White Tears in What's the Name of That Book???

Jun 26, 2017 jo rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audio, trauma, spec-fantasy-sf, the-american-dream, whiteness

this is the first book i read -- but surely there must be others, right? please tell me there are others -- that tackles squarely, that is to say front and center, the theme of whiteness in america (C.E. Morgan's The Sport of Kings does so too, but it taints the effort, in my opinion, by devoting almost half the book to a story told from a black man's point of view, which has always been dicey when done by a white author -- see William Styron's Confessions of Nat Turner-- but seems particularly this is the first book i read -- but surely there must be others, right? please tell me there are others -- that tackles squarely, that is to say front and center, the theme of whiteness in america (C.E. Morgan's The Sport of Kings does so too, but it taints the effort, in my opinion, by devoting almost half the book to a story told from a black man's point of view, which has always been dicey when done by a white author -- see William Styron's Confessions of Nat Turner-- but seems particularly tone deaf now that we are all awakening, or woking up, hopefully). and let me get out of the way that hari kunzru is neither white, black, nor american, having been born in england to an indian father and a white mother, and having lived in the states, with apparently a number of misgivings, for only 10 years.

white people have always caused and continue to cause untold misery and often decimation to non-white people, and non-white people have tried to tell us -- the well-meaning us, the decent white folks who wouldn't hurt a fly -- what other us were doing in our name, and we have always done what we could, from sheer acts of heroism to serious political commitment, to gestures of protest and compensation. since a lot of the effort of letting us know has happened in the written form, there are countless books written by non-white people about non-whiteness, including a mammoth chunk of books by american black people about american blackness, and i'm not entirely sure we, even those of us who believe very deeply in equality, make a point of reading them. we of course would benefit much from them, both in terms of literary delight and in terms of learning.

and then there are some books written by white people about non-whiteness, including books written by american whites about blackness, and those are a bit disturbing and a bit wrong and for the most part misguided, cuz, dear white people, why do you write about blackness instead of writing about whiteness? white is a race too you know?

but since white is perceived, or non-perceived, by most of us as the default of humanity -- meaning, there are people and they are assumed to be white and if they are not you point it out -- very few white people know how to write about whiteness as a race. in fact, if my personal experience of reading is anything to go by (and i sure hope it isn't!), no one does!

hari kunzru jumped bravely into this breach and let me dispel immediately any notion that his book is boring and didactic cuz it most certainly is not. it's a riveting ghost story about music, love, wealth, music, music, and the troubled, unreciprocated love of white people for black culture. in an illuminating interview with CBC kunzru explicitly says that this book is a tribute to, and maybe an offspring of, BLM (if you don't know what this stands for please google it and read some of what comes up, cuz if you don't know what BLM is you will not understand this book, including its title).

as i read this riveting, painful and woundrous book i kept thinking, wow kunzru is really magic to have written a book that in some ways is a thesis (the thesis being, white people tread all over blackness without noticing it, and then take ALL THE CREDIT for whatever good comes to them from using black work and culture) and make it fun! but then i realized that this thought was a direct product of the fact that this is the first novel i read that puts american whiteness and its shame front and center. cuz, really, isn't every book the carrier of a thesis, if you want to make it such?

so this book is, yes, built around a thesis, but most importantly it's built around a story, and the story will keep you on the edge of your seat. it is the story of charlie shaw, an early blues musicians, a guitar maverick, and of a nichey but sizable group of (white, default) record collectors who are on the hunt for his (one?) recording. all sorts of trouble ensues. ghosts show up and enter the body of people, as ghosts sometimes do, and make them do terrible things which are only the things that were done to them. but these people get away with it cuz they are white and not black, and white gets passes all the time, everywhere, daily, and we don't even know it. and the white people in the world cry a lot, from sorrow and a profound sense of injustice, and their tears are white, just like the color of their skin. ...more

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Jan 01, 2019 El rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 21st-centurylit, peer-pressure, radio-ga-ga

Like American War, here is another book that I started to read without any actual understanding of what it was going to be about. I tend not to read the back cover of books - I like to be surprised. Sometimes it works out. Other times I find myself saying "Wait, what?" The latter was the case here when I discovered the story begins with two young men obsessed with music.

The story is quite readable through about the first half of the novel. Seth and Carter are twentysomethings with an interest in ...more

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Oct 13, 2017 Rachael rated it it was amazing

Baffled as to why this was not on the Man Booker list.

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Nov 20, 2017 Mandy rated it really liked it

Shelves: bookdiscussion, audiobooks, tob2018

Still processing this book and looking forward to discussing it. It is definitely worth listening to, as the songs featured in it are sung and I personally don't know if I would have sustained the story had I actually read it rather than listened to it. ...more

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Dec 31, 2020 Leslie rated it it was amazing

This book has left me feeling like I have a hole in my stomach. What started as a slow read, and feeling like it was eh, continually built up and leaving me feeling spent.

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Aug 08, 2018 Lauren rated it really liked it

This is really not what you think it is. A crazy, antic, ghostly revenge story that has as much in common with Henry James as it does 21st century white appropriation of the blues and the connection between contemporary incarceration and Jim Crow laws. It was wild and funny and horrifying and even if it doesn't quite all come together in the end, I personally prefer a messy attempt than the tidy same old, same old.

Knowing my fair share of discographers and record collectors made this a shade f ...more

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