Po Man's Child [Paperback]

Marci Blackman (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A vivid assortment of characters inhabit Blackman's first novel, a haunting, dark and visceral story of family entanglements, failure and survival. When she was young, Po Childs numbed herself emotionally to such a degree that she could only feel when she sank the blade of a knife into her skin. Now 27, she is still grappling with the knife. When S&M play with her lover, Mary, goes awry, Po checks herself into a mental hospital for 72 hours of "observation and rest." Here she recollects her family history. Her father, Gregory Childs, a once aspiring jazz musician, wins his store, the Party Shack, on a poker hand, only to quietly gamble his business away. Her mother, Lillian, regretfully gives up her dreams of college and career to raise Po, sister Onya, and brother Bobby. When Gregory has an affair with his brother's (white) wife, Jessica, everyone becomes unhinged. Ray, the cuckolded husband, repeatedly and unsuccessfully attempts suicide, and Lillian succumbs first to alcohol, then prescription drugs. Onya has a nervous breakdown, while Bobby escapes first into the arms of his imaginary playmates, then into the abyss of heroin addiction, and finally into the family of the Ministers of Allah. Bobby visits Po at the hospital, with resisting Onya in tow, determined to convince Po to attend their father's funeral. Although the plot is unnecessarily convoluted, Blackman's tale of a family's bleak and twisted history strikingly illustrates the way even a wounded heart will expand to accommodate the many kinds of love (both nurturing and frightening) it craves. Author tour. (June) FYI: Blackman edited Manic D's anthology Beyond Definition: New Writing from Gay and Lesbian San Francisco, an ALA Gay and Lesbian Book Award Finalist.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The faint of heart and delicate of stomach and sensibilities may shy away from Blackman's first novel, for it opens with a detailed, gory description of ritualistic injury made lubricious in the context of lesbian S&M. Lavishly, lushly eroticizing abuse to illustrate the protagonist Po's tactic for warding off encompassing numbness, Blackman's writing may turn some people off precisely because it is so finely honed, and others because it reeks of danger and comes close in its appeal to that of the infamous so-called snuff films, in which sexual abuse is carried to the extremity of murder for the delectation of those who get turned on by such things. Blackman renders her theme--the tragedy of the American family--in extreme terms, as if smashing her fist in one's face, and readers simply cannot avoid its impact. She may find her book becoming the center of spirited debate, not about its literary merit but about its audacious pushing of more than one politically correct-incorrect envelope. Whitney Scott

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Manic D Press, Inc.; First Ediiton edition (April 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0916397599
• ISBN-13: 978-0916397593
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,067,929 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intense and expertly imagined, June 1, 2003

By 

Maurice Williams "mauricewms" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Po Man's Child (Paperback)

The novel opens with a lesbian S&M scene through which the author reveals a family history informed by tragedy and adversity so bizarre that the family believes they are cursed. The family history is told by Po, the youngest of three children born to the Childs'. The children grow up believing that deceased relatives make regular visits to the family to foretell the onset of happy or sad times. Uncle Ray is determined to kill himself and the family endures multiple failed attempts on his part to achieve his goal. Having grown up in an environment where ghosts abound and insanity flourishes, the children develop coping mechanisms that allow them to survive the family but lose themselves. From drug addiction to self-mutilation to family abandonment, the Childs' children attempt to cover up, or perhaps unleash, the pain of generations of trauma.

"Po Man's Child" accomplishes many things on many levels. The novel is steeped in supernatural beliefs and familial experiences that shape the lives of the characters in self-destructive ways. The story demonstrates how one's inability to challenge and resist beliefs that do not enrich their lives will only lead to destroying it. Blackman has written a highly symbolic, multi-layered narrative that informs and entertains. The writing is superb. The story is intense and expertly imagined. This is a fabulous debut novel by an extremely skilled and daring writer. I look forward to more of her work. Highly Recommended.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Glad i read it, April 1, 2001

By 

"July Lady" (MS United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Po Man's Child (Paperback)

Po man's child is the story of Po who's a lesbian who at the beginning of the book has checked herself until a mental hospial. She also has problem with cutting herself all the time. The book is mostly Po thinking back while she is in the hospital of her youth, we meet her Uncle Ray who's always trying to kill hisself but is never successful, we also meet her brother who only wants to talk to his imaginary friends, her parents, and her grandmother. Po and her white lover Mary always like to play games with cutting themselves. You want want to miss reading this book, it is really good.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Winner! ALA GLBT Book Award (2000), April 27, 2000

By 

David Garnes, Committee Chair ALA GLBT Roundtable - See all my reviews

This review is from: Po Man's Child (Paperback)

In 'Po Man's Child', Blackman skillfully interweaves three crucial days in the life of the protagonist Po, with a depiction of her earlier years and the family whose 'curse' she shares. This remarkable first novel, full of memorable characters, conveys both the despair of mean lives and the hope of human empowerment.