3.0
Those Bones Are Not My Child
ByPublisher Description
ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIME • This suspenseful novel portrays a community--and a family--under siege, during the shocking string of murders of black children in Atlanta in the early 1980s.
Written over a span of twelve years, and edited by Toni Morrison, who calls Those Bones Are Not My Child the author's magnum opus, Toni Cade Bambara's last novel leaves us with an enduring and revelatory chronicle of an American nightmare.
Having elected its first black mayor in 1980, Atlanta projected an image of political progressiveness and prosperity. But between September 1979 and June 1981, more than forty black children were kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and brutally murdered throughout "The City Too Busy to Hate." Zala Spencer, a mother of three, is barely surviving on the margins of a flourishing economy when she awakens on July 20, 1980 to find her teenage son Sonny missing. As hours turn into days, Zala realizes that Sonny is among the many cases of missing children just beginning to attract national attention. Growing increasingly disillusioned with the authorities, who respond to Sonny's disappearance with cold indifference, Zala and her estranged husband embark on a desperate search. Through the eyes of a family seized by anguish and terror, we watch a city roiling with political, racial, and class tensions.
Written over a span of twelve years, and edited by Toni Morrison, who calls Those Bones Are Not My Child the author's magnum opus, Toni Cade Bambara's last novel leaves us with an enduring and revelatory chronicle of an American nightmare.
Having elected its first black mayor in 1980, Atlanta projected an image of political progressiveness and prosperity. But between September 1979 and June 1981, more than forty black children were kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and brutally murdered throughout "The City Too Busy to Hate." Zala Spencer, a mother of three, is barely surviving on the margins of a flourishing economy when she awakens on July 20, 1980 to find her teenage son Sonny missing. As hours turn into days, Zala realizes that Sonny is among the many cases of missing children just beginning to attract national attention. Growing increasingly disillusioned with the authorities, who respond to Sonny's disappearance with cold indifference, Zala and her estranged husband embark on a desperate search. Through the eyes of a family seized by anguish and terror, we watch a city roiling with political, racial, and class tensions.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesThose Bones Are Not My Child Reviews
3.0
“I’ve put two stars cause it won’t let me not select any at all - and I believe the writing is better than one star for sure even if I didn’t finish the book. I don’t know if this is a soft DNF or more likely a permanent one. I am gutted that I ended up DNFing this - but I tried SO hard. The premise was interesting, the topics explored were definitely important - especially given the time this was written and set. Touching upon race, class and political differences around the time of the Atlanta murders - I thought I would love this. And part of me did - but it felt confused and slow. And then I found out the author passed away before editing the book, and another author ended up editing it but maybe not cutting down as much as the other would have. It felt overly verbose and heavy. Almost two books - a true crime, non fiction factual and statistical account of the times vs the story of a missing child. I could not connect with the characters and didn’t feel the writing portrayed their emotions effectively. Because of that I want as invested in the story as I had hoped - but also felt like the focus was confusing, with too many characters and weird pacing.
It’s rare that I struggle to get through a book, and even more so that I will DNF it - and maybe I’ll come back to it one day - but in the meantime there are so many other books to read!”
About Toni Cade Bambara
Toni Cade Bambara is the author of two short-story collections, Gorilla My Love and Seabirds Are Still Alive, and a novel, The Salt Eaters. She has also edited The Black Woman and Tales and Short Stories for Black Folks. Her works have appeared in various periodicals and have been translated into several languages. She died in 1995.
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