Editorial Reviews for Nominees
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Editorial Reviews for Nominees
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Score: 92/100 (9.2 out of 10)
Brave in Season by Jon Volkmer is a thoughtful and ambitious historical-fiction and sports novel by Jon Volkmer. The book centers around the historical small Midwest town of Julian, Nebraska in the 1950s, a town that (at the time) had a population of only about 170 people, practically all white and mostly Catholic. This small, homogeneous, and somewhat bigoted town is shaken up when the Gandy Dancers/Gandy railroad crew, a group of 14 people of color, arrive. They are en route to laying down and repairing rail-lines as part of a mass rail project, claiming to be representing the Gandy Manufacturing Company of Chicago. Their presence doesn't go unnoticed by the population. However, it's not as clear cut or black & white as you might expect. The race-relations of Julian and the state of Nebraska are incredibly complex, owing to a rich, nuanced, and sometimes troubling history. See, Julian was a major stop along the underground railroad through which black slaves were given shelter and guided to freedom. In fact, poetically, the literal railroad lines described in this book follow the old path of the underground railroad. However, Nebraska is also a state with a terrifying history of racism, bigotry, and lynching. Omaha, for example, was the location of the 1919 Omaha Race Riots and the brutal lynching of a black man named Will Brown, accused (possibly wrongfully) of sexually assaulting a white woman. Thousands of people participated or were observers of the lynching, which law enforcement and the court refused to intervene in. With that tense background, we find ourselves in this little Nebraskan town as its white population encounters the crew of black railroad workers. It's a great premise! There are several notable characters in this book. The one who stood out to us the most was Sam Washington, the young, bookish Gandy who catches the eye of the book's lead heroine, Carlin, a 17-year-old woman who finds Sam and his colored railroad crew to be a breath of fresh air to her otherwise mundane life. Their relationship, which crosses borders and racial lines, is arguably the most beautiful and inspiring part of this book. There's also Jerome Wallace, the oldest of the Gandys, who develops and demonstrates a relationship of mutual respect and appreciation with other townsfolk like Dave, a store owner. Jerome, it turns out, was forced to leave Omaha, the site of the Brown lynching, after getting into a fight with a white man. He became a Gandy Dancer out of necessity as it allowed him to provide for his family. Also, because of his love for fast-pitching baseball, he helps to drive the plot forward toward its eventual climax. While much of this book concerns crossing race-relations (fitting with the theme of railroads and railroad crossings), it is ultimately leading to a nigh-mythical multi-racial baseball game between the Gandy Dancers and the Julian town team led by Jack, who claims the Julian baseball team is the best in the whole state of Nebraska. For most of the book, the Julian team is anticipating a climactic showdown with their state rivals from Lincoln Thomas Ford, whom they hope to play on the Fourth of July. However, like with a lot of things in life and history, things don't go according to plan. The Julian team is then faced with the prospect of an exhibition game with the Gandy Dancers to fill the void, something which garners a range of opinions that's as diverse as its participants. For one, the teams struggle to find an umpire to officiate the game. There are also a number of antagonists in the book who range from ignorant to outright malicious. This is a story in which being dragged behind a car and potentially lynched are real possibilities, especially since any accusation (no matter true or false) could lead to a powder keg being lit. This book is powerful and beautiful in its own way. It's also clear that the author put a lot of thought and effort into this. There was clearly a lot of research done including interviews with townsfolk. See, Volkmer actually grew up in Julian, Nebraska and had heard about this nigh-mythical baseball game. He returned just to do the research to finish this book. That's incredibly admirable! Now, this book does have some weaknesses. The thing that stood out to us the most was how unfocused and meandering it felt. What do we mean by that? Well, this book is about a lot of things. It seems like the author has one foot in the pool and one foot outside of it. They never go all-in with anything. So much of the time we felt like the author was trying to do/accomplish too much. It almost felt like it was crammed in there. When you try to do everything, you ultimately risk doing everything at sub-50%. Case in point: baseball. This is supposed to be a baseball book, right? Well, it never quite feels like it. Even during the game, the players are concerned with other things. The narration often goes sidebar or off the rails. There were major disruptions in the pacing because the characters constantly stop to have conversations, many of which discuss things that happened decades ago (or in the previous century). It almost seemed like the author had 100+ pages of notes and decided to use all of it rather than cutting the fat. Now, if you're a history lover, you might actually love this. But, again, it disrupts the pacing and the flow. We kept wondering when the author was going to get to the point or when things were actually going to start happening. This book features about a dozen characters, some of whom have a come-and-go or passing influence on the story. For example, did you know that Carlin's little brother, Tim, was actually going to be a somewhat major part of this? Because if you blinked, you missed it. However, the thing that really drags in this book, unfortunately, is how deep in the weeds the author gets in the world-building. Yes, it's cool and admirable to an extent, but it becomes self-indulgent and excessive after a while. The main example of this is all the talk about the Korean War, the somewhat mysterious war that's going on in the background. Characters constantly sound confused about what's actually going on with the war, and they just bring it up in the spur of the moment. How many times does the reader have to be reminded that there's a war going on in Korea? That has such a miniscule impact on what's actually going on in the story. It's not advancing anything to keep talking about it. Again, it's like window dressing. It seems like fluff or filler. There's one particularly annoying instance in which the characters are in the middle of the game—the thing we've all been waiting patiently for and anticipating—and they start thinking and talking about the Korean War! Like, if the characters aren't going to focus on or care about what's going on in front of them, why should we? We understand that when you're in the dugout, small talk happens, but... we don't need to know that stuff. We're more concerned about what's happening between the diamond. Ok, well, we digress. This is a really worthwhile book that just has some pacing, focus, and TMI (too much information) issues. There's some great poetry in all of it: the rail-lines that the workers are laying down/repairing are analogous to the connections they're making with the white townsfolk. They're also on the same path as the underground railroad, accomplishing some of the same goals. This book also shows the power that familiar things, like games and sports, can have in bringing people together. Check it out on Amazon!
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