They Tell Me of a Home: A Novel [Paperback]

Daniel Black (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 28, 2006

Twenty-eight-year-old protagonist Tommy Lee Tyson steps off the Greyhound bus in his hometown of Swamp Creek, Arkansas--a place he left when he was eighteen, vowing never to return. Yet fate and a Ph.D. in black studies force him back to his rural origins as he seeks to understand himself and the black community that produced him. A cold, nonchalant father and an emotionally indifferent mother make his return, after a ten-year hiatus, practically unbearable, and the discovery of his baby sister's death and her burial in the backyard almost consumes him. His mother watches his agony when he discovers his sister's tombstone, but neither she nor other family members is willing to disclose the secret of her death. Only after being prodded incessantly does his older brother, Willie James, relent and provide Tommy Lee with enough knowledge to figure out exactly what happened and why. Meanwhile, Tommy's seventy-year-old teacher--lying on her deathbed--asks him to remain in Swamp Creek and assume her position as the headmaster of the one-room schoolhouse. He refuses vehemently and she dies having bequeathed him her five thousand-book collection in the hopes that he will change his mind. Over the course of a one-week visit, riddled with tension, heartache, and revelation, Tommy Lee Tyson discovers truths about his family, his community, and his undeniable connection to rural Southern black folk and their ways.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Black's thoughtful debut about return to and reconciliation with one's roots, Tommy Lee "T.L." Tyson comes home to rural Swamp Creek, Ark., after a 10-year absence. Having fled a life of manual labor and an unloving family for academia, T.L., now with a Ph.D. in black studies, returns seeking "familial clarity" after years of silence. Even stronger than his need to come to terms with his estranged family—including his tyrannical father, Cleatis; remote mother, Marion; and older brother, Willie James—is his desire to reconnect with his adored younger "Sister," Cynthia Jane. But he arrives home to find Sister dead and buried in the backyard, and no one will tell him how she died. Sister's death isn't the only family secret T.L. will unravel: he also visits his beloved, ailing teacher and mentor, Carolyn Swinton. They're reunited just before she dies, and upon her passing he discovers that he is her biological son. T.L. also finally breaks Willie James's silence and learns the shocking story of Sister's death. Though T.L.'s intellectual sermonizing about identity and overcoming self-hatred brings a self-conscious layer to the novel, Black elevates his promising debut with an ear for dialogue and a specific sense of Southern place.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Thomas Lee Tyson returns to Swamp Creek, Arkansas, after a 10-year absence. T. L. left as an emotionally abused adolescent off to get a college degree but returns as a self-assured, newly minted Ph.D. on the verge of a career as a professor of African American history. After 10 years of no communication with his family, he expects to renew his deep love for his younger sister and perhaps rescue her from the stultifying atmosphere of the small town. But he learns that his beloved sister died mysteriously some years earlier and is buried in the backyard. His tortured reunion with his emotionally distant father, mother, and brother is complicated by the need to discover how and why his sister died and the key to his own identity. T. L. discovers a community not as ignorant and backward as he had remembered but one whose racial heritage and storytelling traditions were appreciated and celebrated. And at the local "Meetin' Tree," he discovers a sense of home and identity he has not found elsewhere. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (November 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312362838
• ISBN-13: 978-0312362836
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (77 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #78,520 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You Can't Choose Your Family, December 30, 2005

By 

The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers (RAWSISTAZ.com and BlackBookReviews.net) - See all my reviews

This review is from: They Tell Me of a Home: A Novel (Hardcover)

It is said that you can choose your friends, but can't choose your family. In THEY TELL ME OF A HOME, the main character, Tommy Lee Tyson has learned just that. At eighteen, he left his small town of Small Creek, Arkansas and vowed that he would never return. Ten years later, armed with a doctorate degree, he has accepted that he cannot simply run from his past and his family demons, and as the book opens, he is exiting a greyhound bus just a walk away from his childhood home. This childhood home carries a lot of ghosts; a physically and emotionally abusive father, a mother that could never show him love, and a brother with whom he felt very little connection. The only positive memories of his childhood stem from his younger sister, and it is his need to reconnect with her that, at least in part, is his motivation for returning. When he returns however, he learns that his sister died, and he spends the rest of his visit trying to uncover the facts behind her mysterious death. In his search for answers, he quickly learns that the secrets surrounding his sister's death are only the tip of the iceberg.

I have had the privilege of reading quite a few first time authors over the past year, and Daniel Black is definitely at the top of my list. He has crafted a story that is timeless, intelligent, and brilliantly written. Even though I knew from the book's description that Tommy Lee would learn of his sister's death, the scene left me in shock and speechless because it was written with such heart. The characters were vibrant and colorful and the plot was realistic and engaging. Black captured the essence of black southern life in a multi-dimensional fashion, from the secrecy, to the humor and sense of community. The book touched on a variety of themes and social issues, all of which are explored through the main character's search for answers and more importantly, the search for his place in his family and community. While THEY TELL ME OF A HOME deals with issues such as abuse, incest, religion, and other very serious topics, the story never gets weighed down by them because the author also includes moments of camaraderie, friendship and humor to balance it out. This is a book to savor, one that made me laugh, cry, and call my friends to share certain passages. Painful, yet graceful, emotional, yet humorous, timeless, yet relevant; THEY TELL ME OF A HOME is a fantastic accomplishment by a debut author.

Reviewed by Stacey Seay
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sins of the Father Visit the Children, October 11, 2005

By 

Yasmin Coleman (PENNSYLVANIA, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: They Tell Me of a Home: A Novel (Hardcover)

Daniel Black's debut novel, They Tell Me of a Home, is the story of twenty-eight year old Tommy Lee (T.L.) Tyson who returns to his rural hometown of Swamp Creek, Arkansas after a ten-year hiatus. Tyson left behind an abusive father, emotionally detached mother, sullen older brother and a loving younger sister, Cynthia. T.L. adored Cynthia and she was his reason for living and wanting something better than his humble, backwoods beginning. It is because of his sister that he is now returning home after completing ten years of higher education and receiving a Ph.D. in Black Studies-which leaves his father wondering why he wasted good money on learning about Black Folks-when he could have told him everything he needed to know! His sister,who was not even 10 when he left home,was his pride and joy, childhood friend, spiritual confidante and was his only reason for wanting to stay connected to folks who obviously had no commitment to him. However, ten years is a long time to be gone and to have very little contact with family, so much to his surprise and chagrin, he learns upon returning home that his sister is gone-she died. No one notified him of her untimely death and no one wants to talk about it nor tell him how she died.

In his tantrum and angry quest to find out what happened to Cynthia, T.L. will rip open the dysfunctional fabric that holds his family together. He will discover that the glue that seals them together includes generational secrets, incest, adultery, emotional annihilation and self-hatred. Going home will also bring him face to face with his favorite teacher who is dying and who has a few secrets of her own. She also has a demanding request of T. L. that he is not sure that he can honor. Since returning home, the baggage of the past is suffocating him and stifling his reason for being-and now that his sister is gone he is in more of a hurry to return to his beloved NYC. But can one ever really emotionally or physically leave the place they call home?

They Tell Me of a Home is a powerful, universal story of a young man returning home and coming to the realization that " my coming home was because I had missed the most critical lesson any student can learn-that transforming the world begins with love of one's own people." Black delivers a poignant message as we journey with T.L. and he discovers that just maybe being from Swamp Creek isn't so bad and drives home an even greater message that many folks of color still need to hear today-" that until we teach ourselves, we will always hate ourselves' -and continue to run away from the situation rather than to deal with what ails us.

Filled with wit, wisdom, social messages, folklore and rural southern black folk and their ways, Tyson's debut novel is creatively crafted and a page-turner. Beautifully and lyrically written, colorful characters including secondary characters that felt like family and inclusion of my two favorite topics-African American History and religion quickly moved this read into my Top 10 for 2005. Anyone who has ever spent time in the South or still has family there will identify with at least one of the characters in the story. They remind us of folks that we would not choose if given a choice but because of blood relations these are the same folks that we lovingly and sometimes grudgingly call family. I highly recommend this book to anyone seeking a refreshing and wonderfully crafted story featuring an African American male protagonist who endearingly worms his way into our hearts and leaves a few unforgettable gems of nuggets for us to chew on-as only a Southerner can do!

Reviewed by Yasmin
APOOO BookClub

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars They Tell Me Of A Home, April 27, 2008

By 

Ms. 90 (Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: They Tell Me of a Home: A Novel (Paperback)

This is the story of T.L. - a man who is raised in the south but leaves home to seek change. After obtaining his Ph.D., T.L. returns home to find that as much as he has changed, life in his small town has pretty much remained the same. However, one thing has changed, his beloved Sister is now dead and is buried in the family backyard, but no one seems to know how Sister died. In his efforts to find out the truth about Sister's death, T.L. also uncovers some other truths - about his life, his perception of his family, and his real feelings about Swamp Creek, Arkansas - the town that really has remained the same.

Having grown up in the South, this novel immediately transported me to that time and that place and stirred up many memories of my life in a small, southern town. I laughed, I smiled, and felt as if I was actually "there" as the words brought the images in this story to life. I knew the answers to many of T.L.'s problems - all except one - which reminded me of another book I'd read with the same issue. A wonderfully written book that I will surely recommend to others. Can't wait to read this author's latest novel.