Bombingham

After reading this book, I have a better understanding of the events leading to the Civil Rights Movement and the plight of being a black man raised in the South during this time period. It was very thought-provoking, and, thus, needs to be read.

I thought the author did a good job of making you feel like you were right here during the action.

Just read this for book club and was amazed we had missed this wonderful book. It is a must read.

Great condition

This is a terrific book. Anthony Greens has a way of dropping the reader into the action and into the hearts and minds of his child protagonists so that you really do feel yourself there, where it's all happening. I read it years ago, and it was one of those books I knew that I would not forget. I shared it with a friend, and as happens with shared books that was the last I saw of it. But with all that's happened over the last weeks, months and years in our national politics, I have decided to set up a reading group and have chosen this book to start the group going. Its story is historical but the telling is as timely as ever. And worth every one of the five stars.

Review_Bombingham_AnthonyGrooms. 304 pages. Five stars. Grooms takes a political situation, the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham in the sixties, and infuses it with a wrenching coming-of-age story expanding well beyond the Movement in Birmingham to include Vietnam, cancer, religion’s role in fatalism, loss, hatred and love, fear, and responsibility. The novel opens with and is told from a floating present in Vietnam where Walter is serving combat duty. He has witnessed the combat death of a close friend and is trying to fulfill a mutual promise to write a letter to the family back in the States. Even there, in combat, the Civil Rights Movement and racial tension remain ever-present, ever threatening as Walter mentions Birmingham scratches it out, then re-mentions it. The bulk of the novel, however, moves back to concern “Waltie” as a child growing up in horrific circumstances much like Vietnam with the KKK and its intermittent bombing of a Black neighborhood, “Dynamite Hill.” There, the KKK and Bull Connor’s police and their German shepherds snake forward like copperheads to strike and then vanish into the background. In young Waltie’s foreground lies his mother dying of brain cancer and refusing medical treatment, trusting to God instead—to the dismay and anger of her entire family. His father, chased away by his wife, is living in a hotel and drinking entirely too much. His extended family move in to help with Waltie and his younger sister, Josie. Lastly Lamar, a close friend of Walter, has a grandmother who falls for a visiting preacher from the Movement. For this immediate reason, Lamar pulls Walter and Josie into the dangerous children’s marches and protests in Birmingham. More and more, these protests move into the novel’s foreground, with, alas, devastating effect. A superb, gut-wrenching and informative read.

"Bombingham" is splendidly written and heart breaking all in the same breath. With so much of this time in American History becoming nothing more than one minute sound bites, it's easy to forget just how brutal, trying and harsh the Civil Rights struggle was. Anthony Grooms novel brings it back into focus, with an authenticity that made me ache.The story of Walter opens in the rice paddies of Vietnam and you soon realize that he is in the middle of the second war of his life. The first was Tittusville, a small black community on the outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama. Through his eyes, we see how easy it is for a person's very foundation to be quickly wiped away. Through young Walter's eyes, we experience a strong marriage done in by things beyond anyone's control and the brutality and fragility of the struggle for civil rights, written with such clarity, it could be mistaken for an autobiography.It had become easy for me to forget what the Movement entailed, who it affected and how. It become easy for me to forget about the lynchings, southern 'justice' and bombings. I'd glossed over the fear and the staunch bravery it took to march, to protest--put your life on the line. "Bombingham" brought it back front and center, and for that, Mr. Grooms I thank you. This history should never be forgotten and this novel should be declared a 'classic.'Margaret Johnson-HodgeAuthor of "Red Light Green Light"

The difficult choices and decisions which have to be made by an individualfamily during the Civil Rights era in this book are explored in greater detailby Grooms in his book "Trouble No More". Many of the children in"Bombingham" couldn't resist defying their parents or school authoritiesdue to their clear view of right and wrong and the excitement and lureof the marches and demonstrations. Some children were thrust into therole and some felt they had to be part of it no matter what. Small, smallsteps forward.Grooms allows the reader to enjoy momentary victories amidst the heavinessand sadness of the book. In the midst of children being mowed down by stongwater from fire hoses: "In yet another place, a teenage boy demonstrated aversion of the twist. He jumped to the right or left to get out of harm'sway, taunting, twisting his hips, swinging her arms, and turning his tauntinto joyous rebellion."I felt there may have been too much time in the book spent on the maincharacter, Walt's, mother's illness. Sometimes the story lines of theevents in the city and in Viet Nam seemed peripheral to that story. Thestruggles going on in Walt's family could have been a book by itself, butthey did give a context for the wider struggles in the streets and Walt'sreactions in Viet Nam.

Amazing and breathtaking, as soon as I started reading this book, I couldn't put it down. Simply amazing!