Book Review

Don’t Judge a Man by His Color

Back in the 60’s, our nation went through the civil rights movement. Whites have been the dominant race in the U.S. forever. Laws like the Jim Crow Laws segregated blacks, and, unfortunately, blacks are still segregated in certain ways. The relations between blacks and whites are explored dramatically in the cleverly written realistic fiction novel Black and White by Paul Volponi explores a town in New York. In this town whites rarely talk to blacks. Action right from the get-go brings the reader into the novel, and two lifelong friends that have been friends through their senior year in high school have a year that goes completely differently than expected. Volponi brings one overwhelming conflict into this story, and he develops smaller conflicts that affect the story as well. With a stellar opening, great twists, and interesting suspense, Volponi writes a tremendous novel.

The first 30 pages or so really bring the reader into the book. Volponi does a great job of intriguing the reader from the beginning, “I admit it. I’ve been scared shitless lots of times. But I was never as shook as when the gun in Eddie’s hand went off.”

That is how this book begins. Marcus and Eddie are in action from the opening page, and there's no slowing down for the rest of the novel. As you read two or three chapters, the reader finds out that Volponi switches the view point. Chapters switch off being titled “Black” or “White.” If it is called Black then it is from Marcus’ view, and obviously if it is called White, it is from Eddie’s view. The reader definitely knows what is going on in both of these character’s minds throughout the novel, allowing the reader to have complete insight from Marcus' and Eddie's view points that none of the other characters have. This allows readers to make bold predictions about later occurrences in the novel due to inside information that only Marcus/Eddie and the reader know. Some decisions made will surprise you, as Volponi throws in several twists in the novel.

Marcus and Eddie have been best friends for life. Marcus, a black kid, and Eddie, a white kid, are a rare combination of oppositely raced friends for where they live. Marcus is a gentle, nice young man who is also dominant at sports. He tends to stay away from the rough, bad-mouthed black kids at school. Eddie is also very athletic, but he is a little more rough; however, he has a good side to him as well. Through their sports domination, especially in basketball, they gain the nickname “Black and White.” Throughout their lives, whether on the football field, basketball court, at school, or out and about, Marcus and Eddie have had each other’s backs.

Living in New York, Marcus and Eddie, of course, dominate the high school basketball league. They play together all of the time, but they do other stuff together too; unfortunately, one thing they do is terrible. Volponi’s intense start brings the reader right into the action of their lives. Marcus and Eddie go through town at night and do stick ups. Eddie brings out a gun that he once found in his attic. Using the gun to get money and other commodities, they never have fired the gun, never. That night, they make a terrible mistake... After this horrendous mistake, Volponi reveals the true character of each kid by showing how they act under intense heat and pressure, and he executes it well.

Volponi uses minuscule hints, followed by huge outcomes in the novel to exemplify who is the true friend out of Marcus and Eddie. The middle of the novel is written more slowly and Volponi goes into a little bit more detail, but there is enough action to keep the reader into the book. At no point does Black and White become boring or a waste of time. Slight twists make this novel as interesting as it starts; for example, Rose, Eddie’s sister, loves Marcus. Due to this fact, she keeps talking to him even though the families start to become separated. Rose's character is invisible until the end of the novel when her love for Marcus is revealed. Rose and Marcus have to see each other, keeping the two families connected, and Rose even goes against Eddie.

Another thing Volponi does is slowly bring other characters into this novel. There are many characters that are not mentioned too much, but they are big deals. Certain students, police officers, siblings, even parents, and some teammates play key roles in certain situations, which can be interesting; for example, there is a wild riot on senior night for the boys. From Eddies point of view, “Eddie and his parents were standing in the spot-light out at center court. I knew that Rose was taking pictures from the first row. But I didn’t see her anywhere. The lights finally got turned up, but that didn’t stop anything. Connelly had wrestled some kid out of the pack, and was beating the shit out of him. Jefferson had to hook Connelly around the throat and slam him to the floor to get him to stop.”

Marcus, an athletically gifted African-American, he really is nice deep-down inside; whereas, Eddie turns out to be the extremely selfish one. Despite a huge advantage for Eddie in this town, being white, Marcus is the better friend and person.

With the great start and a good middle of the novel, Volponi ends it very well; additionally, some interesting suspense is key in this novel. Just the fact that every page, somebody else could be in prison or killed, it is a great book. Nobody in this book is actually killed, surprisingly, as Volponi makes it so somebody could be killed as there are several fights and riots.

Volponi starts this book off with rapid action, then puts in some details and characterization, and he sums it up with a great ending. A novel like Black and White can be put into real life. It is not a true story, but it most definitely could be a true story. This is a great book that I would recommend mostly to teenagers and young adults, especially sports fans and fans of basketball. There is a lot of language in this book, and immature people definitely do not need to be reading this novel. There is a lot of realistic dialogue that teenagers, especially athletes, hear daily. There are several uses of the "N word," which is an interesting word. Volponi realistically executes its usage: for the most part, black people are fine if black people call them "N word," but if a white person calls them the "N word," it gets ugly, and this realistic dialogue appeals to teenagers and young adults because we all hear the language used in this novel. I feel like Black and White can truly be put into real life. Basketball really determines the outcome of this book, but Black and White shows that stars on the court may definitely not be stars in life, and a good person will put friendship priorities over sports.

REVISION:

After looking through all my pieces to revise, this was by far the one I wanted to revise. I felt like I did a good job with this piece and could do an even better job. I read Ms. Marchetti's comments again for what I could've done better, and I incorporated them. I also enhanced some silly grammar mistakes and improved my wording. This paper is clearer and discusses straightforwardly what I feel about this novel. In my original book review, I got a little off topic and said some stupid stuff. I talk about what this novel is about, my opinion, and the theme of the novel.