Customer Reviews

White Rat: Stories (Harlem Moon Classics)

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Jones' work is reflective of her consciousness of place in society as a black woman writer. Commonly using the dialect of the streets, Jones' characters are the invisible, the disenfranchised, people who struggle for dignity, survival or just to make it through another day. "White Rat", the title story, tells of the woes of a black man light enough to pass for white and the complexities that attend this dual existence, a no man's land where he must stick with those who know him to stay out of trouble. He is raising a child alone until his wife, Maggie returns, now pregnant with another man's child. A brilliant take on sexuality and the loss of innocence, "The Women" considers how children absorb everything around them from adults who are too busy to notice. Watchful and curious, the little ones learn the facts of life from those who live with them, sad beneficiaries of neglect.

In "Jevata", a small family drama plays out, Mr. Floyd the would-be boyfriend who never has a chance, as the fifty-year old Jevata takes in an eighteen-year old young man, infatuated with him. Watching their domestic activities, Floyd remains steadfast, even as the man deserts Jevata. In this mix of sexual ambiguity and dysfunction, Floyd is the passive observer, unable to bring closure to the longing that plagues him. The retarded Ricky is the subject of "Coke". Ricky is fifteen and saves empty cans to turn in for money, trapped in a waiting game until he achieves eighteen years and his mother can turn him over to the state, where he will remain for the rest of his life, as unwanted as the day he was born. In the short but intriguing "Legend", a black man is left hanging beneath a bridge, his story forever on the tongues of those who cross from side to side, his legend lasting longer than the dead man's life ever could.

Featuring an introduction by Natasha Tarpley, White Rat is an exemplary collection of Jones' work, the idiomatic speech, the folk wisdom, the simplicity and straightforwardness of those who live from one day to the next, their experiences familiar and accessible. Jones speaks with a natural rhythm of daily lives made humble by hardship, their unsophisticated world defined by need and routine. In this place, where alienation and mental illness are commonplace, Jones speaks with the voice of the inhabitants who exist in an economic limbo, race and sexuality the subtext of her characters, where people speak their truths without pretense, moving through time because they must. Luan Gaines/ 2005.

WHITE RAT by Gayl Jones is a collection of short stories that run the gamut of bad English speaking Southerners and very articulate, college educated Northerners. The theme that seems to run through all of them is the emotional lives of the characters and the sometimes outright insanity of people. It also covers the challenges that Black Americans face in the United States.

WHITE RAT is the story of a black man who can pass for white. We get an intimate picture of his life in the south as he refuses to pass, confusing those around him. "The Women" is the emotional tale of a young girl whose mother is a lesbian and we get a look at her growing awareness. "The Coke Factory" tells us about an apparently retarded young man who goes out of his way to make the life of his adoptive mother miserable. "The Return: A Fantasy", the story I found most interesting, is about a young girl who marries an obviously insane man and what her life with him is like. "Jevata" lets us in on the life of a fifty-year-old woman who has become infatuated with an 18-year-old boy whom she has moved into her house with her teenage children. We get the story from Mr. Floyd, a man Jevata's age, who has always been in love with her.

All of the stories grabbed my attention right away. Sometimes they ended before I thought they would and it left me wondering exactly what happened. Even with that, it was a book that I found hard to put down. It was originally written in 1977 and it still has relevance in today's world. It's a book that makes you think.

Reviewed by Alice Holman
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers