![]() Encouraged by Walter's best friend, Lamar Burrell, and Lamar's activist mother, Walter and Josie find themselves at the front lines of the struggle for civil rights, secretly attending meetings, going to demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr., and ultimately facing police dogs and fire hoses. ![]() Choosing religion over medicine, their mother deteriorates rapidly-both mentally and physically-and their exasperated father, a teacher and staunch advocate of "thinking scientifically," begins a corresponding descent into alcoholism, eventually leaving home to live in a motel. But when their mother is diagnosed with brain cancer, things begin to fall apart. (The title refers to violence surrounding the civil rights movement.) Walter's parents, who refuse to participate in boycotts and rallies, try to shield the children from the turmoil stoked by redneck police commissioner (and rumored KKK grand dragon) Bull Connor. The bulk of the novel occurs in flashback, focusing on Walter's turbulent adolescence in Tittusville, the Birmingham suburb where he lived with his parents and younger sister, Josie. ![]() ![]() At the center of Grooms's riveting first novel is Walter Burke, a black American soldier in Vietnam who is attempting to compose a letter to the parents of one of his fallen comrades. ![]()
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