Google image search.
No sooner did I blog about using The Time of our Singing for inspiration than I was introduced to this character:
“Kwame can make–oh! The wildest things. But since… The last few times I tried to sit him down…”
Then the boy appeared at the window, watching us. Through the glass, even with his headphones and their pounding pulse, he heard us talking about him. Fury and apathy fought for a controlling interest in his eyes. My sister looked back at her son, smiling at him through her panic. But what can you hide from a child who has already seen death? She turned and grabbed me just below the collar.
Kwame is the sister’s (Ruth) first son. He turns out to be the black male trope, who, after seeing his father killed (indirectly) at the hands of police, rebels mightily and is eventually thrown in jail. He is drawn to rap music at an early age, his ever-present headphones, described in the above passage, are his method of isolating himself from adults after the death. After his release years later he forms a rap group, and Powers exposes himself as an old white guy by calling it “a band.”
And yes, I finally finished it–what, a week ago? Am on to Sag Harbor already, as mentioned, but so wish I had started the Baldwin, or that I could read more than one book at a time
