Saturday, January 28, 2012

Review: Our Man in the Dark





Our Man in the Dark by Rashad Harrison
Genre: historical noir
Pages: 302 ( Hardback)
Source: TLC BookTours

Description:
Feeling underappreciated and overlooked, John Estem, a bookkeeper for Dr. King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), steals ten thousand dollars from the organization. Originally planning to use the money to seed a new civil rights initiative in Chicago, he squanders the stolen funds.
To the bookkeeper’s dismay, the FBI has been keeping close tabs on Dr. King and his fellow activists—including Estem—for years. FBI agents tell Estem that it is his duty, as an American and as a civil rights supporter, to protect the SCLC from communist infiltration. The FBI offers Estem a stipend, but in case he has any thoughts about refusing the assignment, they also warn him that they know about the stolen money.

Playing informant empowers Estem, but he soon learns that his job is not simply to relay information on the organization. Once the FBI discovers evidence of King’s sexual infidelities, they set out to confirm the facts to undermine King’s credibility as a moral leader and bring down the movement. This timely novel comes in light of recent revelations that government informants had infiltrated numerous black movement organizations. With historical facts at the core of Our Man in the Dark, Harrison uses real life as a great inspiration for his drama-filled art.

My Rating:
My Review:
John Estem has led a life where he has been constantly ridiculed, teased, and disrespected.  As a bookkeeper for the SCLC, he hopes to gain respect and participate the movement.  Even here he is under-appreciated and ignored.  Hoping to gain some self-respect and win the affections of his long-time friend, Candy, John steals money from the SCLC which starts a series of events where John can't be sure how is friend or foe.  John finds himself working as an informant for the FBI and taking orders from a gangsta.  Soon he's in over his head and unable to find the respect he so needed.

After accepting this book for review, I became very intrigued with the noir style.  After doing a bit of research I discovered that noir fiction is a type of crime story with a cynical twist where almost all the characters in the story are troubled and there is no hero figure. Morality and inhibitions are not strong points and a doom-like theme dominates.  This story definitely fits the bill.  I liked how the entire plot was unpredictable and their were plenty of twists and turns.  After a while, I stopped trying to guess what would happen next.  I had to to sit back and watch the drama unfold.  None of the characters are especially loveable, or even likeable, which is consistent with the style.  I found that I started to view John the same way many of the other characters did.  I pitied him and found his actions to be quite naive and deplorable.  While there was a lot of action especially toward the end of the book, I felt like I wanted more action in the earlier parts of the story rather than hear the same inner thoughts from John.  His self-pity and thoughts about gaining respect were quite repetitive.  Additionally, I thought the conversations between Dr. King and John were a bit stilted and out of place.  They sounded too formal and a bit unrealistic.

Overall, if you are interested in historical noir, I think you'll enjoy this dark read that brings many twists and surprises.


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16 comments:

  1. What an interesting premise!

    I haven't done much noir reading myself, though I did request Budapest Noir and will b e reading it this week, if all goes well.

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    1. I haven't done much noir reading either. Let me know how Budapest Noir goes.

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  2. Eh, not for me, but I do have a buddy who would surely love it :)

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  3. The dark noir style was a different read for me, too. I felt this was a solid debut for Mr. Harrison. I'm glad I read it. Great review!

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    1. Thanks! It really is a different read. I think if you know what you are getting into everything falls into place when reading. I'm glad I read it too.

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  4. I don't think I've read any noir myself - sounds like a very dark-feeling genre. I'll keep that in mind when I do pick up a noir-style book!

    Thanks for being on the tour.

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    1. It's a different kind of dark so it was definitely refreshing. But I think that it is good to now it is like that before going into it.

      Thanks for having me on the tour :)

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  5. historical noir seems delicious to me. I'm definitely going to have to look into it as a genre.

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    1. Oh I think you'll like it. It is thought provoking and the characters are complex and flawed.

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  6. Very cool, I was unaware of this genre! I love learning about new stuff like this. Sounds like an excellent story! Great review :)

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    1. I was unaware of the genre too. I had to look it up and there isn't a lot of information about it either. It's a well written story for sure. The characters are more flawed than you would normally see in crime/suspense like books. I mean...horribly flawed. Lol. But it was a different and interesting read.

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  7. I think I saw this book profiled in Essence, it looked interesting. But meh stilted dialogue. I like the old film noirs(many of which aren't really film noirs, just filmed in black & white with confusing characters and plot lines thrown together haha) so perhaps I will give this one a try, at least it's a noir with a Black main character

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    1. I don't know that the dialogue will appear stilted to everyone. Some of the dialogue was supposed to come from Dr. King himself and I just didn't feel a long formal way of speaking or long formal speeches would occur in private. I could be wrong but it just felt off. It simply be my personal take. He didn't sound like a normal person. I'm wondering if confusing characters and plot lines thrown together is a characteristic of noir ;)

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  8. Interesting concept this one. I'm curious to know how much it may actually reflect reality and the events of the past. Sounds like a good read. I don't know that I'd ever have looked twice at this book if it weren't for this review.

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    1. I think it is easy to tell which parts reflect reality and which parts go a step further into the unknown. It is a good read but it is pretty dark and depressing. I think it is interesting that it is placed in a time that people remember with pride because of the Civil Rights Movement. The element of hope and pride is missing here so it is definitely interesting because it is so different from anything else out there about this period and these figures.

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I absolutely LOVE all comments! So please feel free to chime in with your thoughts, questions, opinions, or whatever else you have to say.

Don't forget to check back as I reply to comments. Dialogue is good right?

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