Book of the Week
When I started reading Spider Robinson's 1985 novel Night of Power, I was not sure what to expect. Sure, his Callahan's books were great but they were not perfect -- and the last one was definitely less than perfect. Plus this particular book came out more than twenty years ago so it seemed sure to be dated. Moreover, it was written by Spider Robinson, a known aficionado of Robert Heinlein (the man who wrote the controversial novel Farnham's Freehold) -- so I had every reason to expect something on the order of Farnham's Freehold II.
Yet by the time I got to the end, I was surprised. Contrary to what the cover implies, this is actually quite a thoughtful book which takes a premise that seems ripe for jingoism -- an impending race war in New York City -- and then uses the plot to ask some genuinely poignant questions about American race issues. Robinson does not shrink from showing the more violent developments in such an event but he does not go on to pander exclusively to his more xenophobic white readers either.
Most of the story is told through the eyes of Russell Grant, a retired white engineer with a black wife and a white daughter. (The daughter is from a previous marriage.) On their first day in New York City, they are almost the victims of a racially-motivated assault that is only broken up through the intervention of a mysterious figure named Michael. Michael proves to be the leader of a local black power movement -- sort of a community organizer, so to speak. But he is not presented as a stereotypical black supremacist and most of his tactics seem to be more reminiscent of the tactics used by the heroes of The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress than of the ones used by the black tyrant in Farnham's Freehold.
When Russell gets word that Michael will be the target of an assassination attempt, he tries to save his life by warning him, only to become more involved in Michael's plans than he anticipated. Michael turns out to be organizing a revolution against the U.S. government that would lead to the secession of New York State and Pennsylvania and the founding of a free black republic. Russell is not sure he approves of such a revolution but circumstances force him to go along with it.
Things get violent and Russell, his wife and his daughter are all forced to make hard decisions to survive. Towards the end of the book, Russell has a long written conversation with himself in which he tries to reconcile his various experiences -- both positive and negative -- with both blacks and whites and come to one firm conclusion about how he should deal with the new regime.
I found this part to be most intriguing because it would have been very tempting for Robinson to pull his punches and come down on one side or the other. But such a choice would have been simplistic and there has been quite enough simplistic items written in regard to race. Instead Robinson tries to grapple with questions that have yet to receive a definite answer even in the Age of Obama: What is racism? How do you fight it? How can one not be racist if one lives in America and possesses a white skin and what obligation does such a person have to make up for the sins of his ancestors? Can such a person make up for the sins of his ancestors? How is an honorable white person supposed to respond to black bigotry? How much of such bigotry is justified and how much fueled by the same less than noble emotions that fuel white bigotry? Does black separatism have a chance or is it just a pipe dream?
To his credit, Robinson does not pretend to know the answers to these questions. Nor does he end the saga on a predictable note. It could be noted -- at the risk of being a plot spoiler -- that the book ends on a more positive note than the above cover might suggest. But then again, Robinson cannot help having Grant speculate about what would happen to the revolution if Michael ever passed away. And the conclusion he comes to is not a very positive one.
So, in the end, it could be said that the true end of the book is up to the individual reader to decide.
When I started reading Spider Robinson's 1985 novel Night of Power, I was not sure what to expect. Sure, his Callahan's books were great but they were not perfect -- and the last one was definitely less than perfect. Plus this particular book came out more than twenty years ago so it seemed sure to be dated. Moreover, it was written by Spider Robinson, a known aficionado of Robert Heinlein (the man who wrote the controversial novel Farnham's Freehold) -- so I had every reason to expect something on the order of Farnham's Freehold II.
Yet by the time I got to the end, I was surprised. Contrary to what the cover implies, this is actually quite a thoughtful book which takes a premise that seems ripe for jingoism -- an impending race war in New York City -- and then uses the plot to ask some genuinely poignant questions about American race issues. Robinson does not shrink from showing the more violent developments in such an event but he does not go on to pander exclusively to his more xenophobic white readers either.
Most of the story is told through the eyes of Russell Grant, a retired white engineer with a black wife and a white daughter. (The daughter is from a previous marriage.) On their first day in New York City, they are almost the victims of a racially-motivated assault that is only broken up through the intervention of a mysterious figure named Michael. Michael proves to be the leader of a local black power movement -- sort of a community organizer, so to speak. But he is not presented as a stereotypical black supremacist and most of his tactics seem to be more reminiscent of the tactics used by the heroes of The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress than of the ones used by the black tyrant in Farnham's Freehold.
When Russell gets word that Michael will be the target of an assassination attempt, he tries to save his life by warning him, only to become more involved in Michael's plans than he anticipated. Michael turns out to be organizing a revolution against the U.S. government that would lead to the secession of New York State and Pennsylvania and the founding of a free black republic. Russell is not sure he approves of such a revolution but circumstances force him to go along with it.
Things get violent and Russell, his wife and his daughter are all forced to make hard decisions to survive. Towards the end of the book, Russell has a long written conversation with himself in which he tries to reconcile his various experiences -- both positive and negative -- with both blacks and whites and come to one firm conclusion about how he should deal with the new regime.
I found this part to be most intriguing because it would have been very tempting for Robinson to pull his punches and come down on one side or the other. But such a choice would have been simplistic and there has been quite enough simplistic items written in regard to race. Instead Robinson tries to grapple with questions that have yet to receive a definite answer even in the Age of Obama: What is racism? How do you fight it? How can one not be racist if one lives in America and possesses a white skin and what obligation does such a person have to make up for the sins of his ancestors? Can such a person make up for the sins of his ancestors? How is an honorable white person supposed to respond to black bigotry? How much of such bigotry is justified and how much fueled by the same less than noble emotions that fuel white bigotry? Does black separatism have a chance or is it just a pipe dream?
To his credit, Robinson does not pretend to know the answers to these questions. Nor does he end the saga on a predictable note. It could be noted -- at the risk of being a plot spoiler -- that the book ends on a more positive note than the above cover might suggest. But then again, Robinson cannot help having Grant speculate about what would happen to the revolution if Michael ever passed away. And the conclusion he comes to is not a very positive one.
So, in the end, it could be said that the true end of the book is up to the individual reader to decide.
Labels: Ciencia Ficción, Libros de la Semana I, Noche de Poder, Nueva York, Raza, Spider Robinson
posted by Tonio Kruger at 9:25 PM
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