The Talk: From the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novelist

by Darrin Bell

***LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL***
***A GUARDIAN GRAPHIC NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2023***

Darrin Bell was six years old when his mother told him he couldn't have a realistic water gun. She said that police think little Black boys older and less innocent than they are. So began 'The Talk'...

'The Ta-Nehisi Coates of comics'
GARRY TRUDEAU, creator of Doonesbury

'Darrin Bell has produced another American classic'
GUARDIAN

Through evocative illustrations and sharp humour, Darrin Bell examines how The Talk all Black parents must have with their children shaped his intimate and public moments from childhood to adulthood. While coming of age in Los Angeles - and finding a voice through cartooning - Bell becomes painfully aware of being regarded as dangerous by white teachers, neighbours and police officers, and thus of his mortality. Drawing attention to the brutal murders of African Americans, and showcasing revealing insights and cartoons along the way, he brings us up to the moment of reckoning when people took to the streets protesting the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

And now Bell must decide whether he and his own six-year-old son are ready to have The Talk.

• ISBN10: 178733452X
• ISBN13: 9781787334526
• Publish Date: 8 June 2023
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Vintage Publishing
• Imprint: Jonathan Cape Ltd
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

The Talk is a moving and frank look at the reality of growing up black in the USA by Pulitzer Prize winner Darrin Bell. Released 6th June 2023 by Macmillan on their Henry Holt imprint, it's 352 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats. 

Dialogue is important, vital, to change and awareness. There is so much aggressively unresolved trauma surrounding race in the USA which people haven't been able to process. This is an expressive and often heartbreaking autobiographical graphic novel about the author's lived experience growing up in the 80s in Los Angeles. 

It's a plain-spoken monograph on generational trauma; from his mother's refusal to buy him a realistic gun-looking water pistol to his own adult need to have "The Talk" with his own son. It's profound and heartbreaking. 

The unabridged audiobook is due out from Macmillan Audio 27th Aug 2024 and has a run time of 3 hours 20 minutes and is read by an ensemble cast. It has an enhanced soundtrack with some music and sound effects. The voices narrating (including the author and his son, voicing themselves in the story) are untrained for voice work and very effective. It's unaffected, often raw, moving, and so sad (but ultimately strong and impressive in the sheer perseverance of existing and thriving in the face of naked racism).

Five stars. This is a superlatively illustrated and well written important book. It would make a great selection for public and school library acquisition, although it will likely be the subject of banning, challenge, and censure in some areas of the USA.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.