Parallel Time: Growing Up in Black and White
A memoir that reflects on the cost of growing up and the making of the self through Black family history and movement into white society. It quietly explores the tension between responsibility to family and personal ambition.
Work Information
Moving away from family can also mean moving toward the self.
Moving between childhood memory and adult perspective, the memoir layers life in a Black family with the process of entering a white-dominated world. Affection for family, ambition, and alienation are gathered into a single restrained narrative.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Harper Perennial
- Published
- 2000-05-01
- Pages
- 288 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 13.49 x 1.65 x 20.32 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780380724758
- ISBN-10
- 0380724758
- Price
- 17833 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Politics & Social Sciences/Sociology/Race Relations/Discrimination & Racism
In this evocative memoir, Brent Staples poses some compelling questions: Where does the family end the self begin? What do we owe our families and what do we owe ourselves? What part of the past is a gift and what part a shackle? As the oldest son among nine children, Brent grew up in a small industrial town near Philadelphia. Scholarship opportunities pulled him out of the black world where he had grown up into a world largely defined by whites. Meanwhile, as the industries that supported his hometown failed, and drug dealing rushed in to fill the economic void, news of arrests and premature deaths among Brent's childhood friends underscored his precarious perch in a mostly white environment. The death of his younger brother -- a cocaine dealer murdered by one of his "clients" -- propelled Brent into a reconsideration of his childhood that offers vivid portraits of family values that supported, pressures that tore apart, and the appeal and pain of living as an adult in a world that was literally and figuratively miles away from the one he knew as a child.
Brent Staples received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Chicago. Currently a member of the editorial board of the New York Times, he has been an assistant metropolitan editor of the Times, an editor of the New York Times Book Review, and a reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times.
Reviews
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Great read
A very honest, well written book. The fact that I grew up in (Chester, Pa.) during the same time period as the author and am very familiar with the places and many of the people he is writing about no doubt heightened my interest and appreciation for this book. I read it when first released and am currently reading it again and enjoying it even more. Kudos to Mr. Staples.
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Five Stars
The book was in the condition as stated and was a very interesting book to read
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Sin City on the Delaware
I read Parallel Time because of the Chester, PA background. I was interested in the black-point-of-view. Having come from Chester roughly around the same time, I was curious about Brent's experiences. He lived there during the latter years of decline -- `60s and `70s. Founded by William Penn, Chester's reign of white lasted for centuries. With Ukrainians, Italians, Polish, Germans, Irish, and Jews driving the machine, Chester flourished against a backdrop of manufacturing and heavy industry. After the Second World War; What Chester Makes Makes Chester gave way to social emigration, crooked politics, and economic shifts to a city predominantly populated by blacks, gangs, and drugs. Brent's life is the flip side of what many white Chesterites refer to as their "golden memories" like: Christmas time at Stotters, parades down Edgemont Avenue, hot dogs from John's Doggie Shop, hoagies from La Spada's, the Great Leopard Skating Rink, lunch at Whelan's, Brandywine Ice Cream, Rez, Chester High, St. James dances, Riverview Beach... Brent's memories consist of friend's who've died of drugs, beatings, poverty, a dysfunctional family, constant fear, fair weather friends, a city morphing into a toxic wasteland, and the faint promise of a future through a collegiate educational system slowly enrolling blacks into their hallowed white halls. The most interesting parts of his book were indeed Chester -- observations, memories, and characters. I also enjoyed his college experiences in Widener College and Swarthmore College during the latter part of the `60s -- the turbulent uprisings. When Brent left for Chicago to pursue his PHD the story seemed to drag. I found myself getting a bit board. His encounter with the pursuit of Saul Bellow was anti-climatic. I noticed anytime he went back to Chester his story seemed to have more timbre and depth. If you're interested about the black experience in Chester, PA during the waning years of a city enmeshed in history, ethnicity, sociological and economic transition, Brent Staple's has captured the spirit and flavor of the time. There is a lot of relevance here. His story reminds us there are two sides to a coin.