[OO7]⋙ Download Free Ginny Gall A Novel Charlie Smith 9780062250551 Books

Ginny Gall A Novel Charlie Smith 9780062250551 Books

Download As PDF : Ginny Gall A Novel Charlie Smith 9780062250551 Books

Ginny Gall A Novel Charlie Smith 9780062250551 Books

Check out the full review at Kritters Ramblings

Delvin Walker is our main character and he starts the book as a very young man, maybe even child abandoned by his mother as she has killed a man and as a black woman will face the harshest of punishments for her crime. Devlin and his siblings are taken to an orphanage of sorts and from there Delvin's life is a whirlwind.

To describe this book in one word, which I rarely do, I immediately thought of adventure. If you are a reader who loves books that are just one big grand adventure, then pick this book up. From here to there to everywhere, Delvin lives everywhere and does almost everything.


Tags : Ginny Gall: A Novel [Charlie Smith] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. A sweeping, eerily resonant epic of race and violence in the Jim Crow South: a lyrical and emotionally devastating masterpiece from Charlie Smith,Charlie Smith,Ginny Gall: A Novel,Harper,0062250558,Historical,African Americans,African Americans;Fiction.,False imprisonment,False imprisonment;Fiction.,Historical fiction,Race relations,Race relations;Fiction.,Southern States,AMERICAN HISTORICAL FICTION,FICTION Historical General,FICTION Literary,Fiction,Fiction - General,Fiction-Coming of Age,Fiction-Literary,GENERAL,General Adult,Literary,Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945),United States

Ginny Gall A Novel Charlie Smith 9780062250551 Books Reviews

Ginny Gall is slang for “a suburb of Hell,” which certainly applied to black people in the Jim Crow South, where you could be lynched just for being black. Delvin Walker, the main protagonist, suffered for the crime of having dark skin. He was born in the Red Row (black--we'd call it the projects now) district of Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1913, to a scrappy and fiery mother, whose crime he was also paying for. Charlie Smith’s novel is more of a portrait of a time, and of a people that Delvin symbolized, castigated for breathing the same air as white people.

The author’s unsentimental, frank narrative portrays the black man’s burden, yes, how inhumanity is the accepted “etiquette” of the era, but also how humanity is found in some of the most unlikely places. Moreover, the author made the story specific to Delvin, the most evolved character in the story, a boy who grew to be a man, even though he was treated, by society, like an animal. It is by turns tragic, confounding, tender, rough, sharp, tangy, mournful, and uplifting. Hope, in Ginny Gall, can also be a suburb of Hell.

This wasn’t just about social injustice, though. Delvin, (like other black people of the time), carved out a niche for himself, or tried to. His first benefactor, Mr. Oliver, was the well-off mortician/undertaker for the black side of town. Delvin was taken under his wing after a long stint at an orphanage. He learned the business, became part of a lively family, and also experienced life with the dead. The avuncular Oliver encouraged Delvin’s self-education, and they both enjoyed reading Shakespeare and other classics together. Delvin fell in love with the written word, and aspired to be a writer.

Throughout his life, Delvin found himself having to run; some ghost or shadow of one was always chasing him (and there’s an albino named Ghost, which was symbolic). Jumping on trains was a bit of an art, but it was also the only means of transportation for many of his peers. During his travels, Delvin finds first love, odd friendships, and a lot to write about. He hooks up with a learned man with a museum on wheels—essentially, a library of the black experience, and photographs of inspired or expired individuals that the “professor” felt should be learned about and remembered.

My biggest complaint—and I love a certain amount of wordiness at times—is the sheer verbosity of every scene, all the details that make up a setting. You know how certain movies provide a work of art in every frame? It works for a movie, because it presents a visual tableau for the eyes. However, in a novel, it can get bogged down; Smith never failed to enumerate every detail—whether it was every smell that was elicited, every article surrounding the setting, or the minutia of every nook and cranny. The pacing was sluggish, plodding on and absorbed by the physical features. I admit to getting weary at times, wanting to move on. This book would make a fantastic movie, as everything is laid out to see. But, in a novel, I’d like to do a little of the fill-in for myself.

At other times, the author’s narrative would just break my heart. “…he carried with him for days the recall of a faint sadness…He returned to study and wonder about it, the singular occasion of reprimand and the sorrow it uncovered and the moment of silence it revealed and how this silence or space with nothing in it seemed so important.”

“The world was receding from him, leaving a space that nothing had quite filled in. Life in the end thievery’s fool.”
Too wordy
Story was too long, the same theme over and over. I am African American and it just did not seem realistic. I know its fiction but this was a bit much. I would mot recommend it .
If you have time for only one great book this year, make it this one! A harrowing and heartbreaking story of Jim Crow terror, this is also a story of resilience, of searching for one's place in this world, a story of commitment to truth deeper than the creators of Jim Crow would allow themselves to fathom. It is even a story about the vital importance of storytelling. It is a hero's journey. Go along, follow Delvin Walker--the word-loving precocious five-year-old, turning into the quick-minded teenager, growing into the toughened and tender man--and you will encounter a world of characters so fully imagined, they may well delight you for the rest of your life.
Excellent descriptions and a fascinating story!
A challenging read about a terrible era in U.S. history, but beautiful language and imagery from a compelling central character.
Smith twists his words into magical phrases that I had to go back and read his long sentences again. Book one was an easy read, full of colorful characters and optimism. I got bogged down in Book 3, which is darker and tragic. Overall, I feel more compassionate and empathic toward African-Americans now having read Ginny Gall.
Check out the full review at Kritters Ramblings

Delvin Walker is our main character and he starts the book as a very young man, maybe even child abandoned by his mother as she has killed a man and as a black woman will face the harshest of punishments for her crime. Devlin and his siblings are taken to an orphanage of sorts and from there Delvin's life is a whirlwind.

To describe this book in one word, which I rarely do, I immediately thought of adventure. If you are a reader who loves books that are just one big grand adventure, then pick this book up. From here to there to everywhere, Delvin lives everywhere and does almost everything.