Walking Through Mirrors [Paperback]

Brian Keith Jackson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1999

In his breathtaking debut, The View From Here, Brian Keith Jackson took us inside the heart of black family life in the rural South. Now, in a novel that resonates with pure emotion, he sends photographer Jeremy Bishop back to Elsewhere, Louisiana, for the funeral that marks the end of his father's life -- and the true beginning of his own.

His grandmother, Mama B, called him Patience. Jeremy was, she said, the most agreeable child. He would have liked to tell her that, even while growing up, his hidden wants festered deep inside him. His mother died just hours after his birth, and he was raised by Mama B and his Aunt Jess after his father disappeared. Even after his dad returned one day with his new family, Jeremy kept his distance. But it is a decade later, and Jeremy, now a successful New York photographer, gets a phone call from Louisiana. It is time for Jeremy Bishop to journey the long way home to help bury his father. In the graveyard where his father's body will be laid to rest; in a stranger's appearance at the wake; in a suicide; a murder; and finally inside a cardboard box that had belonged to his father, Jeremy will find himself in ways he never imagined. Conjuring Jeremy's youth in flashbacks as textured as the denim patch on his grandmother's rocking chair, Jackson weaves together past and present in a novel at once astonishing and universally human.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Jackson follows his debut (The View from Here, 1997) with this story of a New York photographer who returns reluctantly to his Louisiana roots for his father's funeral. Abandoned by his father (whose name we learn only at the novel's end) for 15 years, Jeremy Bishop has rejected all of his overtures and pleas for forgiveness. Back in the bosom of his loving, opinionated extended family (most notably the grandmother and aunt who raised him after his mother died and his father left home to start a new family with another woman), Jeremy now blames his own antagonism and self-absorption for keeping him and his father apart. In Jeremy's hometown of Elsewhere, La., we journey with him through old reunions with friends, scarring sexual experiences, fear of familial rejection and the lingering sense of loss that he feels for the mother he never knew. As moving as this journey is, Jeremy's emotions, portrayed with more vigor than subtlety, upstage everyone around him, reduce the impact of the other characters' conundrums and dilute the power of Jackson's work as a whole. Nevertheless, the novel succeeds in blending a bildungsroman with a saga of loss, resulting in a clever rumination on the difficult, inherent complexities of the father-son relationship. Author tour.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Jackson follows up the well-received The View from Here (LJ 2/1/97) with a sensitive but undistinguished story of a young man coming to terms with the secrets, flaws, and unexpressed love of his family. Twenty-six-year-old Jeremy has left his childhood home of Elsewhere, LA, for New York City, a very successful photography career, and a lingering lack of serenity; now he is called back home to bury the father whose love he never felt or understood. In returning to his family, Jeremy finds his studied detachment faltering as he learns long-hidden truths about his parents and reveals, in reflective passages, some difficult thoughts of his own. Vivid characterizations, as of Jeremy's outwardly cocky half-brother Jason and black-talking white friend Paul, and settings, like his grandmother's homestead and the affluent, mixed-race neighborhood of his father, buoy the story, which otherwise suffers from self-conscious turns of phrase and a tendency to meander. An optional purchase for fiction collections.?Janet Ingraham Dwyer, Worthington P.L., Columbus, OH
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Washington Square Press (August 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671568949
• ISBN-13: 978-0671568948
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,907,958 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and Informative, January 10, 2001

By 

Joy Fitzgerald (Memphis, TN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Walking Through Mirrors (Hardcover)

I really struggled with the rating of this book. This book did not grab my attention, nor did it demand a quick read. However, it was an excellent story about a father and son relationship. I felt the story line was excellent. Being a step-mother, this book helped me to understand the point of view from the child's perspective and the impact of not having a father around can have on a child. Once I got deep into the story line, I was eager to find resolution betweeen the father and son. I was glad to understand that in life, we sometimes have to "Walk Through Mirrors."

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars TRULY DESERVES MORE THAN FIVE STARS, April 1, 2000

By 

D. LEE "dml48221" (Palo Alto, California) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Walking Through Mirrors (Paperback)

This book is an excellent novel written by an incredibly,INCREDIBLY talented and unique author. I had never heard of thisauthor before but based on his talent, he should be well known. This author excelled where many authors fail. He took the time to develop Jeremy and all of the characters in his book. This was accomplished by his unique, smooth and successful transition from the present to the past. Who were are in the present is a reflection of what we have been in the past and too often, authors do not take the time to thoroughly develop the past so that the reader can understand the characters in the present. Equally impressive was his use of language which successfully pulled at the emotional and intellectual heartstrings of the reader. In this area, his writing was utterly fantastic. Also of significance is that it is clear from reading the novel that the author was incredibly focused and directed. His stream of conciousness and thought was clear, concise and more importantly consistent. This book deals with real life and the real struggles that we have as human beings. The author deals with these issues in a very sincere, credible and honest manner and does not insult to reader by minimizing the importance of any of the issues nor does he end the book with a "quick fix" for those issues. This truly is the story about the end of one life yet the beginning of another. LISTEN UP OPRAH: THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN ONE OF YOUR SELECTIONS A LONG TIME AGO! This is a must read for anyone who is interested in reading a book that is well written, thought provoking and emotionally and intellectually challenging. You will NOT be disappointed!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WOW, September 6, 1999

By 

Charmonda Hatcher - See all my reviews

This review is from: Walking Through Mirrors (Hardcover)

Jackson is the most powerful younger writer I've ever read. His style is reminiscent of legends and soon to be legends. Walking Through Mirrors was written with ease like a Langston Hughes poem, perfect lyricism like a Toni Morrison novel, and with timelessness like Wallace Thurman's The Blacker the Berry. I have to give the brother his props, which is something I hardly ever do. Jackson deserves accolades and I will be reading and recommending him to friends and family.