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Blackface: A Novel
To protect his mother, teenager Clinton Ray a.k.a. Black must run away from his home. Forced to mingle with the worst elements and conditions of urban life, he meets Face, Penny and Zero. Together they fend for the American Dream. Inevitably, experience provokes Black to observe his friends, his lifestyle and his own aspirations. In his journey of self-discovery, Black must learn how to survive on the streets of Chicago, alter his life decisions or perish in the confusion of life. Evocative, elegantly crafted and fast paced, Blackface challenges the reader and promises to be one engaging read.
209 pages, Paperback
First published June 10, 2010
2 people are currently reading
31 people want to read
About the author
Q.B. Wells
7 books2 followersAuthor of Blackface: A Novel and Publisher of Art Official Media LLC, Q.B. Wells can be reached at www.UrbaniaMAg.com"
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 9, 2010
BlackFace by Q.B Wells follows the lives of Black and Face and how their experiences in gang life shape their destiny. Black is one of the main characters who is beaten and mistreated by his mother and hopes to someday escape her mistreatment as a frustrated, overwhelmed and unhappy single mother.
This book appeals to those who may be interested or fascinated by the lives and experiences of gang members.
The author reveals the ugliness and the comraderie of ganglife and reveals the reasons some young me may choose ganglife as an escape from their lack of love or their sense of or lack of family and the need to belong.
BlackFace introduces conflict between a son and his mother and his constant desire to be loved by his mother. The violence in the book can be overwhelming, at times and for some readers may be difficult to read. The outcome of the characters in the book is unpredictable.
I did not enjoy reading BlackFace. I became confused and disinterested in the characters and their outcomes in the plot. The author gives no introduction or background of new characters that suddenly appears in the book and leaves the reader wondering about this character (s) which made BlackFace difficult to read and difficult to follow.
The author writes many times in the first person of a character and in second person of the same character sometimes using the characters nickname or 'real' name.
Tanya Matthews
AAMBC Reviewer
This book appeals to those who may be interested or fascinated by the lives and experiences of gang members.
The author reveals the ugliness and the comraderie of ganglife and reveals the reasons some young me may choose ganglife as an escape from their lack of love or their sense of or lack of family and the need to belong.
BlackFace introduces conflict between a son and his mother and his constant desire to be loved by his mother. The violence in the book can be overwhelming, at times and for some readers may be difficult to read. The outcome of the characters in the book is unpredictable.
I did not enjoy reading BlackFace. I became confused and disinterested in the characters and their outcomes in the plot. The author gives no introduction or background of new characters that suddenly appears in the book and leaves the reader wondering about this character (s) which made BlackFace difficult to read and difficult to follow.
The author writes many times in the first person of a character and in second person of the same character sometimes using the characters nickname or 'real' name.
Tanya Matthews
AAMBC Reviewer
June 28, 2012
August 2009
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Q. B. Wells’s magnificent book, BlackFace, is an ambitious attempt to wrestle and grapple with the psychic plights of a funky bunch of inner city youths. BlackFace reveals the dissonant ghetto rhythms of urban life which saturates the rambunctious lives of his characters. From black self-hate to gang violence, we get a full dose of Well’s brilliant social commentary and the psycho-analysis of what it means to grow up on the harsh and cold frontlines of Chicago’s inner city.
The book’s chief players are Black and Face. The other characters – Jazz, Asia, Penny, Chardonnay, Zero, the bishop, and White Boy Roy - serve as metaphors for everything that is wrong with ghetto life. These characters are realistic, and most of the things that happen with them we can relate to. For instance, Penny has a wicked jump-shot, and dreams of getting into the NBA so he can rescue his mother from crack-addiction. Zero represents the inarticulate sense of hopelessness and meaninglessness that permeates the aspirations of many inner city children. He ain’t shit, and he ain’t gone ever be shit. And Black’s mother reminds him daily of what Zero, Face, and other black children are confronted on the regular: “”You just want to be a no-good nigger.” Asia is the untrustworthy baby-momma, while Jazz is the town harlot, chicken-head, skeezer, and is an easy lay. Wells’ most challenging character is White Boy Roy. He’s white and comes from a privilege background, yet, he spends most of his free-time riding around the hood looking for blow. He likes black women, hanging with the “bros” and he aspires to be a rap star. For Face, White Boy Roy – a college student who sports a nice Grand Cherokee and mad bling-bling - symbolizes white mockery, condescendence, and insensitivity to black pain, grief and suffering.
Black and Face are at the center of the novels plot and story, and Wells treats the matter with the literary brilliance reminiscent of Richard Wright’s Native Son, Morrison’s Bluest Eye, and Baldwin’s biting protest novel, The Fire Next Time. This elegiac passage is perhaps the most poignant example of the psychological dilemma that anchors the entire novel:
“While staring at his reflection in the mirror, thoughts of his mother reverberated through his mind. ‘You ain’t never been nothing in the past and you won’t be nothing in the future, you no-good nigger.’… Black dreamed of lighter eyes and smoother skin, but nothing had changed in his physical appearance. Reaching beneath the sink, Black grabbed a loofah, splashed bleach on its surface, and scrubbed his cheeks. His dark neck and broad shoulders heated as his eyes welled up from the fumes. Forced to rinse his face, he looked at the discoloration he had caused, brushing his fingertips over the scars from the busted pimples of his grotesque face as if he were reading Braille….”
BlackFace does a masterful job probing the psychology of blackness, and what it means to be a black man, but he neglects to justly treat the representation of black women. Asia is a shady backstabber and a complacent baby-momma; Jazz is spiritually aimless and sexually loose; and Ms. Dean is the stereotypical loud-mouth, ignorant, overworked, mammy-mother. And Tiny is a mean, gruffy lesbian who has nothing better to do than smoke blunts and make out with her lover. Is she ONLY a lesbian? Do Asia, Jazz, and Tiny represent all black women in ghetto contexts? Wells does very little to explore the deeper humanity of these four black women. Also, does Blacks and Faces dilemma define the limitations of inner city black men? None of them seemed able to locate the source of their anger and resentment in order to move beyond their futile existence, and Wells doesn’t tell us why. They unconsciously project their anger and resentment onto themselves and each other before ultimately becoming just another ghetto statistic. Yet, for Face, eliminating White Boy Roy did not eliminate his personal feelings of self hate and worthlessness. Black is spared the grim fate of his running buddies but is then relegated to a Beckett-like dilemma of uncertainty and unresolve.
What did you like about the book?
I liked the classic feel of the story and the writing. Wells’s insight remind me of Morrison’s Pecola Breedlove, Wright’s Bigger Thomas, and Baldwin’s No Name In the Street.
What did you dislike about the book?
At times, the book reminded me of Ernest Dickerson’s Juice. But that didn’t really take anything away from the story. However, I would’ve loved to see a more triumphant ending. Also, there are editing errors. We expect a story of this caliber to be taken a little more seriously regarding the editing process. A marvelously gifted writer like Wells ought to know better.
What could the author do to improve the book?
Fire his editor.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q. B. Wells’s magnificent book, BlackFace, is an ambitious attempt to wrestle and grapple with the psychic plights of a funky bunch of inner city youths. BlackFace reveals the dissonant ghetto rhythms of urban life which saturates the rambunctious lives of his characters. From black self-hate to gang violence, we get a full dose of Well’s brilliant social commentary and the psycho-analysis of what it means to grow up on the harsh and cold frontlines of Chicago’s inner city.
The book’s chief players are Black and Face. The other characters – Jazz, Asia, Penny, Chardonnay, Zero, the bishop, and White Boy Roy - serve as metaphors for everything that is wrong with ghetto life. These characters are realistic, and most of the things that happen with them we can relate to. For instance, Penny has a wicked jump-shot, and dreams of getting into the NBA so he can rescue his mother from crack-addiction. Zero represents the inarticulate sense of hopelessness and meaninglessness that permeates the aspirations of many inner city children. He ain’t shit, and he ain’t gone ever be shit. And Black’s mother reminds him daily of what Zero, Face, and other black children are confronted on the regular: “”You just want to be a no-good nigger.” Asia is the untrustworthy baby-momma, while Jazz is the town harlot, chicken-head, skeezer, and is an easy lay. Wells’ most challenging character is White Boy Roy. He’s white and comes from a privilege background, yet, he spends most of his free-time riding around the hood looking for blow. He likes black women, hanging with the “bros” and he aspires to be a rap star. For Face, White Boy Roy – a college student who sports a nice Grand Cherokee and mad bling-bling - symbolizes white mockery, condescendence, and insensitivity to black pain, grief and suffering.
Black and Face are at the center of the novels plot and story, and Wells treats the matter with the literary brilliance reminiscent of Richard Wright’s Native Son, Morrison’s Bluest Eye, and Baldwin’s biting protest novel, The Fire Next Time. This elegiac passage is perhaps the most poignant example of the psychological dilemma that anchors the entire novel:
“While staring at his reflection in the mirror, thoughts of his mother reverberated through his mind. ‘You ain’t never been nothing in the past and you won’t be nothing in the future, you no-good nigger.’… Black dreamed of lighter eyes and smoother skin, but nothing had changed in his physical appearance. Reaching beneath the sink, Black grabbed a loofah, splashed bleach on its surface, and scrubbed his cheeks. His dark neck and broad shoulders heated as his eyes welled up from the fumes. Forced to rinse his face, he looked at the discoloration he had caused, brushing his fingertips over the scars from the busted pimples of his grotesque face as if he were reading Braille….”
BlackFace does a masterful job probing the psychology of blackness, and what it means to be a black man, but he neglects to justly treat the representation of black women. Asia is a shady backstabber and a complacent baby-momma; Jazz is spiritually aimless and sexually loose; and Ms. Dean is the stereotypical loud-mouth, ignorant, overworked, mammy-mother. And Tiny is a mean, gruffy lesbian who has nothing better to do than smoke blunts and make out with her lover. Is she ONLY a lesbian? Do Asia, Jazz, and Tiny represent all black women in ghetto contexts? Wells does very little to explore the deeper humanity of these four black women. Also, does Blacks and Faces dilemma define the limitations of inner city black men? None of them seemed able to locate the source of their anger and resentment in order to move beyond their futile existence, and Wells doesn’t tell us why. They unconsciously project their anger and resentment onto themselves and each other before ultimately becoming just another ghetto statistic. Yet, for Face, eliminating White Boy Roy did not eliminate his personal feelings of self hate and worthlessness. Black is spared the grim fate of his running buddies but is then relegated to a Beckett-like dilemma of uncertainty and unresolve.
What did you like about the book?
I liked the classic feel of the story and the writing. Wells’s insight remind me of Morrison’s Pecola Breedlove, Wright’s Bigger Thomas, and Baldwin’s No Name In the Street.
What did you dislike about the book?
At times, the book reminded me of Ernest Dickerson’s Juice. But that didn’t really take anything away from the story. However, I would’ve loved to see a more triumphant ending. Also, there are editing errors. We expect a story of this caliber to be taken a little more seriously regarding the editing process. A marvelously gifted writer like Wells ought to know better.
What could the author do to improve the book?
Fire his editor.
September 15, 2013
When I first thought about reading this book, BLACKFACE by Q.B. WELL, I was told by a person on a social media site that it was too violent. I felt ashamed for picking a violent book to read. Why? Because I believe very much in nonviolence. As time passed, I would think of this title. I wanted to know whether the novella was worth reading. I can truthfully say yes. Plus, I had the chance to make my personal decision about the book.
The author is a realist. He doesn't sugarcoat what happens in some urban areas. In these areas there is raw ugliness. It's incredible what goes on in the streets. Because the book is so realistic portions of the book broke my heart. Sadly, the situations written about in the novella are ones I hear about on the news, on the internet and in the newspaper: drugs, gang wars, bad reputations of some church authorities, theft, sexual promiscuity.
One character literally admits to having only two choices. He could either choose death or prison. It's almost too much for a human heart to bear. I will remember Black, Penney, Face and Zero for a long time. While reading, many thoughts crossed my mind. First of all I couldn't blame any character for his/her actions. It was impossible for me. I did want so badly for each one to find a way out of the asphalt jungle where everyday the young people are struggling to survive like grown men and women.
So I believe the author has written a precautionary tale. If that is his reason, for me he didn't fail. I got more than a bird's eye view of how it feels for a son to see his mother begging him for twenty dollars to get some drugs, what it feels like to see a good student all of a sudden locked in a wheel chair or what it feels like to see your child dying. His dreams on hold. These words just gripped my heart. '"Damn you, boy," she gasped as she hugged him and pleaded. "Please don't let me have to bury you or see you behind the thick glass of some penitentiary. My heart could not take it."'
Maybe I have voiced those very words myself, as a mother, at some point in time. I can literally feel and hear that mother's words. Those I suppose are the gifts of Q.B. Wells. He has the ability to write realistically, and he has the skill or experience to touch a person's heart. So I will add these characters to other unforgettable characters I have met in novellas, poems, short stories and novels. Like real people, the character in literature humble me and make me stronger.aalbc.com/authors/qbwells
March 1, 2009
Blackface: A Novel by Q.B. Wells shows the depicts the life of young black males.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews