Review: The Legacy of the Burning Bus
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 27, 2014
This novel was inspired by the Freedom Riders of 1961, and the bravery of the few people who stood up to the Klan and the mob of racist citizens who either attacked the busses, cheered the attackers on, or stood by and did nothing.  It culminates in the fictional firebombing of a Freedom Bus, as witnessed by a teenage boy already targeted and brutalized by the clan. I can’t help but think he was inspired by the incredible 12 year old girl who helped the real riders in Anniston, Alabama. She brought them water and helped, despite threats from the attackers, and eventually her family was forced from the town in the aftermath because of the rabid, hatefulness of the racists who would do anything to cling to their “traditions.”  It’s a worthy subject, and a frightening, moving book.The Sum of His Worth begins with our teenage hero, Sonny, who accidentally witnesses a KKK lynching (and barely escapes with his life) in 1959. His awareness is more than awakened – he becomes alive to the reality of his small Alabama town and that his own views are not just out of synch with the rest of the town, but will and do endanger him.  This is the South of the awakening and growing civil rights movement. Martin Luther King is considered a demon in these parts, and Sammy is alone in his awareness until he befriends a kindly dentist who, although knowing it will make him vulnerable, takes on an official position where he can advocate in local government for people who need help. It goes quickly wrong and both he and Sonny become targets not just for hate but violence.As the novel progresses towards the fiery bus, Argo attempts to show not just the prevailing attitudes and the danger of not thinking like the majority, but how all of this is intertwined with real lives that have other aspects.  Sonny is busy pursuing girls and riding around on motorbikes, being a boy as well as trying to find a way to become a man in the midst of the tumult, and that is how life is.  Building towards a fictional bus attack, Argo takes a tack that is simultaneously satisfying and morally unsettling – he poses the question of what happens to good souls when faced with hate. What happens when the righteous must fight with violence to save their lives? It’s never as easy as just hurting those who hurt us; the wounds run deep afterwards. No one gets out of these situations unscathed.I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone interested in the shameful race history of the U.S., but also to anyone interested in the core of non-violent protest; the bravery needed to face hate with love.