Magic City : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Television movie of the week in print
Review: I am an African-American. Generations of my family were raised in the area which was the setting of Magic City. Many times I heard stories of the Tulsa Riots of 1921. Never was the incident so trivalized as in this book. Perhaps it is the times which we live that media tends to take major events in life and package them for public consumption. But in doing so we lose the lesson to be learn. Magic City failed to convey anything meaningful about Tulsa Riots and the estimated 3000 African-Americans that lost thier lives at the hands of not some militia extremist, but our government's National Guard. If you are looking for a television movie of the week in print version of the Tulsa Riots, then purchase this book. It is soda pop writing at it best

Rating:
Summary: A mirror from the past.
Review: Magic City is a thrilling retelling of an ugly period in the history of Tulsa, and by extension, most of the USA. The story is told through fictional characters and does not attempt to recreate history so much as to recreate the mindsets of the populations that allowed such a tragedy to occur. And while it is easy and comfortable to imagine that the events in this story, which occurred in 1921, could not happen at the close of this century, the characters in this novel have a disturbing familiarity. We see the attitudes they hold in news stories about police brutality. We see them in the militant antiestablishment movements. If we are honest, we see them in ourselves, and that's when change can begin. That's what makes this book important as well as entertaining reading.

Rating:
Summary: Great Historical Fiction
Review: Magic City was a thought provoking, yet enjoyable read. The main characters, Joe Samuels, black, and Mary Keane, white, reared in two different environments with different values, yet had many similiarities. They both had domineering fathers and they both yearned to leave their clutches. They both had jobs that were totally against their fathers' wishes and they were both lonely in their own ways. After their initial meeting in an elevator sent Joe running for his life, Mary did all she could to prove him innocent of a blameless crime. The fact that this novel was conjured from actual events evoked many emotions and made it even more endearing.