Rating: 
Summary: A very good novel that should have been great
Review: "Your Blues Ain't Like Mine" is an ambitious novel. It begins with the murder of an African-American teenager in rural Mississippi in the 1950's. It then follows the boy's family, the family of the murderers, and other citizens of that small Mississippi town, for the next 40 years or so. Many of the Blacks in the story move north to Chicago during this period. So the story describes not only the social and political changes in the deep South during those years, but also the experience of those who exchanged the seething racism of Mississippi for the northern big-city ghettos.In choosing to portray such a vast - and critically important - period of American history, the author set herself a daunting task. There is a tremendous amount of material to cover in a novel like this. And the job can't be done thoroughly in 460 paperback pages. The author often condenses a major change in a character's lifestyle or philosophy into a single paragraph or even a single sentence. The characters are well chosen and sympathetic (except the characters who weren't intended to be sympathetic), and the book is well written and well plotted. But for myself, I found myself wanting much more than Ms. Campbell was giving me. I suppose that a 1200-page novel wouldn't have sold nearly as well as this shorter one. But a 1200-page novel, on the same subject and by the same author, might have been a historically great achievement.
Rating: 
Summary: A REALITY FOR MANY BLACK-AMERICANS,
Review: Dear Mrs. Bebe Moore-Campbell; After reading a portion of your YOUR BLUES AIN'T LIKE MINE while waiting for my friend to finish dressing some time ago, I had promise myself to buy and finish reading it one day. But as is many promises, I soon forgot it. Then one day recently I happen to be listening to my favorite talk radio station and heard Mrs. Bebe Moore-Cambell talking about the same book, she was here in Chicago on a book signing tour. I called in spoke to her briefly, and promise to rush right down and purchase a signed copy from her. Not only was she a delightful person, in person, the sister is very heavy upstairs (smile). As for her book, YOUR BLUES AIN'T LIKE MINE, Once started, I couldn't put it down until I had finish it. Me, being in my 60s,, 66 to be exact, had experience many of the happening she wrote of in her book. The only part I found her lacking in, were her mentioning of the Korean war. But then I had served there as a combat infantryman; and wrote of my experiences there in WHAT'S A COMMIE EVER DONE TO BLACK PEOPLE? In it I detailed the psychological effect the war had on me, a then 17-year-old kid fighting in a racist United States army. A war where we black soldiers soon realized the bitter irony of our situation--supposedly fighting to protect the rights and freedom of an ethnic people, many of us had never heard of before; even as that freedom was denied us in our own country. My experience was a rude awakening to the realities, not only of life and death, but of politics. Writing this book was one of the most difficult decision of my life. But perhaps it'll serve as an inspiration to other Black-veterans, to tell their stories, our history; and encourage talented writers/educators such as Mrs., Bebe Moore Campbell, to continue with her very enlightening and POWERFUL portrayer of a REALITY of life that we African Americans have experience. I am sorry I can only give her FIVE-STARS.
Rating: 
Summary: An ambitious snapshot of the civil rights struggle
Review: From a historical perspective this is a very interesting book, and a good synopsis of a segment of a number of significant issues in the civil rights era. Campbell also effectively defines the essential economic causes underlying racial strife, and how the upper class has effectively employed racism to secure its own position. Scanning the reviews from around the nation, however, I also expected this to be great literature. While it tells an important and noble tale, the characters, plot, and metaphors are far from extraordinary. This is a very readable, interesting, and informative work, but any profundity is limited to what is depicted, not the literary prowess of the writer. A decided weakness is the book's attempt to cover too much territory, and a regrettable "peaceable kingdom/cumbayah" conclusion where justice is on the horizon, and the evil get their just rewards. Unfortunately life usually isn't that tidy, and evil often goes unpunished. Readable, and a tale quite familiar to those who have studied the civil rights era -- I would particularly recommend it to those wishing to learn how civil society and the status of black Americans have been transformed since the fifties.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent story told from various veiw points
Review: I found this story to very interesting and attention grabbing. I did not read the book, but listened to it on tape which made it even more intriging because they told the story from two perspectives ( a white voice and a black voice). This story told life from various aspects such as the life of blacks in the rural south, those of blacks in up north, and those of whites in the south. It showed different time frames and what time can do to an environment and the changes that are made as far as race and sexism. It potrayed African Americans as whites viewed them in the 1950's which is inferior. As time moved on, instead of blacks working for whites, they worked with whites and voiced their minds more as the story progressed into more modern days.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent story told from various veiw points
Review: I found this story to very interesting and attention grabbing. I did not read the book, but listened to it on tape which made it even more intriging because they told the story from two perspectives ( a white voice and a black voice). This story told life from various aspects such as the life of blacks in the rural south, those of blacks in up north, and those of whites in the south. It showed different time frames and what time can do to an environment and the changes that are made as far as race and sexism. It potrayed African Americans as whites viewed them in the 1950's which is inferior. As time moved on, instead of blacks working for whites, they worked with whites and voiced their minds more as the story progressed into more modern days.
Rating:
Summary: Campbell's 10+ book captures, pulsates
Review: I read Bebe Moore Campbell's novel about two years ago and I have not found a book that comes close to paralleling it ever since. Cambell's rich, vivid book is as alive for me today as it was when I read it two years ago. Do not pay heed to the Kirkus Review; the latter part of the book does not play out like a soap opera. Rather, the book explores the humanistic side of the aftermath of Todd's death; a side many of us are not exposed to when similar racist killings of Blacks occur (i.e. the Emmett Till case). Todd's killing falls like the first domino in a long, curving, winding road of many other dominoes, affecting the Black and White residents alike in its wake, threatening, like a breaking dam, to flood all of them, for many generations to come. When reading the book two years ago, I lived with the characters, breathed the same air they breathed, and, in some cases, felt the same emotions they felt. Befitting to its title, the book plays out like a live blues performance, with each character taking the mike and releasing all of the despair trapped in their barely beating hearts. The language is rhythmic and engulfed my very being with every word. The characters' world became my world and Campbell did not release me from this world for one second, this world that breathed from every emotion known to humankind, from love to hate. Step into this world and you will be forever moved.
Rating:
Summary: A little confusing, but worth the read
Review: There is nothing HAPPY in this book at all. But it's well written, and the story draws you in from the beginning and holds you until the end. I had to stop after every couple of chapters and kind of regroup emotionally because it was so intense.
Rating:
Summary: Now you know why Your Blues Ain't Like Mine.
Review: This book is a definate must have. From the opening line tothe last sentance, Campbell keeps you interested in thelives of her characters. Although fiction, this book speaks of the lives of many Black southerners including the mass exodus to Chicago as well as those who stayed to endure the hardships of being Black in the South. The contrast of the lives of "upper" and "lower" class white southerners put an all too real spin on the views of society. Some of these views are still in place today. The family of Armstrong Todd showed us that a united family can achieve. They also showed us that without that unity the family would surely fall. The intersection of the lives of Ida and Clayton made the story complete in the lives of southern america. It has been several months since I read the book and it is still the first book I recommend to my fellow bookworms. My one rule for reading a book is that, "If I can put it down and don't remember to pick it up again, it is not worth reading". I picked up this book time and time again. In fact, it was harder putting it down. I usually enjoy horror (anything by Stehpen King). The descriptive styles of writing in both authors are similar. I was simply pulled into the lives of the characters of the story. Well done Ms. Campbell...well done!
Rating:
Summary: A very compassionate book!
Review: This is the first book by Bebe Moore Campbell I have ever read and I fully intend to read the others. I felt that she had a very deep connection with all of her characters, regardlesss of color. I have read some black others that wrote with an obvious bias, and with this book I felt none of that. I also thought she did an excellent job of portraying the woman's role in a marriage and in society. I noticed that in with both the black and the white characters the woman were going through very similar trials. It was very interesting that when it came to an issue of social class as the years went on that the citizens of Hopewell became divided by how much money they had and no longer by the color of their skin. It just shows that money still transcends everyhting else to determine one's role in the social pyramid. Overall I would recommend this book to anyone, it gives a true understanding of the process of desegregation and the mindset people were living in.
Rating:
Summary: These Blues Are About Layers of Issues
Review: This story begins in the 50's, in rural Mississippi, and travels to the 90's. I especially enjoyed reading this book for the unspoken sociopsychological rules that were pressed upon everyone, based upon history, rather than being based upon self-definition. Like Bebe Moore Campbell's other books, I also enjoyed being a fly on the wall, as I explored the dialogues between the characters, and the thoughts that the characters were driven by. This is a masterpiece story about the 3-sided struggle between legal changes, social changes, and those that are expected within families. Yes, while laws are changing, you can't legislate forcing people to like, trust, respect and celebrate one another.
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