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.