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Title: The Fall of Rome: A Novel by Martha Southgate ISBN: 0-7432-2721-2 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 31 December, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.3 (23 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Absolutely Spellbinding...
Comment: Martha Southgate's The Fall of Rome was simply the best book that I have read all year. I had no idea what to expect when I purchased this book. I didn't want to judge this book simply by its cover, but I have to say that the cover itself was enough to pique my interest.
Ms. Southgate's captivating writing immediately drew me into the colliding worlds of Rashid, Jerome and Jana. Through the author's vivid descriptions of her characters and the story's setting, I easily envisioned myself at the Chelsea School witnessing the story unfolding.
The issues of race and class are aptly dissected in The Fall of Rome, and the author allows us to see each character's perspective even though much of the story centers around the title character, Jerome.
I'm not going to give away any more details about the book because I feel that I shouldn't. I believe I would be doing future readers a serious injustice by revealing the plot. I must admit that I had some preconceived notions about The Fall of Rome before I started, but it was nothing like I would have expected. At the end of the book, I found myself rethinking my own prejudices and how I let them affect me.
I was so enraptured with The Fall of Rome that I could not put it down, and finished it in, literally, a few hours.
I would highly recommend The Fall of Rome for book clubs/reading groups, and especially to colleges as a required reading for their students. This book is a must-read for everyone.
Rating: 4
Summary: Rome didn't Fall in a Day but I read this book in one.
Comment: The Fall of Rome; What a befitting title that vividly displays the collapsing of ideas that take place in this book. Martha Southgate introduces a triangle of sorts between a Black man, a Black boy and a White woman; All having their own individual issues however linked by an external element in the name of Chelsea, an all-boys school in Connecticut.
Jerome Washington is the only African American faculty member and a teacher of Latin at the prestigious Chelsea. He comes to Chelsea to escape life defined by race, as he had known it to be, and to pursue excellence and comfort in the ideas and standards of the ancient philosophers of Rome and the traditions of Chelsea. Rashid Bryson, a fourteen year-old boy from New York City comes into an unfamiliar environment of Chelsea with fear and a heavy heart looking to Mr. Washington as a possible salvation. Jana Hansen is a new teacher at Chelsea who has seemingly taken an interest in both Jerome and Rashid; Jerome as a potential mate and Rashid as a student with potential. As they get to know each other all three soon find out when one is in unfamiliar territory one should have no expectations. Their journey together is plagued with certain expectations misdirected in the midst of their own personal losses. When their issues lead up to a powerful, and anticipated confrontation we find that the results are unexpected but ultimately not surprising.
This book is complex and layered. There are so many things that could be discussed that one review couldn't cover it all. I can fully see this book as required reading in an English, Philosophy, or Sociology class in high school and college. It is beautifully written and unhurried. The only thing that keeps this book from a 5 star rating is my personal issue with how certain relationships within the book were portrayed. Aside from this, The Fall of Rome by Martha Southgate is a highly recommended read.
Kotanya
APOOO Bookclub
Rating: 4
Summary: excellent book
Comment: Sensitive portrayal of a young African-American youth who, still recovering from the untimely death of his older brother, struggles to find his place academically and socially at a boarding school. He finds an ally in an English teacher (who narrates part of the book) and a baffling opponent in an African American Latin teacher who also coaches track. In the end it is the adult who cannot come to terms with his own past who is destroyed by his pride and blindness. Recommended.
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Title: When the Emperor Was Divine by JULIE OTSUKA ISBN: 0385721811 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 14 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: 10th Grade : A Novel by JOE WEISBERG ISBN: 0812966627 Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks Pub. Date: 14 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Known World by Edward P. Jones ISBN: 0060557540 Publisher: Amistad Press Pub. Date: 14 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Seeing in the Dark : How Amateur Astronomers Are Discovering the Wonders of the Universe by Timothy Ferris ISBN: 0684865807 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 08 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: True Confessions of a Heartless Girl by Martha Brooks ISBN: 0374378061 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: 11 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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