learns as much about himself and the plight of black men in general as he does about his grandfather. Novelist Jasper offers a poignant look at love and family complexity. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 228 pages
• Publisher: Harlem Moon; 1st edition (January 10, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767916794
• ISBN-13: 978-0767916790
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #786,044 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Good Writer, Scattered Story, April 10, 2006

By 

Shamontiel L. Vaughn "Message from Montie" (Chicago) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The House on Childress Street: A Memoir (Paperback)

I really tried to like this book, because I think the author is a good writer. I've read work of his in the past but it seems like the more work I read by him, the more scattered it is. This book was supposed to be about his grandfather but it is written so disorganized that I really can't tell what's going on. He goes to different family members to find out how they feel about his grandfather and ends up launching off into stories about the family members. Under normal circumstances, this would've been cool, had it only been about five or six people, but he's introducing so many people into the story to the point where it's like being a stranger at someone's family reunion. "There's __________________, he's a ___________________, and then there's ___________________, she's a ______________________, and these are her brothers and sisters ___________________, _____________________, ___________________, and _____________________."
Around page 128, the story started to have a focus. The author thought he'd gotten a woman pregnant and was going through the thinking cycle of a man with not enough money to support a family. Right when he finally got me interested in the book, he goes into this crazy launch about slavery. Then here comes another set of folks in his family that he's introducing us to, where there's a lecture on divorce.
This may have been a great book to pass out at the family reunion, but not for outsiders to read. I got to page 148, lost all patience with this book, and put it up for sale.

Better question is: Will you buy his next book? Sure, like I said...I think he's a good writer. I just wish this story was more organized.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hip Hop Generation Memoirist Proves Masterful, April 18, 2006

By 

Talitha Rise (Durham, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The House on Childress Street: A Memoir (Paperback)

As an instructor at Duke's Center for Documentary Studies, I have had the opportunity to view and read quite a few pieces of creative non-fiction. Jasper's The House on Childress Street has quickly become a new favorite! It is refreshing, to say the least, to hear the distinct voices of urban late 20th/early 21st century Black experiences. I have used this text in my past two seminar classes to highlight a number of issues: 1) The highly personal nature of our work as documentarians, folklorists, historians, anthropologists, etc. 2) The concept of the hidden journey of digging into our family and personal histories--a journey that takes a life of its own, and 3)The complications of interviewing and representing those closest to us--our communities, our families. Even outside of the academy, I find this to be Jasper's best work. The House on Childress Street is an elegant representation of the true lives and ancestral voices lingering around this clarion voice of the Hip Hop generation.

4.0 out of 5 stars Family Affair, January 23, 2008

By 

Soulstress "Soulstress" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The House on Childress Street: A Memoir (Paperback)

I loved Childress Street. I loved it because I saw my own family in that book on so many levels. It was a story that I would have never had the talent to tell, but certainly have lived inside of. Kenji Jasper is a writers writer. While it can be a little challenging to follow the family tree, it is worth while because it initiates self reflection. Kenji Japser's story telling is amazing...but his comentary is even better. That is what makes Childress Street different from any of his other books. And the fasinating thing that happens at the end is wonderful.

Keep it up Kenji Jasper.