Strivers Row (New York Trilogy 3) [Hardcover]

Kevin Baker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 31, 2006 | Series: New York Trilogy 3

The dramatic and riveting final installment in Kevin Baker's New York Trilogy, "Strivers Row" is the story of two young men trying to find their way through the temptations and pitfalls of life in World War II Harlem. The Rev. Jonah Dove is the son of a legendary Harlem minister, and a man troubled in both mind and spirit. He feels himself unworthy and incapable of taking up the burden of running his church from the larger-than-life figure who is his father. He is haunted both by his own, shameful history of "passing" as a white man in college, and by the prospects for his people in the harsh, new, racist age he fears the world is entering. Malcolm Little, better known as Malcom X, is a teenage hustler, a young man on the make, trying always to be something bigger, tougher, savvier, and more confident than he really is. On his way to New York, Malcolm happens to come to the rescue of Jonah and his wife, Amanda, when they are attacked by some drunken soldiers on the train. From then on, their paths cross repeatedly as they each go about trying to find what they really want out of the roiling, wartime city, until the moment when Harlem finally erupts around them, as a people driven beyond endurance strikes out blindly at all the forces keeping it entrapped in misery and hopelessness. Stranded on the streets of a rioting city, Jonah and Malcolm meet each other once more, as they come to grips with what they are and what the future will hold for them.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Played out against the backdrop of Harlem in 1943, this generally engaging, sometimes dense third novel from Baker (following the bestselling Dreamland and Paradise Alley) reimagines the early days of Malcolm Little—the man who became Malcolm X. As depicted by Baker, the young Malcolm is quick-witted, eager, reckless and impulsive, but also sensitive and possessing a strong sense of justice. These qualities lead to a chance encounter in which he helps Jonah Dove (the Dove family is familiar from Paradise Alley), a young Harlem minister who is struggling with his own demons as the fair-skinned leader of a black church that has not truly embraced him, despite his being the only son of the church's much-beloved founder; Dove's unfolding story (including his struggles with passing) deepens Malcolm's. The book stays within what's already known about Malcolm X's early adulthood, but Baker covers the territory carefully. He also thoroughly captures the figures (Adam Clayton Powell Jr., West Indian Archie, the Collyer brothers, etc.) and micropolitical climate of wartime Harlem: munitions factories have brought jobs to the struggling community, but low wages, rationing, racial hostilities and an increasing military and police presence makes for possibly explosive combinations. When these tensions do reach the breaking point, Baker lends the resulting fray a visceral reality. (Feb.)
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From Bookmarks Magazine

The novel is daring in capturing the mood and history of New York's blacks, particularly since the author is white. Relying on sources including The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Baker melds fact and fiction to paint a vibrant portrait of pre?civil rights America. The period details, the descriptions of Jonah's "passing" in white locales, and Baker's incisive depiction of racism's psychological damage stand out. Yet some critics saw this panoramic history as too ambitious while at the same time falling into the conventional; some felt that this era is still too sensitive to examine objectively. Either way, Strivers Row captures a Harlem whose glitter masked its racial violence.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 560 pages
• Publisher: Harper; First Edition edition (January 31, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060195835
• ISBN-13: 978-0060195830
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.3 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,865,026 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Least Fiery of Baker's Trilogy, October 31, 2006

By 

David Zimmerman (Baton Rouge, LA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Strivers Row (New York Trilogy 3) (Hardcover)

The third in Baker's "City of Fire" trilogy of historical fiction about New York City, this book is set in the early `40s in Harlem with the story told through the eyes of a young Malcolm Little, who in later life would become Malcolm X, and the fictional Rev. Jonah Dove (based on Adam Clayon Powell, who also appears as himself in the book.)

Baker's meticulous research results in Harlem scenes that resonate with believability. Laid against the backdrop is the story of Malcolm and Elijah Muhammad (founder of the Black Muslims), which has to be dealt with on a symbolic level. While an enjoyable read, this one didn't quite measure up to the promise generated by Baker's first two parts of the trilogy, Dreamland and Paradise Alley.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Master literary historian, great novel (what else is new?), March 12, 2006

By 

BIg Daddy (Akron, OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Strivers Row (New York Trilogy 3) (Hardcover)

I've been a Kevin Baker fan since his brilliant book about Coney Island: Dreamland. His next one, Paradise Alley, may have been even better. No one writes about New York City as well as Baker does -- no novelist, no historian, no one. This new book is a novel about Harlem in the era of jazz greats and secret cults, the era of war and hope. I think it's his most ambitious work yet -- it tells the sotry of young Malcolm X, in the days before he was famous, and -- better than anything I know of about the man -- it gets at the heart of a great American engima. There are other great characters, too --- The Reverend Jonah Dove, who may be a real life figure, as well (I don't know) -- but the story itself is so riveting, I was totally into the book from page one.

Anyway, I really recomend it. The dude can write.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Extraordinary Experience, March 13, 2006

By 

Rob Gordon "Book and Vinyl Lover" (London, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Strivers Row (New York Trilogy 3) (Hardcover)

For six years and three books, Baker has been building, brick by brick, his own city, and it is a classic. With Striver's Row, the high-rises are inhabited, the streets are paved, the corners are teeming. You see how the country came together, and you understand that the world of books has been resting in sure hands. Baker has a detective's eye and a preservationist's heart: but most of all, he has a writer's head, and the proof is on every page. This book tops off a trilogy, but Striver's can be read alone; if it were a first novel, it'd be a cause for celebration. As the end of a series, it's an occassion for gratitude.