A Different Drummer

by William Melvin Kelley, Kathryn Schulz (Foreword)

June, 1957. One hot afternoon, in a backwater town in the American South, a young black farmer named Tucker Caliban throws salt on his field, shoots his horse and livestock, sets fire to his house and departs the state. And thereafter, the entire African-American population leave with him.

The reaction to this mass exodus comes from the white townsfolk who remain. Every one of whom - whether male or female, young or old, conservative, bigoted or sympathetic – is grappling with and attempting to explain, this spontaneous rejection of subordination.

As powerful today as it was upon its first publication in 1962, William Melvin Kelley's A Different Drummer is a provocative and prescient triumph of satire and spirit.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Classics, Race, African American, Literary Fiction, Book Club

302 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

William Melvin Kelley was a prominent African-American novelist and short-story writer.

He was educated at the Fieldston School in New York and later attended Harvard University (class of 1960), where he won the Dana Reed Prize for creative writing.

Kelley was a writer in residence at the State University of New York at Geneseo and taught at the New School for Social Research and at Sarah Lawrence College.

In 2008, he won the Anisfield-Wolf Lifetime Achievement Award.

Kelley died in Manhattan on February 1, 2017. He was 79.

Reviews

[Miriam Smith (A Mother’s Musings) · Rating 5 out of 5]

First published in 1962, "A Different Drummer" is written by the late African-American writer William Melvin Kelley and who has been described as the "The Lost Giant of American Literature". I wholeheartedly agree, this book was one of the best books I have read in a very long time and will stay with me forever.
This powerful and emotive story had me hooked from the first pages and even as I write this review I cannot stop thinking about it. William Kelley was just twenty four years old when this, his debut novel was first published. Considered part of the Black Arts Movement, he is known for his satirical explorations of race relations in America.
The story is set in a fictional Southern backwater town in 1957. Tucker Caliban, a young black farmer throws salt on his fields, kills his animals, sets fire to his house and leaves the state with his family. This sets off a chain of events whereby the entire state's African-American populations leaves with him.
The focus of the story is on the people who witness these events and their reactions to it, being either sympathy or anger. It was interesting to see so many different attitudes and points of view from a wide variety of people, some liberal, some bigoted. I particularly liked young Mister Leland and told through the eyes of an innocent, I loved his final voice in the book.
The tone of the era, the dialect of the southern, black and white characters was absolutely perfect and throughout the whole of the book I pictured so clearly the setting for the story and heard the people's voices so vividly. So well written, the story addresses race, history and identity back in 1950's American South and I can honestly say I truly adored reading every word. The powerful ending was so unexpected it literally blew me away but it was sadly, very believable considering the nature of the story.
If someone had told me this was a popular classic and an iconic piece of literature not a long forgotten and neglected novel I would have totally believed them, it comes across as something that has been around and talked about for many years. I'm pleased to see that it is now been rediscovered and being snapped up by publishers worldwide and I believe the author, currently being compared to the likes of William Faulkner etc of his time, rightly deserves to be.
"A Different Drummer" is an absolute masterpiece!!

5 stars and then some!

[Paromjit · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a short novel, this packs a powerful and hard hitting punch. Written by the Afro-American William Melvin Kelley over 50 years ago, I had never heard of the author or the book, and it seems that it is only now that it is receiving the acclaim it so thoroughly deserves. With language that reflects the time, it was published amidst the background of the divisive and bitter fight for civil rights in the US, serving as a highly imaginative allegory. Set in the late 1950s in a fictitious US southern state and fictitious town of Sutton, this is a treatise on race, on inequality, of power and justice that, damningly, is as relevant today in our contemporary world as it is of the historical period it speaks of.

The quiet and determined Tucker Caliban is a descendent of an African Chief, arriving in the US enslaved. One day he salts his fields, kills his animals, burns his house and heads off into a unknown far yonder with his wife, Bethrah, and their child. This seemingly inexplicable act triggers off an unexpected and surprising exodus of every black person in the state, observed by the white population. The focus of the book is on the reaction, thoughts and behaviour of the white residents faced with these bewildering acts, such as Tucker Caliban's boss, David Willson. Why would the entire black community up sticks leave? The multiple perspectives are revealing of this historical time and there is some curiosity in Tucker's background. There is hardly anyone with sufficient self awareness or perception to see their responsibilities in the momentous acts that have occurred bar the odd exception. Instead, we have an insight into their needs and desires.

This is a brilliantly insightful and thought provoking book, a portrait of a time, by a talented writer unafraid of taking an unusual approach and perspective. I found it a lyrical, mesmerising and emotionally heartbreaking read. I cannot do anything but recommend it highly!! Many thanks to Quercus for an ARC.

[Beata · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Different Drummer was a debut novel published in 1964 by a writer whose name nowadays is mentioned together with James Baldwin and William Faulkner, however, he is not widely known outside literary circles. I had never heard of him before, which was a shame, and reading this book was a journey which I now know I should have taken years ago. The novel reflects on racial problems back in the 1950s and is exceptionally powerful. My personal view is that William Melvin Kelley's novel deserves all publicity it can get.

+Many thanks to Quercus Books and Netgalley for providing me with ARC in exchange for my honest review.*

[PattyMacDotComma · Rating 5 out of 5]

5★
“The last letter was delivered one morning after David had left for the day.
. . .
Then he folded it and slid it back in the envelope and said, ‘Well, that’s the last one. He’s promised. Perhaps I’ll have some peace now.’

For a second I felt very warm and good inside because I was listening to his words, and not the way he’d said them.”

I'm guilty of hearing what I want to hear sometimes, too. I’ve had to let this story settle in my mind awhile before deciding what affected me the most. It takes place in a fictitious, slender state, about 50,000 square miles wedged between Mississippi and Alabama, pinching a bit from both and leaving them each with double that. It’s this little wedge that begins an enormous change in Kelley’s United States. He wrote this when he was 24, and I’m glad to see it republished today.

Trigger warning – anyone sensitive about the N-word needs to remember when this took place. There is also violence. It was written in 1962, and the plot, or theme, is no secret.

“In June 1957, for reasons yet to be determined, all the state’s Negro inhabitants departed. Today, it is unique in being the only state in the Union that cannot count even one member of the Negro race among its citizens.”

Different voices tell the story throughout, from young Harold (nicknamed “Mister Leland”), his father Harry Leland, the Willsons (the town’s most prominent family), and Tucker Caliban, of course. Tucker is the great-grandson of an imposing African slave called Caliban because he’d risen to mythic stature when he’d been captured and escaped.

“Some fellow . . . thinking he could run down the African, raced his horse straight at him, but the African just grabbed the fellow off the horse’s back like you might catch a ring on a carousel and popped his back over his knee like a dry wishbone and tossed him aside.”

He was said to have been a giant of a man, breaking chains before he was finally caught. “Caliban” (as his owner named “the African”) finally resigned himself to his lot, but his spirit of independence, if not his brawn is passed down to Tucker.

“ . . . a little boy, who already wears glasses, whose head is too large for his spindly body. Behind the glasses there are great, hard brown eyes, with more in them than should be there. That’s Tucker.”

There are white folks in this unnamed strip of a state who are sympathetic to the suffering caused by continued racism and prejudice. We see young Harold Leland struggling to understand what his father Harry teaches him while he sees and hears other adults using the N-word. When he uses it accidentally with a shopkeeper, his father gently chastises him and says he knows it’s hard. He and Harold’s mother have to remind themselves, too, not to use it anymore.

Later, Harold (Mr Leland) notices something odd when his father is talking to Wallace Bedlow, a black man.

“Mister Leland was thinking that Wallace Bedlow had used SIR: Like Papa is older than him, which ain’t so because when Wallace Bedlow takes off his hat, you can see crinkly gray hairs. Still he calls Papa SIR the same’s I’d call him or my papa SIR.”

The friendships across the cultures are real, but definitely lopsided. The whites didn’t see it that way, it’s just the way things were. I think Dymphna Willson considered herself just a normal teenager with no prejudice. After all, Bethrah, the maid, was her closest friend.

“I can remember it all pretty well because I was going through a period in my life when everything was symbolic of SOMETHING, when each second, I thought, I was deciding something big and dramatic. Girls are like that when they’re fifteen, which I was that summer. That was two years ago, almost exactly. Bethrah came to work for us because Missus Caliban, Tucker’s mother, was doing all the work.
. . .
And a good thing about having HER for a friend was that she was colored and there wouldn’t be any competition between us as far as boys were concerned, because that kind of thing always makes girls enemies even if they’re very close.”

See? Nothing to worry about, and fair enough, Dymphna was miserable when Bethrah was leaving the household. But Bethrah certainly knew the score even if Dymphna didn’t admit it.

There’s an interesting story thread about northern activism and the awakening in young southern whites of disturbing feelings about the treatment of their black neighbours. A phrase Kelley is credited with having first put into print is the headline of an article he wrote “If You’re Woke, You Dig It.”

I’d like to think I’m woke, and I dig it, but that could be presumptuous of me, and perhaps . The State may be fictitious and the mass exodus may be fictitious, but the attitudes and conversations and mob mentality could all have been taken from news reports of the time. Sadly, they could be taken from news reports today, I think.

There's an interesting article in The New Yorker about Kelley and the book. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...

Thanks to NetGalley and Quecus Books/riverrun for the preview copy of what should be in print for a long time now, I hope. #NetGalley #BangTheDrum

p.s. Another article about the origins and actual meaning of the word “woke”.
https://thedispatch.com/p/the-origins...

[La Tonya Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A factious and fictitious state in the union where all the black people decide to leave. First, it starts in towns of New Marsails and Sutton. But, it eventually it engulfs the entire state. Publicly, the govenor and the white people of the state do not see this as an issue. After awhile, resentment and a seething hatred starts to deepen and a norhern black minister Reverend Bennett T. Bradshaw is dragged from his car beaten and later killed. Dewey Wilson a Confederate General and his descendants become a secondary plot in the novel. The devoted salves owed by the Wilson family and their descendants are central to the lifes of the Wilson family. The two separate stories are told in one voice. David Wilson, the great - great- great grandson of Dewey Wilson, idealizes the hope of a new South. Harry Leland wants his son Harold Leland to become a better human being and not say the word "nigger". Camille Wilson has waited twenty years for the husband she married to resurface. Not the person he has become. This is a story of wants and desires? Not a story of needs. A very good read. I highly recommend it.

Quotes:
I imagine that it was mostly that we understood each other so well - at least David understood me, and I trusted him and so didn't really have to understand him.

The Negro smiled again. "I'm an American; I'm no savage. And besides, a man's got to follow where his pocket takes him, doesn't he?"

And a good thing about having her for a friend was that she was colored and there wouldn't be any competition between us as far as boys were concerned, because that kind of thing always makes girls enemies even if they're very close.

[Paul Secor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember the name William Melvin Kelley from the time when I was in college, though I never read any of his books then - my loss, as it turns out. Reading this article -https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20... - created an interest in me to read one of Mr. Kelley's books, and I owe Kathryn Schulz a debt of thanks for that.

A young black man in a mythical town in a mythical Southern state salts his farm land, shoots his animals, burns down his house, and leaves the state, leading to momentous events. (This is not a spoiler, because this event occurs very early in the novel and is referred to throughout.) These events are told through the voices of various white residents of the town. The novel was written by a black man. So goes race in America.
A Different Drummer has been somewhat overlooked since its publication in 1962. I overlooked it until now and am happy that I finally read it. I urge anyone with an interest in powerful writing to read it.

p. 9 - "Like I said, nobody's claiming this story is all truth. It must-a started out that way, but somebody along the way or a whole parcel of somebodies must-a figured they could improve on the truth. And they did. It's a damn better story for being half lies. Can't a story be good without some lies."

p. 10 - "And the ship's owner, who was also the leading slave auctioneer in New Marsails - he talked so good and so fast he could sell a one-armed, one-legged, half-witted Negro for a premium price - he ambled up the gangplank. I'm told he was a spindly fellow, with no muscles whatsoever. He had hard-bargain-driving eyes and a nose all round and puffy and pocked like a rotten orange, and he always wore a blue old-time suit with lace at the collar, and a sort of derby of green felt. And following him, exactly three places behind, was a Negro. Some folks said that this was the auctioneer's son by a colored woman. I don't know that for certain, but I do know this here Negro looked, walked, and talked just like his master. He had that same build, and the same crafty eyes, and dressed like him too - green derby and all - so that the two of them looked like a print and a negative of the same photograph"

A side note: I was going through my LPs to weed some out and lighten my life when I came across a bit of buried treasure that I had forgotten - a record of William Melvin Kelley reading a portion of A Different Drummer and one of his short stories. I'm looking forward to sitting down and listening to it when the time seems right.

March 25, 2019 - Addendum to my review: I was in a friend's book store today, chatting with him not about books, but about basketball, when a Vassar student (my friend's store is across the street from Vassar College) came in looking for a book for a class. My ears and eyes lit up when he said the book was A Different Drummer. While my friend was hunting down the book, I told the student that it was a great book, and also told him about the New Yorker article mentioned above in my review. The kicker was that he told me he had to read the book by 1:30 p.m. that afternoon. It was close to 12 noon, so we both knew that wasn't going to happen. I told him that he should read the book anyway, even though he couldn't read it in time for the class discussion.
He left, and ten minutes later, a female student came in and asked for the same book. My friend pointed at me, as if to say, "take it". I said to the student, I bet you have to read this by 1:30, told her how I knew, and she laughed. I gave her the same enthusiastic spiel that I gave to the other student, and then I had to leave.
I hope both of them read the novel and are moved by it.

[8stitches 9lives · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Different Drummer is being hailed as a lost classic of American literature, but I had no idea quite how exquisite and insightful it was going to be until I was already reading. First published in 1962, by the then twenty-four-year-old Kelley, it earned him comparisons to literary greats such as William Faulkner and James Baldwin. Over fifty years later here it is being republished for a new generation, with its searingly emotive narrative being just as relevant today as when it was first written. It addresses a multitude of topics including slavery, race, ancestry and social justice/injustice, and we experience both the very best of humanity and the very worst throughout this journey.

This is a masterful novel which tells the story of the way in which the white population viewed African-Americans. The way the book is structured is for maximum effect and impact on the reader with each chapter being dedicated to the perspective of one of the white townsfolk. They detail the reaction to the entirety of the African-American population upping sticks and leaving with Tucker Caliban thereby deserting the town of Sutton and the surrounding area. Some of the points-of-view are shocking, upsetting, disgraceful, whilst others are sympathetic to the imposition of inferiority that has been placed on the black population. This mass rejection of slavery and the emotions associated with it, had my body covered in goosebumps. This is a challenging read, but if you are looking for an easy or lighthearted novel, you have come to the wrong place!

I would like to think that things have changed quite a lot since then, but with people like Trump master at the helm of one of the worlds biggest and most influential ships, how much longer is it before white supremacists really gain some control over races they classify as unworthy? I know this is happening right now, I can see the difference in the treatment between whites and blacks, it should not be like this. So long as money, greed, lust and power are what makes the world go around, I can't see anything changing. Can't we all just learn to love one another regardless of any of the features that make us different?

Thought-provoking, heartwrenching and powerful, an incredibly important book and one that will feature in my best of the decade, I am sure of that. Novels like this rarely come along, so if you have the chance then pick it up. Sadly, as the author passed away in 2017, this is likely to be the last work he has published. This makes me sad as he was clearly a very special talent, I have already picked up his previous books. RIP.

Many thanks to riverrun for an ARC. I was not required to post a review, and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a work of genius, and one that seems even more important today than it did when it was written.

Good reviews here:

https://www.ft.com/content/b2e609ac-e...

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/bo...

https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...

One thing not particularly mentioned in those reviews is the way in which it explores the White coopting of the pain of the Black experience (how many times over the last year have you seen social media posts from white "allies" the main thrust of which were: "I was so upset by..."; "I am so angry about"; "I think xyx.."; "here is a picture of me holding a sign"....something I have certainly been guilty of in the past). Many of the key characters see themselves as being supporters of the emerging Civil Rights movement, and believers in the "humanity" of Black people (like those in earlier times who would pride themselves on being "nice and decent" to their slaves, never beating them for example, and could not understand why they were not accordingly loved and appreciated as the beneficent master they were). But while small, incremental changes may give a sense of self-satisfaction and achievement to those already privileged, it is a truism that, as our great sage Taytay said: "Band-Aids don't fix bullet holes".

The view from a position of power of those for whom the only option is to opt for major surgery is that they are "extremists" or, more subtly, that the violence or the extreme nature of the reaction comes from a place of ignorance, lack of sophistication, lack of education…or, even more of a dog whistle, is "primitive" (as we have seen from all the op-eds about looting etc). In this text we have a community that reaches the decision the only option for them is to completely remove themselves from a toxic environment. To those around them in position of power, such behavior seems insane. One of the many great achievements of this book is to make clear why it is not simply by pointing the reader to the space where that explanation would be.

And then the explosion of brutal racial violence at the end, the ease with which liberal polite coexistence is wiped away to reveal the blank animalistic hatred underneath, seems horrifically relevant at the moment too. I remember the talk about being in a “post racial society” after Obama was elected, and think how easy it was to mistake gritted-teeth tolerance for acceptance.

That one may smile and smile and be a villain, as Hamlet said, is ever true, and something I think of every time I watch Fox News.

Anyway, enough rambling from me. Suffice it to say this is a truly brilliant piece of work, and one that everyone should read.

[Leonidas Moumouris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Καμιά φορά πέφτεις κατά λάθος σε διαμάντια. Σκοντάφτεις κυριολεκτικά πάνω τους, τα διαλέγεις επειδή βρίσκεσαι ώρα στο βιβλιοπωλείο και δεν έχεις καταφέρει να καταλήξεις κάπου, στο τέλος παίρνεις ένα άρον άρον για να μη γίνεις γραφικός μένει στο ράφι με τα αδιαβαστα κάνα χρόνο και όταν το πιάνεις βρίσκεσαι να διαβάζεις ένα από εκείνα τα βιβλία που θα θυμάσαι για καιρό. Ένας συγγραφέας ξεχασμένος, άγνωστος κι ένα μυθιστόρημα γραμμένο το 1962 για μια φανταστική πόλη του αμερικανικού νότου το 1957 που ο Τάκερ, ένας νέγρος με τη γυναίκα του καταστρέφει το αγρόκτημα που λίγους μήνες πριν έχει αγοράσει απ'το αφεντικό του, σκοτώνει τα ζώα του, και φεύγει με δύο βαλίτσες πράγματα χωρίς καμία άλλη εξήγηση. Τον ακολουθεί τις επόμενες μέρες όλος ο μαύρος πληθυσμός της πόλης σε μια σιωπηρή αποχώρηση. Λες και ήταν η ώρα. Λες και δεν είχε άλλο. Λες και απλά άδειασαν. Χωρίς καμία έκρηξη βίας, κανέναν θόρυβο.
Όλη αυτή την ιστορία την παρακολουθούμε μέσα από τα μάτια των λευκών κατοίκων που σαστισμένοι μένουν να κοιτούν. Κάθε κεφάλαιο και ένας άλλος λευκός, μια άλλη οπτική που ο Kelley αριστοτεχνικά τους συνδέει.
Η σκηνή που ο Τάκερ καταστρέφει το κτήμα του και φεύγει είναι τόσο αθόρυβα δυνατή που δεν γίνεται να την ξεχάσεις.
Ο Kelley έγραψε ελάχιστα και πέρασε στην αφανεια γρήγορα. Έζησε στα όρια της φτώχιας με την οικογένειά του αλλά η στάση ζωής του μου μοιάζει πολύ με τον ήρωα του Τυμπανιστή.
Ένα απο τα πιο όμορφα βιβλία που διάβασα φέτος.

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Qualquer pessoa pode libertar-se das suas cadeias, qualquer pessoa. Por mais profundamente enterrada que esteja, essa coragem está sempre à espera de ser chamada a intervir. Só precisa ser corretamente persuadida, com a voz adequada, para irromper a rugir como um tigre.”

[Nancy Oakes · Rating 5 out of 5]

William Melvin Kelley is an author I discovered while reading the January 29, 2018 issue of The New Yorker. Before that, I'd never even heard of this man, although after finishing this book I'll be looking to read more of his work.

While I'm not going to divulge many details here, what is most stunning about this book is that the story is revealed through the eyes of the white residents of this fictional town, set in a fictional Southern state. Their narratives try to account for the reasons why one day Tucker Caliban (as revealed on the back cover blurb)

"... a quiet, determined descendant of a magnificent African chief brought to America in chains...for no apparent reason ... salts his fields, burns down his house, kills his livestock, and heads, with his wife and child, for parts unknown -- an act that sets off an unexpected mass exodus of the state's entire black population."

These narratives from the white residents of the town also uncover their thinking on how they process the behaviors of the African-Americans in this book, and more importantly, how their own relationships with African-Americans reflect their own needs at different times. It is both heartbreaking and haunting; but on the other hand, Tucker Caliban is one of the most courageous literary figures I've encountered in some time; he is the epitome of dignity and pride, a silent leader whose actions speak much louder than words ever could.

This book could likely be the focus of a graduate seminar; there is so much to be found in here that I can't begin to scratch its surface in just words and there is a lot which even after two reads I'm sure I've missed. Don't let Kelley fade into obscurity -- this book and his thinking continue to be highly relevant today.

While I can recommend it highly, it's not an easy read -- you absolutely must do a LOT of thinking while you're reading and not everything is handed to you on a plate, so if that's not the sort of book you like, pass. Otherwise, it is one of the most thought-provoking novels I've read of late, and a very prized addition to my home library.

more:
http://www.readingavidly.com/2018/03/...

[lise.charmel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un romanzo breve, che scivola via da solo ma con un'intensità e una potenza inaspettate. Un romanzo corale che salta avanti e indietro nel tempo tra gli anni Trenta e gli anni Cinquanta del XX secolo, fino a un momento (che nel romanzo succede all'inizio) in cui una famigliola di neri sparge il sale sulla fattoria di proprietà, brucia la casa e abbandona tutto per andare via. Seguendo il loro esempio tutti i neri della cittadina (del Sud degli Stati Uniti, naturalmente) abbandonano le loro case per cercare una vita migliore al Nord. Come sono arrivati a fare questo? Lo scopriremo soprattutto tramite gli occhi dei bianchi che li conoscevano più o meno bene. L'atmosfera da grande romanzo Faulkneriano qui è ammorbidita dai diversi punti di vista e dalla gestione degli stessi con diverse forme: prima o terza persona, diario ecc.
I personaggi sono magnifici e mi sono affezionata praticamente a tutti.
Non lo definirei propriamente un postmoderno, ma sicuramente non è un romanzo del tutto convenzionale.
Siamo a gennaio e ho già un candidato a Libro più bello del 2020.

[Roman Clodia · Rating 4 out of 5]

In June 1957, for reasons yet to be determined, all this state's Negro inhabitants departed. Today it is unique in being the only state in the Union that cannot count even one member of the Negro race.

Originally written in 1962 and published in 1964, this is more nuanced than I perhaps expected as it engages coolly with issues of race, class and, to a lesser extent, gender in America. The starting point is the event flagged in the blurb, but actually the book isn't so much a response to Tucker Caliban's non-violent act of defiance and rejection as an exploration of the parallel stories that run alongside Tucker's own life. There is a horribly violent, xenophobic chorus of white men who respond at the start and end of the book, culminating in a horrific, if not unpredictable, act that closes the story, but the substance is more varied, even more cautiously optimistic, than that end.

One of the things that impressed me is Kelley's refusal to create angels and demons in his characters: Tucker is no impressive hero - he's small, with a high-pitched voice, uneducated, often inarticulate especially in comparison with his vibrant, college-educated, beautiful wife - yet his instinctual act is one that we can get behind.

Equally, we have a Black Jesuits group, radical and uncompromising, who grow out of a student socialist/civil rights group who 'have a doctrine which is a mixture of Mein Kampf, Das Kapital, and the Bible. The group is anti-Semitic'. This ability and willingness to create flawed black characters with racist agendas of their own raises the novel above political polemic, problematising easy approaches to identity politics and race.

The Wilson characters are also more fully-fleshed: Camille who makes friends with her beautiful black maid but can't help thinking that she'll never have to compete with her 'as far as boys were concerned'; her husband David who is active in civil rights politics in his Ivy League college but who, despite his beliefs, 'when the time came to stand up for it, I didn't. I retreated.'

This is a short book (c.200pp.) and a fast read - it could perhaps have been developed more but remains an impactful novel that speaks to our present. A welcome reprint from Quercus: thanks for an ARC via NetGalley.

[Cody · Rating 5 out of 5]

That I'm of mixed minds six days after finishing is a likely indicator of the brilliance of this novel. It asks—and this is presumption on my part—different things of different readers. There's that sorta textual and metatextual 'dialogue' thing going on as you read it, the 'I consciously recognize x is being telegraphed on the textual, actual level of narrative events and foreshadowing; still, isn't y simultaneously occurring in the meta-narrative I'm creating in parallel by what I'm grafting onto it?' That thing. This interior conversation in tandem with a reading is really all one can ask for from a book, or at least it would seem to me. The pat, the reassuring, the consoling fictions take place in our daily lives outside of these inanimate objects. That's not criticism of interpersonal relationships nor is it some super-mythologizing of literature—likely the inverse. Hey, I'm obviously of mixed minds on more than this book...

Drummer has all of the shit I'm too-easy prey for: allegory and symbol; Biblical and gnostic; parable posed as fable sieved through the brutal elegance of its agrarian, earthbound environs. You needn't be a scriptural scholar to practically point and shout 'Moses*! Exodus**!' from a mile away, and you'd be right. But that's really all on the primary, textual level; if not OUTRIGHT, you don’t have to bring binoculars to spot its moves even from the cheapest seats. But then there's that fucking metatextual nag, that inclinational tickle in your neck's base tipping you that other stories are taking place invisibly between the lines of the page. Of course, there's the fact that the story is entirely relayed by a hot potato of white characters retelling the very curious events that effected into every Black resident having, apparently, up and left its mythical Southern US state in some somnambulant-but-organized emigration without word or warning. But it's not that intentionally obvious and perversely ironic White controlling of the narrative. I mean, shit, it is, but that's Kelley 101. Which is to say that it decidedly IS a commentary, yes, but also a feint; to stop there is, again, too shallow a reading, in my view.

Jesus, this is as exhausting for me as it is for you, so I'm going to bow out in deference to the prodigy of Kelley's genius. But should you read this and come away with a mixed emotional response to the novel's final chapter, so contrary to all before as it is, then know that I'm right there with you, sister. It’s as profound an emotional response as any book has ever provoked in me, and it’s not even Kelley’s best work. It's a hell of a thing. Drummer doesn’t indemnify the reader with absolution. Kelley doesn’t lower himself—or, by extension, you—to absolutizing with closure. This refutation of closure is, then, really a whole new opening (upon an opening an upon opening…) Like I said, it's a hello a thing—


* not Malone
** not the band

[Ritinha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Num peculiar registo a várias vozes (brancas) sobre um fenómeno (negro) e suas repercussões numa pequena comunidade de um Sul (dos EUA) imaginário que nem por isso é menos real do que aquele que conhecemos, William Melvin Kelley - que tinha apenas 23 anos quando publicou este livro - produz prova bastante para justificar o que lhe chamaram em 2018: o Gigante Esquecido da Literatura Norte-Americana.

[Issicratea · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a haunting book, with interesting things to say about race in America, and a sophisticated and oblique way of going about it. It operates somewhere on the borderline between realism and philosophical fable, prowling for the whole length of the novel around its central, striking action—the seemingly spontaneous decision of all black inhabitants of an invented and unnamed Southern state to leave their homes and migrate north.

A Different Drummer has a curious reception history. It was published in 1962, the debut novel of a gifted young African-American writer, William Melvin Kelley. I read it in a recent edition from Quercus that pitches it as “the extraordinary rediscovered novel of 2018” and prefaces it with a New Yorker article by Kathryn Schulz entitled “The Lost Giant of American Literature.” The essay recounts how Schulz discovered Kelley (who only died in 2017) through a chance find at a car boot sale, portraying him as entirely forgotten through the intervening years.

This is hype, at least in part. In reality, A Different Drummer had already been rediscovered, thirty years ago; it was republished by Anchor in 1989 and by Penguin in 1990. Perhaps it is the kind of book that needs to be constantly, cyclically rediscovered, as it does not fit sufficiently well into existing literary-critical narratives to “stick” for any time in the canon. A 2015 critical study by Stephanie Li, Playing in the White: Black Writers, White Subjects makes the claim—very thought-provoking, if true—that A Different Drummer was the last novel of the twentieth century authored by an African-American writer to filter its narrative through white subjectivities. It is a striking feature of the book that, although black characters feature prominently, its multiple narrators are all white.

This choice may have impacted negatively on A Different Drummer’s reception, but it is also one of the book’s strengths. The mysterious departure of the black inhabitants of the state is something observed from the outside, through the bemused or hostile eyes of the white community of the small, rural town where the novel is primarily set. The actions of the black characters drive the novel, but their motives are veiled in opacity. Their exodus has the feel of a protest about it; yet the prime mover and apparent instigator, Tucker Caliban, is a man who explicitly rejects the idea of any organized collective action, humiliating his wife in public when she tries to persuade him to contribute to the NAACP.

Kelley’s refusal of easy answers was one of the things that impressed me about this novel. One of the Greek chorus of drugstore idlers and ne’er-do-wells whose views frame the novel comes up with a mythopoetic explanation of Tucker’s quiet rebellion, tracing his lineage to a titanic rebel against slavery (“The African”) some four generations earlier. The tale of the African is strikingly told, in a manner that, for me, anticipated García Marquez’s magic realism (Cien años de soledad was published in 1967, five years after A Different Drummer); yet Tucker’s deliberately downbeat and dour characterization cuts against the romanticism of the myth.

Kelley pulls off the remarkable trick in this novel of making Tucker’s gesture of renunciation seem both arbitrary and inevitable. We see his tragic and self-destructive (or self-liberating) departure from his small-holding played out again and again, both in first-person observation and in subsequent narrative. The more it is repeated, the less explicable it becomes—the less explicable, and the more powerful. We are left with something like the literary equivalent of an open wound: a telling metaphor for America’s problems of race.

[Beth (bibliobeth) · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are these special books that don't come round very often but when they do, they evoke such strong feelings in the reader that makes them impossible to forget. That's the way I'm still feeling about A Different Drummer a few days after finishing it. This is the kind of book that you finish reading and feel emotionally changed as a person. It's also the kind of book that you instantly need to talk to everybody about to gauge if they had a similar response and you might even (if you're like me) press it into the hands of your nearest and dearest and insist they read it too. I think I would have read this book eventually, I have become a lot more intrigued in African-American history recently but I certainly wouldn't have read it as soon if it hadn't been for the lovely people at Quercus Books providing me with a copy at a recent Word-Of-Mouth Bestsellers Evening and letting me know that it was "one of the most important books they would publish this year." I wholeheartedly and passionately agree.

A Different Drummer is Kelley's extraordinary debut novel and was originally published in 1962. Described as a "lost masterpiece from a forgotten giant of American Literature," this novel won Kelley much critical acclaim with comparisons rolling in to writers such as James Baldwin and William Faulkner. I don't want to say too much about the narrative because the beauty of this novel is discovering its understated brilliance for yourself. It follows Tucker Caliban, a descendant of an African chief forced into slavery as one afternoon, he obliterates his farm suddenly and without warning and then proceeds to leave with his family in tow. This precipitates the entire black population from the town and surrounding areas to follow in his footsteps and move out and away. The reader is left with a multitude of questions - what was Tucker's reasoning behind his actions? Furthermore, how did this inspire a whole race to follow his lead?

This is the kind of book that sneaks up on you without you recognising the majesty of its power or the effect it might be having on you until you reach the very end. I began reading A Different Drummer and instantly admired the writing style and quiet confidence of the story-telling but initially, didn't believe it was anything too special. I'm not sure when the switch happened in the novel for me but I don't think it was long before I realised that I was reading something very unique and exciting indeed. We hear from the point of view of a number of different characters, across the historical period where Tucker grew from a boy into a man. Then, as we view Tucker through their eyes and sense the vicious undercurrent of racism and prejudice in the town, we begin to understand the actions that led to rising tensions for Tucker personally and eventually, the mass departure of the black population.

This is a slow-burning, deliciously literary novel that gradually assimilates piece by piece, the smaller pieces of a puzzle until we have the full, horrifying picture. It does feel languid and methodical at points but I believe that only makes the resulting climax at the finale of the book even more pertinent and shocking. There's no big twist, that isn't the kind of novel this is but the author is definitely not afraid to explore the darker, more brutal sides of prejudice. It really captured my attention, made me think and at many points, completely took my breath away. Quercus are right. This is SUCH an important book. It needs to be read and appreciated.

For my full review and many more, please visit my blog at http://www.bibliobeth.com

[Georgia Retetakou · Rating 5 out of 5]

https://vivlionerga.blogspot.com/2021...

Τα βιβλίο αυτό γράφτηκε περίπου 60 χρόνια πριν. Και το συγκλονιστικό του, αλλά και ντροπιαστικό για την ανθρώπινη φύση στοιχείο του είναι, πως τόσα χρόνια μετά είναι το ίδιο επίκαιρο. Και εξίσου αξιοσημείωτο είναι πως αυτό είναι το πρώτο μυθι��τόρημα του συγγραφέα, ο οποίος μετά χάθηκε από το προσκήνιο. Και όμως με αυτό το μυθιστόρημα του έχει αφήσει το δικό του στίγμα στην Αμερικανική Λογοτεχνία.

Η ιστορία του βιβλίου διαδραματίζεται στο Σάτον σε μια μικρή πόλη του Αμερικανικού Νότου. Η οποία όμως ανήκει στην φαντασία του συγγραφέα. Ο νέγρος Τάκερ Κάλιμπαν, ο οποίος είναι πρώην σκλάβος και νυν αγρότης, προβαίνει σε μια απονενοημένη πράξη. Ρίχνει στο χωράφι του αλάτι, σκοτώνει τα ζώα του. Βάζει φωτιά στο σπίτι του. Παίρνει την έγκυο σύζυγο του και το παιδί τους και εγκαταλείπει την πόλη. Η κίνηση του αυτή από την μια θα σαστίσει την Λευκή κοινότητα και από την άλλη θα δημιουργήσει ένα ντόμινο φυγής και για τους άλλους νέγρους της περιοχής. Η σιωπή της φυγής και η έξαρση και αναμόχλευση των αιτιών που οργάνωσε την παραίτηση από τον τόπο ζωής των νέγρων, δημιουργεί ένα έντονο κλίμα θυμού για την εγκλωβισμένη καταπίεση που βγαίνει προς τα έξω.

Με ένα περίτεχνο τρόπο ο Κέλλυ μπλέκει την φαντασία με την πραγματικότητα. Τους θεατές και τους παρατηρητές πρωταγωνιστές της ιστορίας του, τους ρίχνει το μπαλάκι της ευθύνης και τους κάνει να απολογούνται χωρίς να το αντιλαμβάνονται αναλαμβάνοντας μέσα από την αφήγηση τους το μερίδιο τη ευθύνης. Γιατί στην πόλη πια μένουν μόνο Λευκοί οι οποίοι είναι και οι αφηγητές που δίνουν τις πληροφορίες στον αναγνώστη για να προσεγγίσει και να εμβαθύνει στην ψυχή του κεντρικού Πρωταγωνιστή Τάκερ Κάλιμπαν. Και το καταπληκτικό είναι πως χωρίς να μιλάει κανένας μαύρος. Χωρίς να ξέρουμε καν το βάθος της σκέψης του, αποκτάμε την πλήρη εικόνα της ψυχοσύνθεσης των ανθρώπων που το χρώμα τους, τους οδήγησε στο περιθώριο.

Η στυγνή πραγματικότητα του ρατσισμού και των φυλετικών διακρίσεων. Του σεξισμού, της περιθωριοποίησης, αποκαλύπτεται σταδιακά με μια μεγαλοπρεπή υπερβολή. Με μια υπερμεγέθη απόδοση τόσο των ανθρώπινων χαρακτηριστικών, όσο και των ανθρώπινων συναισθημάτων.

Τραγικά κυνικό. Καθηλωτικό και αφυπνιστικό. Τραγελαφικά δυσθεώρητο. Καρικατούρες σε ένα θέατρο σκιών που έχουν μετατρέψει τους ανθρώπους σε πιόνια των φυλετικών διακρίσεων. Μια κοινωνία που μεγάλωσε γενιές σκλάβων πάππου προς πάππου. Με κοινωνικούς αποκλεισμούς και ταμπέλες. Η άρνηση στην φιλία και στην μόρφωση. Η άρνηση της αποδοχής πως όλοι οι άνθρωποι έχουν ίσα δικαιώματα και διέποντας από τις ίδιες αξίες.

Ένα συγκλονιστικό στοιχείο είναι πως ο συγγραφέας αποδομεί την Κοινωνία των Λευκών αφαιρώντας από τους κύκλους της τους Νέγρους. Από την μία δίνει την αίσθηση στους Λευκούς να αποδείξουν την ματαιοδοξία τους, πιστεύοντας πως έχουν ξεμπερδέψει από τους Νέγρους. Αλλά και από την πλευρά των νέγρων κραυγάζει μέσα από την σιωπή τους η άρνηση υποταγής στις συνθήκες που επιβάλει μα κοινωνία που τους θέλει στο περιθώριο. Οι Λευκοί παραμένουν σε μια κοινωνία που εδώ και χρόνια κομμάτι της αναπόσπαστο ήταν οι σκλάβοι που αν και μετά τον εμφύλιο απελευθερώθηκαν, ωστόσο ποτέ δεν απέκτησαν πλήρη δικαιώματα. Μένουν για να ψάχνουν λόγους και αιτίες και να παλεύουν με τα προσωπικά τους συναισθήματα και τις δικές τους αμφιβολίες. Την βία, τον φόβο, τον διαχωρισμό.

Με μια πολυδιάστατη προσέγγιση και με διεισδυτική αντίληψη φτάνει ως το μεδούλι μιας εποχής και μιας κοινωνίας που βρίθει από νοσηρότητα και αποκλεισμούς. Εγωισμούς και αλαζονεία. Εγώ το βιβλίο το λάτρεψα. Μπαίνεις αργά και εθιστικά στο κλίμα του, αλλάζοντας διαρκώς διαθέσεις. Αλλά κυρίως σκέψεις, τις οποίες τις διαμορφώνουν μαγικά οι εικόνες οι άλλοτε ρεαλιστικές ή υπέρμετρες που φτάνουν ακόμα και στην ακρότητα του σουρεαλισμού. Κινούμενος παράλληλα ή κόντρα στους ήρωες. Εστιάζοντας κοντά ή μακριά φτάνεις στην πλήρη εικόνα της πραγματικότητας ενός μυθιστορήματος που κινείται ενίοτε στα όρια της φαντασίας.

[Monica Cabral · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neste livro William Melvin Kelley conta-nos a história de uma pequena cidade do sul dos Estados Unidos, chamada Sutton, mais especificamente a história de um  habitante : Tucker Caliban, um agricultor negro, que um dia cobre os seus 3 hectares de terra com sal, mata a vaca e o seu cavalo, incendeia a sua casa e parte da cidade com a sua família para nunca mais voltar. No dia seguinte toda a população negra da cidade faz o mesmo, parte de vez para diferentes estados do país.  Esta partida repentina de toda a comunidade negra levanta algumas questões:
- O que aconteceu para partirem assim todos de uma vez?
- Que consequências pode trazer para a comunidade branca da cidade este êxodo da comunidade negra?
A história não é contada pela voz de Tucker Caliban mas sim por diferentes personagens,  todas brancas e que têm fortes raízes nos Estados Confederados do Sul, o que torna este livro por si só um acto político, pois várias gerações de personagens,  através dos seus testemunhos dão-nos uma ideia clara de como a questão racial é muito importante para os americanos brancos e que os leva inclusive a mudar a maneira de pensar e falar sobre os negros, consoante a idade que tenham.
Este livro é de leitura fluída e fala brilhantemente sobre o racismo,  direitos civis e segregação racial nos estados do sul dos Estados Unidos da América,  e embora tenha sido escrito em 1962 estes temas são, infelizmente, muito actuais.

[Dave Marsland · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘’Anyone, anyone can break loose from his chains. That courage, no matter how deeply buried, is always waiting to be called out. All it needs is the right coaxing, the right voice to do that coaxing, and it will come roaring like a tiger.’’

Published in 1962 A Different Drummer is as powerful now as ever. The central themes are slavery, segregation and subjugation. What surprised me about this book was its compassion and humour.
Believe all the hype around it. It's a fierce and dazzling book, an essential read.

[Gavin Armour · Rating 5 out of 5]

Je älter man wird, je mehr Lebens- und Leseerfahrung man ansammelt, desto seltener – leider – trifft man auf Bücher, die einen noch packen, wie es einst jene Werke konnten, die man in der Jugend las, die einem fremde, verlockende Welten eröffneten und denen man folgte, wohin auch immer. Die Lektüre wird im Laufe der Jahre schwieriger, komplexer, reflexiver, aber auch verkopfter, theoretischer und damit zwangsläufig intellektueller. Und zugleich liest man distanzierter, achtet mehr auf Sprache, Metaebenen, darauf, was sich hinter den genutzten Bildern, den Metaphern, den Geschichten und der Sprache selbst verbirgt. Umso größer die Freude, wenn man dann auf Texte stößt, die trotz des höheren Anspruchs , den man selber an sie hat, und trotz des höheren Anspruchs, den sie an den Leser stellen, packen, einen entführen, zwingen, immer genauer und noch einmal genauer zu lesen, hinzuschauen, in Welten einzutreten, die zu betreten man nie hätte erwarten können.

EIN ANDERER TAKT (A DIFFERENT DRUMMER; Original erschienen 1962) von William Melvin Kelley ist ein solcher Text. Damit kein Mißverständnis entsteht: Es ist ein harter Text, sein grundierendes Thema ist der Rassismus, der – wir sehen es gerade wieder mit aller Deutlichkeit – noch heute das Leben in den USA, ganz spezifisch im Süden der Vereinigten Staaten, bestimmt. Der gebürtige New Yorker Kelley, der diesen spezifischen Rassismus des Südens, der noch einmal eine andere, sehr eigene, Qualität aufweist als jener in Neuengland, Chicago, Los Angeles oder eben New York, selbst nicht erleben musste, nutzt einen Staat, der im Süden liegt, den es aber auf der Landkarte nicht gibt, um seinen Lesern begreiflich zu machen, wie dieser historische Rassismus tief in die Gesellschaft, in die Köpfe und Herzen der Bevölkerung eingedrungen ist und sie bis heute (ja, HEUTE) bestimmt und prägt. Es ist ein namenloser Staat, der aber in etwa dort liegt, wo in der Realität Louisiana verortet ist, und weist als größte Stadt New Marsails auf, unschwer als Allegorie auf New Orleans zu erkennen. Louisiana gilt auch heute noch als einer der rassistischsten, am meisten gespaltenen Staaten der USA. Diese literarische Strategie gibt Kelley unterschiedliche Möglichkeiten, seine Anliegen zu bearbeiten. Eines dieser Anliegen ist u.a., einer weißen Leserschaft einen Spiegel vorzuhalten, in dem sich der weiße Rezipient schnell erkennen kann…erkennen muß. Indem Kelley seine Geschichte vom Auszug der Schwarzen aus dem Süden – nicht zufällig erinnert dies an den Auszug der Juden aus Ägypten – in einem imaginären Staat geschehen lässt, hat er aber auch die Möglichkeit, die kulturellen, nicht zuletzt literarischen Implikationen seiner Erzählung und deren Vorgeschichte auszuloten.

An einem heißen Nachmittag beginnt der schwarze Farmer Tucker Caliban damit, seine Felder zu versalzen, dann tötet er das Vieh und brennt schließlich seine Farm nieder. Er und seine Familie werden gen Norden ziehen. Die weiße Bevölkerung der kleinen Stadt Sutton schaut schweigend zu, versucht zu begreifen, was vor sich geht. Doch wirklich verstörend wird es für diese Männer, als immer mehr Schwarze die Stadt, das County, den Staat verlassen. Sie gehen – und zurück bleiben verunsicherte Weiße, die sich fragen: Warum?

Kelleys Text steht in direktem Bezug zu und Kommunikation, respektive Korrespondenz, mit dezidierten Südstaatenautoren wie Walker Percy, Carson McCullers, vor allem aber William Faulkner, jenem Giganten der amerikanischen Literatur, der in seinem ebenfalls imaginären Yoknapatawpha County, in Mississippi gelegen, exemplarisch – und aus sehr weißer Sicht – die Probleme des Südens literarisch durchspielte und reflektierte. Faulkner starb übrigens im Jahr des Erscheinens von Kelley Text, 1962. Doch sind Kelleys literarische Bezüge vielschichtig. So trägt jene Figur, die man als Hauptprotagonisten des Romans bezeichnen könnte und die dennoch keine eigene Stimme in diesem Werk hat, den Namen Tucker Caliban. Caliban, jenes mythische Wesen aus Shakespeares DER STURM, Prosperos Sklave. Tucker Caliban wird im Roman eine direkte Herkunft von einem Schwarzen nachgesagt, der einst mit einem Schiff aus Afrika kam und sich vehement gegen seine Versklavung wehrte, in den Urwäldern des Südens verschwand und für Aufruhr auf den Plantagen sorgte, bevor es seinem „Besitzer“ Dewey Willson gelang, ihn zu stellen und zu töten. Dieser Mann, „der Afrikaner“ genannt, ist also selbst eine literarische Figur. Es ist eine Legende, die die Alten im Ort Sutton sich und den Jüngeren wieder und wieder an langen, heißen Nachmittagen auf den Veranden der Geschäfte und ihrer Häuser erzählen. Eine Legende – Literatur. Wie beim Shakespeare´schen Caliban, ist auch dessen Herkunft in Kelleys Roman eine zugeschriebene, wie dem Shakespear´schen Caliban, wird auch Tucker Caliban – wie allen Schwarzen mindestens im Süden – unter Ausblendung jeglicher sozialen, kulturellen und historischen Aspekte gern etwas Wildes, gar Bestialisches zugeschrieben, etwas, das im Gegensatz zu Bildung und Kultur stünde. Hinzu kommt der bereits erwähnte biblische Bezug, der sich dadurch verstärkt, daß später im Text ein mysteriöser Schwarzer namens B.T. Bradshaw auf, ein Reverend eigenen Rechts, der seiner eigenen Kirche vorsteht. In gerade dieser – sowohl sympathischen wie auch zutiefst bedrohlichen Figur rekurriert Kelley auch auf ureigene schwarze Legenden wie jene des Bluessängers Robert Johnson, der einst – standing at the crossroads – den Teufel traf, ihm seine Seele verkaufte und dafür die Gitarre zu spielen lernte wie kein Zweiter und dem seine 29 verbürgten Songs – jeder einzelne einer für die Ewigkeit – nur so zugeflogen sein sollen.

Vor allem aber ist Kelleys Text eine Selbstbemächtigung, darin pure, reine, wunderbare Literatur, denn er lässt in seinem Roman ausschließlich Weiße zu Wort kommen. Nachdem Jahrzehnte, ja Jahrhunderte lang weiße Autoren Schwarze haben sprechen lassen – allen voran Margaret Mitchell in GONE WITH THE WIND (Original erschienen 1936) – und sie dabei stigmatisierten, sowohl sprachlich in der Beschreibung ihres Wesens, als auch auf der sprachlichen Ebene ihres Redens, nimmt nun ein Schwarzer radikal die Position des weißen Sprechenden ein und dekonstruiert darin weiße Selbstansichten. Die Willsons, jene Nachfahren von Dewey Willson, der den „Afrikaner“ einst zur Strecke und damit Ruhe in die Seelen der weißen Bevölkerung in Sutton und Umgebung brachte, geben sich liberal, aufgeklärt und modern und begreifen dennoch kaum, was sie mit ihrem Verhalten Schwarzen antun und wie sie sie weiterhin stigmatisieren, definieren und ihren Status zementieren.

Kelley lässt aber auch die „einfache“ Landbevölkerung zu Wort kommen, denn Calibans einziger weißer „Freund“ ist ein etwa zehnjähriger Junge, genannt Mister Leland, der mit seinem Vater Harry Leland regelmäßig von der Farm, die sie bewirtschaften, in die Stadt fährt, den Reden der „Männer auf der Veranda“ lauscht und so allerhand erfährt, was sich in der Gegend tut. Gerade diese „Männer auf der Veranda“ könnten direkt einem Roman von Faulkner entstiegen sein. Sie sprechen über die Schwarzen, aber selten mit ihnen, sie glauben, ihre schwarzen Mitmenschen zu durchschauen und begreifen nichts von dem, was vor sich geht. Sie kommentieren, was sie sehen und sehen doch nicht, was geschieht. Und als alles vorbei ist und der gesamte Staat nur noch weiße Menschen beheimatet, weil die Schwarzen über Tage und Wochen ausgezogen sind, gen Norden, begreifen diese Männer in ihrer einfachen, ländlichen Art und Weise auf einmal die Dialektik, die zwischen ihnen und ihren schwarzen Mitbürgern über Jahrzehnte und Jahrhunderte entstanden ist. Sie begreifen diese Dialektik aber nicht in einem Hegelianischen Sinne – also als einen folgerichtigen Fortschritt der Menschheitsgeschichte – sondern als einen Affront. Denn sie begreifen nicht nur ganz pragmatisch, daß nun niemand mehr die Arbeit verrichten wird, die sie nicht tun wollen, daß Mr. Thomason, auf dessen Veranda vor seinem Laden sie sich regelmäßig treffen, wahrscheinlich die Hälfte seiner Kunden verloren hat, sondern auf eher instinktive Art und Weise, daß sie nun auf sich selbst zurückgeworfen sind. Da ist niemand mehr, den sie gängeln können, da ist niemand mehr, auf den sie hinabsehen können und dem es – bei aller eigenen Armut und Not – immer noch etwas dreckiger geht, jemand, den man herumschubsen kann, um das eigene Selbstwertgefühl zu steigern. Auch hier schimmert Hegel in Kelleys Text auf, denn was wird aus dem Gleichnis vom Herrn und Knecht, wenn der Knecht sich entschließt zu gehen? Wer ist danach Herr, wer Knecht?

Kelley lässt in den zehn Kapiteln seines Buchs immer Weiße direkt erzählen – allen voran die Willsons, die gern im Norden studierten und dadurch mit liberalen, gar sozialistischen Ideen in Berührung kamen – oder berichtet aus ihrer Perspektive. So bleibt Tucker Calibans Entschluß, seine Felder zu vergiften, seine Farm niederzubrennen und das wenige Vieh, das er sein Eigen nannte, zu töten, sowohl den „Männern auf der Veranda“, als auch „Mister Leland“ und letztlich auch dem (weißen) Leser unergründlich. Sicher, intellektuell begreifen wir, daß es hier um einen Akt der Selbstbestimmung, der Befreiung geht, daß erst in der radikalen Loslösung von allem, was man hat, auch von dem, was man vielleicht liebt, wirkliche Freiheit – nothing left to lose – liegt. Doch die tieferen emotionalen Gründe für diesen Akt, der schließlich dazu führt, das eine enorme Masse schweigender schwarzer Menschen Tucker Calibans Beispiel folgt und die Heimat, die nie eine war, verlässt, diese Gründe wird wahrscheinlich nur ein schwarzer Leser begreifen können.

Was ein weißer Leser, auch nahezu sechzig Jahre, nachdem Kelleys Werk erschienen ist, begreifen muß, ist sein eigenes Unverständnis, das Unvermögen, grundlegend die Beziehung weißer und schwarzer Menschen unter den spezifischen Bedingungen des Südens (und nicht nur dort) zu begreifen. Der schwarze Mensch ist als Ware in die Geschichte des Südens, der USA, letztlich der weißen Welt Europas. eingetreten. Von allem Anfang an war der Schwarze – ob Mann, Frau oder Kind – eine Ware, die man kaufen und entäußern konnte. Es wurde nie Rücksicht auf Familienzusammengehörigkeit genommen, schwarze Menschen im Süden waren Verfügungsmasse, die man züchtigen konnte, die bis zum Umfallen schuften mussten, die man herumschubsen und nach eigenem Gusto behandeln konnte und die man gelegentlich aus reinem Sadismus, aus purer Freude an Schmerz und Qual anderer, töten konnte. Und daran hat sich auch nach dem Bürgerkrieg strukturell nie etwas verändert. Aus dem Sklavenverhältnis wurde institutionalisierter Rassismus, während der sogenannten Ära der Reconstruction wurde per Zensus und Wahlrechtsreform systematisch dafür gesorgt, daß schwarze Menschen auch weiterhin ökonomisch, politisch und kulturell im Nachteil, wenn nicht rundweg unterdrückt blieben.

All diese Erkenntnisse, all diese Tatsachen, diese Fakten, diese Ungerechtigkeiten schwingen in Kelleys Text mit. Mehr noch – sie erklären sich hier nahezu exemplarisch und bleiben einem weißen Leser eben doch emotional verschlossen. Und es ist genau diese Verschlossenheit, die Kelley spürbar macht, wenn er durch die Selbstbemächtigung weißer Sprache, weißen Denkens, eben auch jene bloßstellt, die sich selbst für progressiv, für liberal, für modern halten. Selten hat ein Romantext einem Großteil seiner Leser (so sich denn genügend weiße Leser finden) so gnadenlos und auch bedingungslos den Spiegel vorgehalten, wie EIN ANDERER TAKT. Und so stellt sich am Ende der Lektüre die Frage, wer hier über Kultur, Bildung und Pli verfügt und wer der Wilde, die Bestie ist. Tucker Caliban? Oder doch eine Gesellschaft, die ihre eigenen Abgründe nur damit kaschieren kann, sich anderen, die sie eine „Rasse“ nennen, überlegen zu fühlen, an denen die eigene Brutalität, Bestialität auszuleben ihnen gerechtfertigt scheint unter dem Signum, es nicht mit Menschen, sondern mit lebender Ware, mit Vieh, zu tun zu haben?

Das ist, hier gilt das Wort einmal uneingeschränkt, Weltliteratur. Literatur, die in der Kunstfertigkeit ihrer Konzeption, in ihrer Vielschichtigkeit, in ihrem unbedingten Willen, sich literarisch zu verstehen, in ihrer Präzision und den Abgründen, die sie fast spielerisch aufbricht und in die sie den Leser blicken lässt, ihresgleichen sucht. Suchen wird.

[diario_de_um_leitor_pjv · Rating 4 out of 5]

COMENTÁRIO
⭐⭐⭐⭐
"Um tambor diferente"
William Melvin Kelley
Tradução e Prefácio de Salvato Teles de Menezes


As vozes brancas (e da branquitude) escritas por uma mão negra. Que ideia tão diferenciadora teve William Melvin Kelley neste seu primeiro romance. Escrito aos 23 anos, publicado em 1962 este é o livro que renascido das cinzas faz alguns anos repõe, de um modo apurado, uma voz super interessante na literatura norte-americana da segunda metade do século XX.

Os homens no alpendre curiosos a cuscar todas as movimentações na aldeia, a família ex-esclavagista em decadência, as crianças e a sua eterna e doce curiosidade são parte de uma miríade de personagens brancas que observam a debandada da população negra.

Debandada essa que se iniciou depois de Tucker Caliban (este sobrenome é uma instigante referência shakesperiana) ter espalhado umas toneladas de sal nos terrenos da sua quinta, morto os animais e incendiado a casa onde vivia. A partir deste evento - observado com curiosidade pelos homens do alpendre - a população negra abandona um Estado simbólico, situado no "sul profundo" dos Estados Unidos da América.

Melvin Kelley escreve assim, a partir da reprodução da voz branca, uma alegoria do momento em que o negro escravo torna infértil a terra que trabalhou e abandona a sociedade que o escravizou.

Num estilo inovador (o uso de entradas de diário, por exemplo) o autor consegue prender o leitor no caminho da aprendizagem e reflexão.

[Racheli Zusiman · Rating 4 out of 5]

אחר צהריים אחד, טאקר קאליבן, חוואי שחור בעיירה בדיונית במדינה בדיונית בדרום ארה"ב, מפזר מלח על אדמתו, הורג את חיות המשק, שובר את הרהיטים, מצית את ביתו ועוזב את המקום עם אשתו ההרה וילדו. מעשהו מצית תנועת עזיבה המונית של כל האוכלוסייה השחורה במדינה. הספר מסופר מנקודת המבט של האוכלוסייה הלבנה, המנסה להבין על מה ולמה, וספציפית של בני משפחת וילסון, שהיו הבעלים ולאחר מכן המעסיקים של קאליבן ושל אבותיו. ספר חזק, מרתק ומומלץ.

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Different Drummer is set in a fictional state in the USA, a southern state sandwiched between Mississippi and Alabama of which we never learn the name. One day, a young, black farmer, Tucker Caliban, salts his land, kills his livestock, burns his house, and leaves. Then, the whole African-American population of the state ups and leaves.

The story is presented to us in chapters from the point of view of different white members of the community and each chapter opens the story a bit further. Mr Harper relates the story of The African, an ancestor of Tucker Caliban who escaped from a docked ship and ran off carrying his chains and a baby. At the end of that story, The African is dead but the baby survives and his line continues down to Tucker. Mr Harper maintains that The African’s blood is in Tucker and has provoked the action that is central to this story. Harry Leland tells us the story of Tucker’s actions, but then Harry’s son meets the mysterious Reverend Bradshaw who wants to know all about Tucker. And so the details develop and we are pulled deeper and deeper into the story. Why would all the African-Americans in a community suddenly leave?

And what does their leaving mean for the community that remains?

This is a book about race. It is written by a black person who is writing about white people thinking about black people. In this case, the white people are completely confused by the sudden, but completely non-violent, refusal of the African-American community to continue living under condition of subordination.

But it is also a book broader than race. As a Brit living in a country dealing (or failing to deal) with one of the more stupid decisions a country has made, it was hard not to think about Brexit when reading:

"Sure! What we need them for anyways? Look what’s happening in Mississippi or over in Alabama. We don’t have to worry about THAT no more. We got us a new start, like the fellow says. Now we can live like we always lived and don’t have to worry about no n****r come a-knocking at the door, wanting to sit at our supper tables"…"Look-it, there’ll be plenty of work, plenty land - all the work and all the land them n****rs was taking up. We’ll be doing right well soon as we get arranged."…"But there might be too much work and too much land"…"We might not have enough folks to do it all. That’s some economics I learned upstate. That means we won’t have enough food."…"We’ll still be better off."…"Take Thomason there. He’s running the only store in Sutton now. Before, there was two; that n****r up there, he had a store. Now Thomason’s got all the business"…"Yes, but there’s LESS than half the customers."

(Note the n-word is used a LOT in this book, which is probably more offensive to modern day readers, so be warned).

The book gave me cause to reflect on some of the themes that have been dominant in this year’s Man Booker long list which has several books that talk about borders, about divisions in and between communities. A Different Drummer was first published well over 50 years ago, but its themes and its message are no less relevant now than they were then.

My thanks to Quercus Books for a review copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[How About Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Πως θα αντιδρούσαν οι λευκοί, όταν όλοι οι μαύροι κάτοικοι της πόλης, φύγουν, όταν εγκαταλείψουν, καταστρέψουν, κάψουν τις περιουσίες και τα υπάρχοντα τους, φορέσουν τα καλά τους, πάρουν ένα λεωφορείο και εξαφανιστούν;

Σε μία φανταστική πολιτεία του Νότου, στην πόλη Σάτον, μέσα στο έτος ’57, ο Τάκερ Κάλιμπαν αποφασίζει να ρίξει αλάτι στο χωράφι του, να σκοτώσει τα ζωντανά του, να κάψει το σπίτι του και να φύγει.
Εκείνος άλλωστε είναι ο απόγονος του μυθικού επαναστάτη των δούλων, που ήρθε με τη βία από μέρη εξωτικά και πολέμησε να μείνει ελεύθερος λίγο ακόμα.
Και είναι η δική του καρδιά συντονισμένη στον αρχέγονο ρυθμό του τυμπάνου εκείνου του ελεύθερου- δούλου, είναι ο δικός του ρυθμός που τον οδηγεί, που καθοδηγεί την μεγάλη απόδραση.

Μέσα σε μία ρατσιστική, εξουσιαστική και ταξική κοινωνία, γεμάτη μίσος και διακρίσεις, οι μαύροι διαλέγουν. Διαλέγουν να την εγκαταλείψουν, αφού τίποτα άλλο δεν τους μένει για μια καλύτερή ζωή, αφού οι λευκοί ακόμα δεν έμαθαν την συνύπαρξη. Φεύγουν και νοητά τους ρωτούν: Τώρα εσείς τι θα κάνετε;
 
Το εντυπωσιακό στο βιβλίο είναι η γωνία που διαλέγει ο  Γουίλιαμ Κέλι για να σαρώσει το σύμπαν του. Η αφήγηση είναι πολύφωνική, από πρόσωπα με ετερόκλητες αντιλήψεις, ηλικίες και κοινωνικές θέσεις, όμως πάντα λευκά. Έτσι μελετά την αποσβολωμένη λευκή κοινότητα που αναρωτιέται ή που προσποιείται πως αδιαφορεί την πρώτη της φορά που δεν αποφασίζει εκείνη, που δεν εξουσιάζει.

Τώρα που έφυγαν οι μαύροι, ποιοι μένουν για να τους επιβάλλονται; Και αν δεν επιβάλλονται σε κανένα, ποια είναι τώρα η ταυτότητα τους; Πως θα καταφέρουν πάλι, να μην αντικρίζουν την αδικία που προκαλούν και την φρίκη της ψυχής τους;

[Γιάννης Ζαραμπούκας · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://www.envivlio.com/krk300900s


[...] Ο συγγραφέας μέσα από την αφηγηματική αυτή πολυφωνία καταφέρνει να συνθέσει ένα ψηφιδωτό αφηγήσεων στο επίκεντρο των οποίων βρίσκονται οι αναμνήσεις των κατοίκων της περιοχής και το ιδιαίτερα σκληρό και σκοτεινό παρελθόν που τους συνδέει. Ο Kelley τοποθετεί προσεκτικά κάτω από τον συγγραφικό του φακό και εξετάζει διεξοδικά το φαινόμενο του ρατσισμού στην μετεμφυλιακή Αμερική χωρίς ίχνος συναισθηματισμού που να οδηγεί σε έξαρση της έντασης του δράματος, που ίσως να οδηγούσε επικίνδυνα το έργο αυτό στα όρια του μελό. Αντίθετα, θα έλεγα πως πίσω από τις λέξεις του Kelley διαφαίνεται μία τάση για αυτοσαρκασμό και λεπτή ειρωνεία, που αυτόματα κάνουν το μυθιστόρημα του να ξεχωρίζει έναντι άλλων μυθιστορημάτων αντίστοιχης θεματολογίας. Μέσα από τις αναπολήσεις του παρελθόντος και τις εξομολογήσεις των πολυάριθμων αφηγητών έρχονται στην επιφάνεια μνήμες που σχετίζονται με την εποχή που υπήρχαν ακόμη σκλάβοι. Την εποχή που απαγορεύονταν να εισέλθουν στα μαγαζιά των λευκών, να καθίσουν πλάι τους στο λεωφορείο. Την εποχή εκείνη που οι Αφροαμερικανοί δεν είχαν πρόσβαση σε αναφαίρετα και αυτονόητα πλέον ανθρώπινα δικαιώματα, όπως αυτό της μόρφωσης, της προσωπικής ελευθερίας, της ανάπτυξης διαπροσωπικών σχέσεων, καθώς και το δικαίωμα στην ελπίδα για μία καλύτερη ζωή!

[Francine Kopun · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book deserves to be on the list of top 100 books in the English language; it’s that good. It’s original, gripping, complex, imaginative. The writing is clean and disciplined. The characters leap off the pages. I feel like it was influenced by As I Lay Dying, but unlike AILD, this novel is accessible.
An intimate portrait of the South, of the U.S., by a Black man. If you’re a serious reader, get this book!

[Tânia]

"Num estado imaginário do ”Sul profundo”, os habitantes afro-americanos decidem, um dia, partir. Sem explicações, começam a abandonar o território, depois de um dos elementos da comunidade, descendente de um escravo que se transformou numa lenda, ter salgado as suas terras e incendiado a casa antes de se pôr a caminho do Norte. A debandada, situada em 1957, deixa os cidadãos brancos locais estupefactos e aturdidos. Não conseguem compreender aquilo que se está a passar e assistem atónitos ao fenómeno.

Este é o ponto de partida de “Um Tambor Diferente”, a obra mais celebrada de William Melvin Kelley. Publicado em 1962, o livro foi prontamente esquecido, mas acabou por ser recuperado sob uma chuva de elogios que chegam a considerar o autor como “o gigante perdido da literatura norte-americana”, colocado no patamar de destaque onde são recordados escritores como William Faulkner e James Baldwin.

Para um livro que aborda um tema sensível como as relações raciais no Sul dos Estados Unidos, o ponto de vista escolhido por Kelley é surpreendente. A narrativa dos acontecimentos que perturbam as rotinas é assegurada por elementos da comunidade branca, incluindo uma criança, e é a partir destes diferentes olhares que os mistérios do inesperado êxodo vão sendo esclarecidos. “Um Tambor Diferente” é um livro sobre libertação, escrito com grande ironia e muita subtileza."
João Cândido da Silva in Expresso Curto de 13/05/2021

[Zek · Rating 5 out of 5]

ספר מיוחד, שונה ומקורי שמאד אהבתי. לעיתים הרגשתי שניתן להציב במקום המילה ״שחורים״ ״יהודים״ ועדיין הוא היה נשאר ספר נפלא. זה רק מראה כמה משותף יש בין השחורים ליהודים ולא סתם חלק ניכר מהתומכים במאבק השחורים בתקופהההיא היו יהודים.

[Έλσα · Rating 3 out of 5]

«Ένας διαφορετικός τυμπανιστής»

Ένα βιβλίο που μου άρεσε ως προς τον τρόπο γραφής. Νιώθεις πως η ιστορία εξελίσσεται ανάποδα. Ο αναγνώστης γνωρίζει τους ήρωες ξεχωριστά σε κάθε κεφάλαιο. Άτομα που κρύβουν πίκρες αναμνήσεις, που βιώνουν τις δυσκολίες της ζωής μόνοι τους. Υπήρχαν σελίδες που κυλούσαν τόσο γρήγορα. Ένιωθα την ανάγκη να τις ρουφήξω. Υπήρχαν όμως, σελίδες που απλά περνούσαν χωρίς να μου προκαλούν κάτι. Στο σύνολο είναι ένα βιβλίο που με κάλυψε!