About:
Welcome to Braggsville by T. Geronimo Johnson is a novel telling a story of a satirical coming of age story which the author uses as a platform for satire and social commentary. This is the first book I read by Mr. Johnson and I love his use of language.
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My Rating for Welcome to Braggsville — 3
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Thoughts:
Welcome to Braggsville by T. Geronimo Johnson is a funny and ambitious social commentary in which the author takes on the US class system, history, racism as well as southern and college culture. The story is also good and engaging and the language is brilliant.
Mr. Johnson manages to tackle tough issues with grace and humor using interesting characters and plot twists. This book would make an excellent choice for a book club, as there is much to discuss and address.
It took me about half the book to get used to the author’s language and writing style. I also felt that the excessive observations and points to be made slowed the plot and the storytelling. I also found it hard to follow the narrative, which switches from first person storytelling, to stream of consciousness writing and back again.
Welcome to Braggsville is an original, modern story, it is one of those books where I tremendously enjoyed parts, but also did not like other parts. When the author focuses on the main characters, it shines, but then starts to get cluttered up again. While the narrative was too burdensome for me to at times, I did find the satire sharp and the commentary on point, however I felt that somewhere in there, the story got lost.
Synopsis:
D’aron Davenport was born in the southern US and finds himself as a freshman in UC Berkley, another world for all practical matters. In a college party he meets three friends, Louis from California who wants to be a comedian, Candice, the obligatory college do-gooder and Charlie, and inner city teen from Chicago. The friends call themselves the “4 Little Indians”.
When D’aron mentions that his hometown has an annual Civil War reenactment, the group decides to stage a “performative intervention” to protest the event. The four, who think themselves important as all teenagers and young adults do proceed with righteous zeal not thinking about the consequences of their actions.
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Zohar — Man of la Book
Disclaimer: I got this book for free from TLC Book Tours.
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I felt the exact same way about the book. It introduces many thought-provoking topics. But I felt that I had to weed through all of the slang and unusual grammar to get to the plot. It had the potential to be a really great story, but the language got in its way.
I love it when an author's language can be described as brilliant - it's such a treat to read stories where the language just "works".
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