Review: A Powerful & Thought Provoking Insight Into The Drive to Succeed & The Disillusionment That Sometimes Accompanies The Success.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 30, 2014
Last Black Man By M B MunroeReview By Maria Bradley (Author)At kindergarten we are taught simplicity, acceptance, truth, caring & love. It's a mystery to me that we are then launched into a world of adults, some of which make it their business to behave the exact opposite of that. The world isn't colour-blind, but if it were, we wouldn't be constantly teetering on the edge of nucleur oblivion. This is a short story that examines the difficulties involved in being black in a place where you are an ethnic minority, and are surrounded by white faces.It explores the history of a man whose father believed that most black boys were predestined to fail. His father was Guyanese, and his people were descendants of black slaves who had escaped and hidden in the bush until the nineteenth century.On arriving in England, after fighting the Nazis for said country,  this man's father's worst fear was that his son would become another statistic - that he would slide into a world of abject poverty or criminal success. He told him that a black man had to work twice as hard, be twice as clever, twice as smart and twice as dedicated, just to achieve the success that a white man would take for granted.The last black man did what was expected, while both hating and loving the man who was pushing him to do it.In the story, the last black man is at a pivotal point in his life; he is attending a polo match where he is opening his eyes and taking in the jewel covered plastic of the rich people around him. I don't want to tell you the heart of the whole story, but suffice to say is that I'm impressed enough to want to do that.This is a story that is so much more than a story - it will make you think about so many aspects of the divisive world we live in, and, if you are like me, you will certainly want to know more. When the next book appears on Amazon, there you will find me.