A review by margaret_j_c
Scottsboro by Ellen Feldman
"8 BLACK BOYS IN A SOUTHERN JAIL
WORLD, TURN PALE!"
-Langston Hughes
This novel is a fictionalized look at one of the most horrific triumphs of injustice in the 20th century. Feldman clearly did her research. In Scottsboro she paints a vivid portrait of Alabama in the Thirties, warm, hospitable - and deeply sinister. The book is fascinating and sickening. With a careful hand and brilliant prose, Feldman brings something fresh to a well-documented event. Her fictional characters are multi-dimensional and genuine, and the real people from the past who appear in the narrative are written in such a way that doesn't feel derivative or romanticized.
This is how historical fiction should be done. Books like these are why the genre is so crucial to literature. Through the power of story and the importance of hindsight, Scottsboro is at once both a cautionary tale and a celebration of how far we've come.
WORLD, TURN PALE!"
-Langston Hughes
This novel is a fictionalized look at one of the most horrific triumphs of injustice in the 20th century. Feldman clearly did her research. In Scottsboro she paints a vivid portrait of Alabama in the Thirties, warm, hospitable - and deeply sinister. The book is fascinating and sickening. With a careful hand and brilliant prose, Feldman brings something fresh to a well-documented event. Her fictional characters are multi-dimensional and genuine, and the real people from the past who appear in the narrative are written in such a way that doesn't feel derivative or romanticized.
This is how historical fiction should be done. Books like these are why the genre is so crucial to literature. Through the power of story and the importance of hindsight, Scottsboro is at once both a cautionary tale and a celebration of how far we've come.