Bombingham

Written by Anthony Grooms

Narrated by Dion Graham

Bombingham by Anthony Grooms is the powerful story of a middle-class black family living in a time of great unrest. Accepting the charge of writing a letter to the parents of a fallen friend and fellow soldier, Walter Burke begins to reflect on the effects that segregation has had on his family and the effect the Vietnam war is having on him. Narrator Dion Graham provides an exceptional reading of Grooms' unsentimental prose.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 13, 2012
• ISBN: 9781461810674

Anthony Grooms

Anthony Grooms has lived in Atlanta’s Inman Park neighborhood for nearly thirty years. When he isn’t teaching, he writes novels in his spider-ridden cellar. His novel Bombingham, set during the Birmingham civil rights movement, won both a Lillian Smith Book Award and a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. His novel The Vain Conversation, about redemption for race crimes, will be published in 2018. For more information, go to anthonygrooms.com.

Reviews for Bombingham

[missmea_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An excellent fictional depiction of race relations in 1960's Birmingham "Bombingham" Alabama. Grooms does a fantastic job of creating an empathetic child character whose innocence and curiosity fuel the sadness of the days when a child felt as if he or she had to fight for God-given freedom, or fight "in the place of" parents who could not afford to lose their jobs by marching themselves. He gives a well-rounded view of the different levels of "involvement" during that time in American history and the different levels of apprehension and caution not found in history books. (Oftentimes, history books show that ALL blacks were fighting for the cause, or only a select few of "movers and shakers" were leading a small group. This book actually shows a couple of rational characters, those who felt trapped by the loss of hope they were feeling, but who knew that their jobs kept food on the tables and that marching was an unaffordable luxury.) The story also entails a good deal of factual history, and the reader watches as the protagonist, Walter Burke, actually witnesses Dr. Martin Luther King's preaching in the flesh, something extraordinary and awe-inspiring in itself. (Readers know that little Walter has no idea how much of an impact Dr. King would have on the history of America in the future.) The direct link to Walter being in war in Bombingham and in war in Thoybu was thought-provoking and well-written. My only criticism is the lack of effect readers see in Walter after Lamar is shot in the head in front of him by white boys around his same age. We didn't receive the event in a scene, but rather as an epilogue way at the end, and I would have liked to have witnessed more of Walter's reactions and seen that young child's funeral compared to Walter's mother's, since Lamar was in the story as much as Walter's mother was. I'm unsure as to how young Lamar's death was a symbol of the overall struggle, other than the fact that his mother and soon-to-be-stepfather were strong activists, and that his death represented their continuous strive for freedom. The story ends on a note of hope, however, as Walter dreams about he and Lamar's aspirations to become the first "Negro" astronauts while writing the lovely note to Haywood's parents. This rounds out the theme of hope embedded in the impossibility of hellish ordeals during that time and how that glimmer of hope could make or break an entire life.