Book Review: Black Bottom Saints by Alice Randall

 

Black Bottom Saints

by Alice Randall

A literary historical novel, broken up into chapters based on the everyday “Saints” the narrator, Ziggy Johnson, has known over his years as an important figure himself in the Black Bottom area of Detroit.

“By the end of World War I, Black Bottom was established as a municipality (along with New York’s Harlem and Chicago’s Bronzeville) with a clear claim of being one of the three most economically, politically, and artistically powerful Black communities in America.”

 This novel relates the life of Ziggy Johnson through his interactions with other historic figures, who he refers to as Black Bottom Saints.

“Black Bottom Saints – people who had suffered so much, and so differently, but who had each found a way, or made a way, to experience radical joy.”

One of my favorite chapters is when he shares about Tim Moore, but as a ghost that comes to visit him in his hospital room. Is he hallucinating? Perhaps, but it’s still a very warm recollection of what made that person special to him. He laughs so hard at one point that the nurse threatens to give him a sedative. “When Tim came back later, I told him not to do anything that would make me laugh or cry loud, so we just softly talked over the old days.”

My mind boggles slightly at the concept of writing a book from the perspective of someone who actually existed. It has been done time and again, but as a writer, I can only imagine how difficult it must be to inhabit a person’s mind, to worry about getting it right, sounding authentic. Luckily, the gentleman in question, “Ziggy” Johnson, was a writer himself and so there was already a good record of articles from the newspaper, and even articles specifically about a number of these people.

The author relates the story in the style of a first -person reminiscence, making the story feel like sitting and listening to an old man talk about the most colorful and special people he knew in his life. It’s engrossing, though sometimes confusing at first because of the particular language she uses, I had to look up a few terms.

She really does cover a lot of territory in this book, facets of life, bringing important truths into succinct clarity.

"The war don't end when the last gun is shot," George Stanley said. "That's the end of a battle. The war ends when you stop waking up shaking in the middle of the night. Too many men, Colored Girl, win the boots on the ground war then lose the war in they head when they're back safe in their bed."

The author does a tremendous job of bringing these characters to life. I found myself filled with emotion at the hardships they had gone through and cheering for their successes. I highly recommend this book.