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Speak Now
Harry Forbes didn't give a damn about Paris. It was a city, a place where he could earn good money as a jazz musician, a place where he could forget his blackness, his past, and the only woman he'd ever wanted. There was no room in his life for a white girl like Kathy Nichols. She was too young, too much the daughter of a wealthy Southern tobacco magnate doing her thing abroad. But she was beautiful and in trouble -- and suddenly Harry Forbes was going to give his name to another man's child and marry this woman he dared not love....
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1969
3 people are currently reading
64 people want to read
About the author
Frank Yerby
126 books117 followersBorn in Augusta, Georgia to Rufus Garvin Yerby, an African American, and Wilhelmina Smythe, who was caucasian. He graduated from Haines Normal Institute in Augusta and graduated from Paine College in 1937. Thereafter, Yerby enrolled in Fisk University where he received his Master's degree in 1938. In 1939, Yerby entered the University of Chicago to work toward his doctorate but later left the university. Yerby taught briefly at Florida A&M University and at Southern University in Baton Rouge.
Frank Yerby rose to fame as a writer of popular fiction tinged with a distinctive southern flavor. In 1946 he became the first African-American to publish a best-seller with The Foxes of Harrow. That same year he also became the first African-American to have a book purchased for screen adaptation by a Hollywood studio, when 20th Century Fox optioned Foxes. Ultimately the book became a 1947 Oscar-nominated film starring Rex Harrison and Maureen O'Hara. Yerby was originally noted for writing romance novels set in the Antebellum South. In mid-century he embarked on a series of best-selling novels ranging from the Athens of Pericles to Europe in the Dark Ages. Yerby took considerable pains in research, and often footnoted his historical novels. In all he wrote 33 novels.
Frank Yerby rose to fame as a writer of popular fiction tinged with a distinctive southern flavor. In 1946 he became the first African-American to publish a best-seller with The Foxes of Harrow. That same year he also became the first African-American to have a book purchased for screen adaptation by a Hollywood studio, when 20th Century Fox optioned Foxes. Ultimately the book became a 1947 Oscar-nominated film starring Rex Harrison and Maureen O'Hara. Yerby was originally noted for writing romance novels set in the Antebellum South. In mid-century he embarked on a series of best-selling novels ranging from the Athens of Pericles to Europe in the Dark Ages. Yerby took considerable pains in research, and often footnoted his historical novels. In all he wrote 33 novels.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
July 27, 2020
Never thought I would read / like a 60's romance novel, but there it is. Thanks, grandpa???
October 12, 2020
Una novela de amor con un ingrediente sorpresa: amor.
Y es que, a diferencia de muchas novelas y sagas románticas que parecen todas iguales, prefabricadas y algo plásticas, Mayo fue el fin del mundo es una obra muy personal, un trabajo de artesano, irrepetible. Y con esto no hablo de una trama novedosa, giros argumentales o personajes sorprendentes, sino a algo más elemental: se nota mucho que Frank Yerby puso el corazón en este libro, y que estaba pensando en contarnos la historia que le nacía contar, en vez de preocuparse por la última tendencia del mercado, por si están de moda los vampiros o los brontosaurios, o por lo que el público quisiera leer.
Y es que, a diferencia de muchas novelas y sagas románticas que parecen todas iguales, prefabricadas y algo plásticas, Mayo fue el fin del mundo es una obra muy personal, un trabajo de artesano, irrepetible. Y con esto no hablo de una trama novedosa, giros argumentales o personajes sorprendentes, sino a algo más elemental: se nota mucho que Frank Yerby puso el corazón en este libro, y que estaba pensando en contarnos la historia que le nacía contar, en vez de preocuparse por la última tendencia del mercado, por si están de moda los vampiros o los brontosaurios, o por lo que el público quisiera leer.
June 18, 2021
"París, Mayo de 1968: tales son la fecha y el lugar del encuentro entre Kathy Nichols, estudiante perteneciente a una rica familia del sur de Estados Unidos, y su compatriota Harry Forbes, clarinetista de jazz de raza negra".
Hasta aquí es lo original, ahora añado yo mi versión:
En medio ese singular y revuelto momento histórico (nótese que cuando la termina de escribir es mayo de 1969, es decir que para el escritor es una novela contemporánea), estos dos personajes se enfrenta a los prejuicios sociales que se quieren destruir en ese momento de la historia y que ellos mismos representan. Cada uno desprecia y teme al otro porque lo desconoce y tienen que superar la lucha entre lo que son y lo que quieren ser.
La novela es un camino de descubrimiento, nada es como debería ser, y está llena de giros emocionantes.
Hasta aquí es lo original, ahora añado yo mi versión:
En medio ese singular y revuelto momento histórico (nótese que cuando la termina de escribir es mayo de 1969, es decir que para el escritor es una novela contemporánea), estos dos personajes se enfrenta a los prejuicios sociales que se quieren destruir en ese momento de la historia y que ellos mismos representan. Cada uno desprecia y teme al otro porque lo desconoce y tienen que superar la lucha entre lo que son y lo que quieren ser.
La novela es un camino de descubrimiento, nada es como debería ser, y está llena de giros emocionantes.
December 12, 2025
'Mayo fue el fin del mundo' es el libro que viene a mi mente cuando pienso el momento en el que me enamoré de leer, Harry Kathy están rodeados de transfondos la ciudad es un personaje más.
Todos son inmigrantes, todos son ajenos.
A mis 14 años no entendía qué carajos eran todas las referencias todo el transfondo.
Hace unos días volví a leerlo y con un bagaje más adecuado se vuelve aún más hermosa esta historia de amor, donde la revolución el racismo parecen ser meramente anecdocticos pero a la vez es contra lo que luchan y donde navegan.
Todos son inmigrantes, todos son ajenos.
A mis 14 años no entendía qué carajos eran todas las referencias todo el transfondo.
Hace unos días volví a leerlo y con un bagaje más adecuado se vuelve aún más hermosa esta historia de amor, donde la revolución el racismo parecen ser meramente anecdocticos pero a la vez es contra lo que luchan y donde navegan.
April 3, 2022
Es uno de mis libros favoritos, en serio, lo leí y me enamoro la manera en que desarrollo la relación, esa manera de odio y amor a la vez en el protagonista (es muy insoportable eso sí Harry Forbes) pero aún así lo quiero por sus decisiones y apresar de que es muy impulsivo. El final me ha dejado enamorada.
June 25, 2024
El libro en sí no está mal y la historia es reivindicativa de alguna manera, pero siento que no es mi tipo de lectura.
Siendo un libro que tiene ya bastantes años, peca de muchos micromachismos, dando la sensación de que las mujeres que salen quedan supeditadas a la decisión que toma el hombre (????) No sé, creo que habría que darle una vuelta a eso
Siendo un libro que tiene ya bastantes años, peca de muchos micromachismos, dando la sensación de que las mujeres que salen quedan supeditadas a la decisión que toma el hombre (????) No sé, creo que habría que darle una vuelta a eso
March 5, 2010
Frank Yerby was one of the more successful African-American authors of his generation. In a prolific career that spanned 33 novels it was his first, The Foxes of Harrow (1946), a Southern barnburner, that remained his most popular. It was immediately bought by 20th Century Fox and made into a commercially successful film.
Speak Now comes from later in Yerby's career, 1969, and it is fairly ambitious in what Yerby tries to do with it. Within the framework of a "forbidden" interracial romance plot (black man, white woman), he covers and philosophizes about (mostly through the voice of Harry Forbes, the black jazz musician) a gamut of racial, multicultural and political issues. The novel takes place in Paris during the infamous May 1968 student riots, but begins with an act of Islamic extremism. Harry himself is a Vietnam vet, so it seems violent turmoil follows him, or he, it.
Forbes is an American expat in a kind of exile from his past. A shell in Vietnam has left him with a permanent limp, and the death of his beautiful Vietnamese wife, Fleur, has left him with a permanent emotional scar. He plays clarinet to a cadre of adoring fans, mostly young women all too eager to bed him, in a shady club owned by a wealthy, gregarious North African named Ahmed. As the book opens, the club has been shot up by members of El Fatah, an Islamic extremist group, as revenge for Ahmed's refusal to pay them extortion money to buy arms for their cause. The continuing threat of El Fatah to Ahmed and his family is one that remains omnipresent through the book. Harry is beholden to Ahmed for many reasons and both are good friends, and Ahmed's daughter Ouija carries a romantic torch for Harry, which becomes a complication later. After the shooting, Harry suddenly meets a young, blonde and bedraggled American gal, Kathy Nichols, who sits down next to him in a cafe, broke and hungry and distraught. Kathy is a blueblood North Carolina white belle who it turns out is not only broke but pregnant and stranded in Paris after being dumped by a cad fiance. Harry--sarcastic, well educated, talented, hunky and impossibly nice--gives Kathy some money and helps her out until she can get back on her feet and pay him back. Harry concocts a scheme to help Kathy minimize the threat to her reputation and stay in the good graces of her family, but it entails great sacrifice on his part and I can't reveal it because it's a spoiler. Because of her upbringing, Kathy harbors subtle and not-so-subtle racism, which Harry detects immediately and chides her about throughout the book. During the course of his gently sarcastic insults, we learn the depth of Harry's hurt as a self-loathing black American dealing with racism in his everyday life. His mood is one of mixed feelings of both anger and resignation. Kathy's hanging around with Harry would be anathema with her North Carolina family; her father being a wealthy tobacco tycoon. As the book proceeds, she finds the prejudices of her upbringing dissolving as she gradually falls for Harry. But love is the easy part; there are many unresolved issues to overcome, not the least of which is surviving through the street riots going on all around them.
So, in spite of all the striving at relevancy, is this really a good book? I have to say, I'm not sure. I'm glad I read it, but there's something jagged and tentative about Yerby's writing that made it feel awkward at times. I do like the milieu of Paris jazz clubs and black American expats playing to adoring French fans. For that I also would recommend the superb 1986 film, 'Round Midnight starring Dexter Gordon.
Speak Now is, no doubt, a period piece, maybe as much of one as say, Pride and Prejudice. Conversations like the ones in this book don't happen too much in 2010 (maybe they didn't happen so much in 1969), since interracial relationships are now commonplace. Harry is so damned nice that the book almost seems like the source of a lost screenplay for a Sidney Poitier film. The writing is mostly good, though. The process of Harry and Kathy falling in love is fairly well realized and kind of sweet, but it is a long buildup over the course of the book and when things really heat up I felt a little cheated that I wasn't allowed to share in the couple's intimacies when they finally happened. In any case, I did get edification from seeing racial issues of concern to Yerby brought out through the voice of Harry, giving the book great sociological interest. The character of Kathy I found a little too wishy washy, though. When Yerby can't think of anything to do with her he has her break down and cry. The book on the whole was maybe a bit too pedantic, but I found it kind of charming. Plus there's the cred that comes from the pulp framework and the book's obscurity. Finding an unknown book that also happens to be pretty good is always a kind of holy grail for a reader. I wouldn't call this a "must read," but it had its rewards.
Speak Now comes from later in Yerby's career, 1969, and it is fairly ambitious in what Yerby tries to do with it. Within the framework of a "forbidden" interracial romance plot (black man, white woman), he covers and philosophizes about (mostly through the voice of Harry Forbes, the black jazz musician) a gamut of racial, multicultural and political issues. The novel takes place in Paris during the infamous May 1968 student riots, but begins with an act of Islamic extremism. Harry himself is a Vietnam vet, so it seems violent turmoil follows him, or he, it.
Forbes is an American expat in a kind of exile from his past. A shell in Vietnam has left him with a permanent limp, and the death of his beautiful Vietnamese wife, Fleur, has left him with a permanent emotional scar. He plays clarinet to a cadre of adoring fans, mostly young women all too eager to bed him, in a shady club owned by a wealthy, gregarious North African named Ahmed. As the book opens, the club has been shot up by members of El Fatah, an Islamic extremist group, as revenge for Ahmed's refusal to pay them extortion money to buy arms for their cause. The continuing threat of El Fatah to Ahmed and his family is one that remains omnipresent through the book. Harry is beholden to Ahmed for many reasons and both are good friends, and Ahmed's daughter Ouija carries a romantic torch for Harry, which becomes a complication later. After the shooting, Harry suddenly meets a young, blonde and bedraggled American gal, Kathy Nichols, who sits down next to him in a cafe, broke and hungry and distraught. Kathy is a blueblood North Carolina white belle who it turns out is not only broke but pregnant and stranded in Paris after being dumped by a cad fiance. Harry--sarcastic, well educated, talented, hunky and impossibly nice--gives Kathy some money and helps her out until she can get back on her feet and pay him back. Harry concocts a scheme to help Kathy minimize the threat to her reputation and stay in the good graces of her family, but it entails great sacrifice on his part and I can't reveal it because it's a spoiler. Because of her upbringing, Kathy harbors subtle and not-so-subtle racism, which Harry detects immediately and chides her about throughout the book. During the course of his gently sarcastic insults, we learn the depth of Harry's hurt as a self-loathing black American dealing with racism in his everyday life. His mood is one of mixed feelings of both anger and resignation. Kathy's hanging around with Harry would be anathema with her North Carolina family; her father being a wealthy tobacco tycoon. As the book proceeds, she finds the prejudices of her upbringing dissolving as she gradually falls for Harry. But love is the easy part; there are many unresolved issues to overcome, not the least of which is surviving through the street riots going on all around them.
So, in spite of all the striving at relevancy, is this really a good book? I have to say, I'm not sure. I'm glad I read it, but there's something jagged and tentative about Yerby's writing that made it feel awkward at times. I do like the milieu of Paris jazz clubs and black American expats playing to adoring French fans. For that I also would recommend the superb 1986 film, 'Round Midnight starring Dexter Gordon.
Speak Now is, no doubt, a period piece, maybe as much of one as say, Pride and Prejudice. Conversations like the ones in this book don't happen too much in 2010 (maybe they didn't happen so much in 1969), since interracial relationships are now commonplace. Harry is so damned nice that the book almost seems like the source of a lost screenplay for a Sidney Poitier film. The writing is mostly good, though. The process of Harry and Kathy falling in love is fairly well realized and kind of sweet, but it is a long buildup over the course of the book and when things really heat up I felt a little cheated that I wasn't allowed to share in the couple's intimacies when they finally happened. In any case, I did get edification from seeing racial issues of concern to Yerby brought out through the voice of Harry, giving the book great sociological interest. The character of Kathy I found a little too wishy washy, though. When Yerby can't think of anything to do with her he has her break down and cry. The book on the whole was maybe a bit too pedantic, but I found it kind of charming. Plus there's the cred that comes from the pulp framework and the book's obscurity. Finding an unknown book that also happens to be pretty good is always a kind of holy grail for a reader. I wouldn't call this a "must read," but it had its rewards.
February 21, 2016
3.2《Por eso te suplico que.. me dejes vivir, Harry... Que me dejes conservar todo esto. Para pensar en ello, de noche. Cuando todos los demás duerman. En nuestras cosas. Tuyas y mías. Pero sobre todo mías. Mi cosa especial. Que nadie más ha tenido. Que ninguna de las demás chicas de mi país que conozco ha tenido jamás. Para conservarla. Y acariciarla en mi corazón cuando los demás digan cosas ruines y absurdas sobre los negros. Tú y tu leve cojera al andar. La manera como me miras burlonamente... y como me atas pies y manos sólo con hablar. Esas ideas tuyas que parecen tan... tan descabelladas, y que luego resultan tan verdaderas desde el mismo momento en que tengo oportunidad de pensar en ellas. Y luego... tu música. Tu música de la que estaba tan celosa, porque era toda para... para ella... para Fleur y nunca para mí.》
Es una novela que me gustó bastante, es muy dinámica y diferente a lo que suelo leer.
La discriminación es una de las peores cosas que una persona puede sufrir y este libro refleja a la perfección lo que puede hacerle a uno. Los prejuicios solo crean más prejuicios.
El romance también es bastante diferente, pero no terminó de convencerme. Hubo cosas que no se terminaron de resolver, cosas que me hubiese gustado saber.
En general, me gustó bastante y tiene unas frases maravillosas. Lamento mucho haber perdido la mayoría por no guardarlas bien. (no me atreví a marcar el libro, tengo una edición de 1970 que está hermosa♥)
Es una novela que me gustó bastante, es muy dinámica y diferente a lo que suelo leer.
La discriminación es una de las peores cosas que una persona puede sufrir y este libro refleja a la perfección lo que puede hacerle a uno. Los prejuicios solo crean más prejuicios.
El romance también es bastante diferente, pero no terminó de convencerme. Hubo cosas que no se terminaron de resolver, cosas que me hubiese gustado saber.
En general, me gustó bastante y tiene unas frases maravillosas. Lamento mucho haber perdido la mayoría por no guardarlas bien. (no me atreví a marcar el libro, tengo una edición de 1970 que está hermosa♥)
June 11, 2024
"- He vivido diecinueve millones de años en Georgia - dijo Harry calmosamente- antes de irme.
- Lo cual significa que tenías diecinueve años cuando te fuiste - dijo Kathy -, ¿No?
- Si quieres decirlo así ... A mí me parece que en cualquier lugar de los Estados Unidos un niño negro nace ya con un millón de años. Y que mientras vive envejece al ritmo de mil años por minuto. Si vive, claro. Y si a lo que hace se le puede llamar vivir..." (Pág.32)
- Lo cual significa que tenías diecinueve años cuando te fuiste - dijo Kathy -, ¿No?
- Si quieres decirlo así ... A mí me parece que en cualquier lugar de los Estados Unidos un niño negro nace ya con un millón de años. Y que mientras vive envejece al ritmo de mil años por minuto. Si vive, claro. Y si a lo que hace se le puede llamar vivir..." (Pág.32)
May 26, 2012
Not one of Yerby's better efforts. A weak attempt to be hip and contemporary. His historical works - The Odor of Sanctity, The Saracen Blade, even the pirate adventure The Golden Hawk, along with others - were far more interesting.
December 27, 2020
Aus dem Amerikanischem übertragen von Egon Strohm. Titel des Originals "Speak Now", 1972 by Frank Yerby
Blanvalet Verlag GmbH, München
Gesamtherstellung Mohndruck Reinhard Mohn OHG, Gütersloh
Buch-Nr. 026740
Ich habe das Buch auf der Straße gefunden und mit zu Geonho Yun nach Hause gebracht.
Blanvalet Verlag GmbH, München
Gesamtherstellung Mohndruck Reinhard Mohn OHG, Gütersloh
Buch-Nr. 026740
Ich habe das Buch auf der Straße gefunden und mit zu Geonho Yun nach Hause gebracht.
July 2, 2012
I read this in the 1970s. I re-read it recently. It has lost none of its power: one of the best coming-of-age novels ever written.
July 13, 2013
One of my favorites by Yerby. Probably the first interracial romances/stories I ever read.
August 31, 2010
A black musician and a white woman in Paris.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews