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- Truth is in the House Reviewed by Norm Goldman of Bookpleasures.com
Truth is in the House Reviewed by Norm Goldman of Bookpleasures.com
- By Norm Goldman
- Published May 4, 2021
- GENERAL FICTION REVIEWS
Norm Goldman
Reviewer & Author Interviewer, Norm Goldman. Norm is the Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com.
He has been reviewing books for the past twenty years after retiring from the legal profession.
To read more about Norm Follow Here
Publisher: kőehlerbooks
ISBN: 978-1-64663-348-7
Michael J. Coffinos's Truth is in the House spins a tale focusing on the lives of two households, one black, the Jacksons, formerly from Dublin, Mississippi, and the other, white, the O'Farrells from New York. The setting begins in the late 1950s, continues during the 1960s and essentially takes place in the Highbridge section of the Bronx, where the author grew up.
Jeremiah
Jackson and his wife Tyra have two sons, Jaylen and Jamani, and
Mathew and his wife Bettina O'Farrell have one son, Jimmy.
Shortly after
Jeremiah Jackson is promoted to floor manager in his employment, he
disappears, never to be found. This pushes his wife Tyra Jackson to
pick up her roots from Mississippi and migrate to the Bronx with her
two sons, believing that she and her family will elude the mine-laden
fields of Jim Crow terrain.
When we first encounter the O'Farrells, they are living in East Harlem. They move to
Washington Heights; eventually settling in Highbridge, a section of
the Bronx.
Most of the saga
is focused on Jimmy O'Farrell and Jaylen Jackson. Their intertwining
stories begin on a basketball court in the Bronx. It will extend for
several years, including the battlefield of the Vietnam war. Their
experiences illuminate each other, moving in and out, merging with
somewhat similar themes recurring.
Throughout the narrative, both Jimmy and Jaylen struggle to transcend the traumas and demons of their personal struggles, including pervasive racism, savage assaults by racially defined gangs, and their painful experiences while serving in the Vietnam war.
Early in the
narrative, we read about one of Jimmy's devastating experiences where
he and his buddy Jack are attacked by a group of hooligans in
Highbridge Park with numerous weapons. Fortunately, Jimmy survives
but does not escape without sustaining a concussion, a painfully
injured arm, some fractured ribs, and a severe laceration in his
back. Jack, sadly, is not as lucky and is slain at the scene of the
attack. Jack's death will haunt Jimmy for the rest of his life, for
taking off and leaving his friend to die without coming to his aid.
Some of Jaylen's
haunting adventures that we learn about include his father's
disappearance, humiliating mistreatment at a general store in
Mississippi, his brother Jamani stumbling into their home following a
brazen baseball bat assault, watching his mother being rescued by his
cousin outside a restaurant in Raleigh on their way to New York, a
clash at a bar where two young people were shot and murdered, and his
brother's drug dealing.
Coffino masterly portrays Jimmy and Jaylen's thinking, exposing different takes on the same events. He skillfully laces the past with haunting clarity and unflinching honesty that resonates with truth, not merely of the experiences of the youthful protagonists but of the broader, more significant facts about present day American society. The prose is clean, direct, mature, and Coffino uses rhetorical devices to vivid effect. He also has a way of creating moments that generate conflicting and unpredictable emotions as he imparts a distinctive voice to each of the protagonists leading readers to a more profound interpretation of the social and political mood in the U.S.A during that era.
Follow Here To Read Norm's Interview With Michael J. Coffino