Painting Black Cardboard Figures
EVANIER, DAVID
language at every turn, but he makes it the servant of the fashions of a political movement. When the movement assumes new directions (one assumes that the trend toward nihilism and...
...He brilliantly describes a scene in the Folsom prison yard when the news came of Watts: "Then one low rider [ghetto youth], stepping into the center of the circle formed by the others, rared back on his legs and swaggered...
...he too is a Brownsville GP of stubborn integrity and constant anger...
...Albert resents the destructive rages that cause his father to lose patients, his father's preoccupation with his garden, his jokes, his high voice, his unqualified hatreds, his gifts...
...He is, simply, a coward...
...His people are millions of black cardboard figures getting into revolutionary formation...
...One is almost tricked into imagining that it has the same set of characters...
...it is an example of the kind of writer he could be, as is his comment on the incident: "It was a cleansing, revolutionary laugh we all shared, something we have not often had occasion for...
...His people are millions of black cardboard figures getting into revolutionary formation...
...Just as batding is his father's way of life, so Albert's is not battling...
...Yet by forcing all his experiences into a social mold, he too often excludes complexity, ambiguity, the variety of human beings...
...Green sets up his subject early in the book by having Albert write in a copybook, under the heading "Things to Work At": "Defy Mom on roller skates...
...Some of his ambivalent feelings are resolved at the end of the book, when Dr...
...Not even Cleaver himself...
...Sensing a creative movement in the offing, we all got very quiet, very still, and others passing by joined the circle and did likewise...
...high-siding and low-riding...
...Later he seems ready to collapse, talks of suicide...
...He takes one look at me...
...5.95...
...Again like his predecessor, Abrams at one time wanted to be a surgeon...
...Albert has always accepted his mother's prohibitions...
...You win...
...drinking wine and committing crime, shooting and looting...
...The book gave us the whole man, and in turn the force of Dr...
...All right, 1 surrender...
...But there is some question as to whether Dr...
...When he seizes the fifth and beats his ancient rival Bimbo, earning for himself the title "lousy dirty fighter," he has taken the first step toward manhood, the first step out of his mother's world (where everything is accepted) into his father's (where everything is fought...
...Up to this point, the reader has assumed that Drs...
...Not fair, not fair...
...Each of them has a quiet, uncomplicated wife full of cautions about galoshes and sweaters...
...one look at my skinny build and my four-eyed face and he is happy with everything, he forgets all his troubles, he isn't mad, he isn't yelling...
...He cannot bring himself to fight...
...The story spanned Abelman's life, from Brovo, Rumania, through the Lower East Side, Brownsville, Bellevue, marriage, children, practice, death...
...Green's new novel, To Brooklyn with Love, bears some remarkable resemblances to The Last Angry Man...
...and each of them has one child who for him is the center of the universe...
...and in the most touching scene in the book, Albert sneaks a look into his father's account ledger and sees just how little money there is...
...making Parker mad and making me glad...
...turning over cars and burning down bars...
...Abrams and Abellanguage at every turn, but he makes it the servant of the fashions of a political movement...
...Needless to say, his mother catches him...
...he cries...
...Beside him, having won his first fight, Albert can finally look the world in the eye...
...setting fires and slashing tires...
...Contributor, "Commonweal" Gerald Green once wrote a very good novel, The Last Angry Man, a big, sprawling book that attempted, and achieved, quite a lot...
...He did not cross the street, for fear he'd be hit by a car, until he was 11...
...It had to do with a doctor in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, a GP named Samuel Abelman who believed in work, honesty and justice as a way of life, and who was in a continual state of anger at the entire fraudulent world...
...The fire renews his strength, yet one wonders if the lapse will be repeated...
...It's not that Albert doesn't hate, or that he doesn't have enemies, or that he doesn't know when fighting is called for...
...Reviewed by JUDITH SKLAR Assistant Editor, Harper & Row...
...Not one distinguishable human being, not one unique personality, appears in these pages...
...setting fires and slashing tires...
...dropping Reds [barbiturates] and busting heads...
...Sensing a creative movement in the offing, we all got very quiet, very still, and others passing by joined the circle and did likewise...
...He loves him, and wants to be proud of him, but it is hard—the kids taunt him...
...He brilliantly describes a scene in the Folsom prison yard when the news came of Watts: "Then one low rider [ghetto youth], stepping into the center of the circle formed by the others, rared back on his legs and swaggered...
...Not one distinguishable human being, not one unique personality, appears in these pages...
...putting an end to that go slow crap and putting sweet Watts on the map—my black ass is in Folsom this morning but my black heart is in Watts!' " This passage is frightening, and so is the inherent violence in every sentence Cleaver writes...
...Depression Summer in Brownsville TO BROOKLYN WITH LOVE By Gerald Green Trident...
...This time the doctor is Solomon Abrams...
...He too has a crisis in the course of the day: He cannot find the hospital where he has worked for years...
...Abrams rushes to a fire and deals efficiently with police captains, firemen, and death...
...Today, after lunch, under the humiliating tutelage of a 12-year-old girl cousin, he skates in the gutter...
...high-siding and low-riding...
...Help Pop...
...He is low man on the totem pole in his gang, the Raiders...
...You always do...
...making Parker mad and making me glad...
...Like his predecessor, Dr...
...But it also has rhythm, music, a sense of language...
...During this one day in July, Albert has at least five legitimate opportunities to fight...
...Yer old man pulls out babies...
...When the movement assumes new directions (one assumes that the trend toward nihilism and self-destruction ultimately will change), hopefully Qeaver will find that his stylish Leftism was a small achievement measured against the talent he could develop if he tries...
...Instead he talks, or he fantasizes, carrying on long monologues in his head (a la Walter Mitty) as Professor Albert Abrams, PhD in American Civilization (chronicler of street games), Manager Abrams (of the league-leading Panthers), the Reverend Abrams, DD (reading the obituaries in the New York Times...
...Besides, you know I have weak eyes...
...Yet by forcing all his experiences into a social mold, he too often excludes complexity, ambiguity, the variety of human beings...
...But it also has rhythm, music, a sense of language...
...Albert thought miserably...
...I cannot accept all that love, if he is going to be angry at everything else...
...he would help his father, but how can he bring in more patients...
...neither doctor made it...
...Now his mother will not let him roller skate in the gutter...
...When the movement assumes new directions (one assumes that the trend toward nihilism and self-destruction ultimately will change), hopefully Qeaver will find that his stylish Leftism was a small achievement measured against the talent he could develop if he tries...
...Abrams' son, Albert, age 12, the kid with the highest IQ ever recorded at PS 133, is also at the center of To Brooklyn with Love...
...The action of the novel takes place during one long hot day in July 1934, one day in the Depression childhood of Albert Abrams...
...drinking wine and committing crime, shooting and looting...
...it is an example of the kind of writer he could be, as is his comment on the incident: "It was a cleansing, revolutionary laugh we all shared, something we have not often had occasion for...
...He is the kid who "gotta bring the ball, so he could get a game...
...Abelman's character sustained the book...
...Baby,' he said, 'they walking in fours and kicking in doors...
...turning over cars and burning down bars...
...putting an end to that go slow crap and putting sweet Watts on the map—my black ass is in Folsom this morning but my black heart is in Watts!' " This passage is frightening, and so is the inherent violence in every sentence Cleaver writes...
...And he is somehow suffocated by his father's love—it is too abundant, too unconditional...
...It's nothing to fight over...
...dropping Reds [barbiturates] and busting heads...
...He would emulate his father, but he hasn't his father's muscles...
...Albert is skinny, wears glasses, and has weak ankles...
...And he's got 10 pounds on me...
...Abrams himself can...
...Abrams has a dark, Indian face, wears a shirt that was never meant to hold a tie, used to teach gymnastics, reads Thoreau, and plants dahlias...
...Not even Cleaver himself...
...305 pp...
...Baby,' he said, 'they walking in fours and kicking in doors...
...success and failures, strengths and weaknesses...
...He has therefore never learned to use his ball bearings, a gift from his father...
...it's that when it comes right down to it: "Who wants to fight...
Vol. 51 • March 1968 • No. 7
