The Last Radio Baby

By Andrews, Raymond & Andrews, Benny

Publishers Summary:
IN THIS LIVELY MEMOIR, award-winning novelist Raymond Andres vividly recalls the pleasures and pains of growing up black in rural Georgia in the 1930s and 19402--a time when families gathered together around the radio to listen to mysteries and sports events, when county fairs and revivals provided riotous relief from the daily routine of country living, and when double features cost a dime. With incomparable humor, Andrews describes his preoccupations as a child, such as perfecting the art of running-board jumping, avoiding the local bully, Minnie Pearl Massey, and sneaking peaks into the county jail and the notorious "DeMo's" cafe, famous for fried fish, fights, and "sin." Along the way, he also supplies a lost segment of American history, describing the manner, mores, and daily lives of rural blacks--not only the prejudice they encountered but also the sports figures who inspired them, the teachers who educated them, the church that bonded them together, and the local characters who both amused and scandalized them, including guitar-picking, fast-driving, hard-drinking "Tampa Red" and "Old Mrs. Hill," who had been born a slave and in her nineties ran around with a "set of fast girls in their sixties." These people and many other intriguing figures people the pages of The Last Radio Baby, an entertaining, informative, and important view of a time and place in our history filtered through the gentle and generous vision of one of its most lovable characters.

 Not Rated. Be the first to rate this product!

ISBN
978-1-56145-004-6
Publisher
Peachtree Publishers


REVIEWS

Library Journal

Reviewed on October 15, 1990

Winner of the James Baldwin prize for fiction for his first novel Appalachee Red ( LJ 10/1/78), Andrews conjures up fading images of a slice of black life as it was not so long ago in a time and place with a complex and all-inclusive code of race and social relations. He recalls his...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

Become a Pro


This feature is only available to Pro subscribers. Please log in, or upgrade your subscription.

Add To My List

cover
by

This feature is only available to Pro subscribers. Please log in, or upgrade your subscription.

Export


This feature is only available to Pro subscribers. Please log in, or upgrade your subscription.

Save List Search Query


This feature is only available to Pro subscribers. Please log in, or upgrade your subscription.

Follow Lists


This feature is only available to Pro subscribers. Please log in, or upgrade your subscription.