L.M. Ross
Posted on September 20, 2007
Filed Under Fiction
“L.M. Ross is one amazing writer, a poet who can move with ease into the area of storytelling and yet maintain the allure of brush stroke images too often found only in the terse poem form. The book is Manhood
He writes about the African American experience in New York City as well as any writer today, and brings all the juices and aromas and flavors of the idiosyncratic language of black conversation without missing a beat, and more importantly, without alienating his reader with a foreign language, so well molded is his conversational technique.
Manhood brings to life four men over a twenty year period, beginning with the high school years when the four artistic lads formed a group ‘Da Elixir’ (”Once there was this gorgeous, gorgeous time when we were all living our dreams..”) only to have the group splinter as each pursued his own dream.” Grady Harp, Amazon Top 10 Reviewer
Read a full review of Manhood, the Longest Moan, and listen to the author read a powerful excerpt.
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An excellent read . . . . very powerful imagery. Highly recommend.
The release of “Manhood: The Longest Moan” by author/poet L.M. Ross marks a much needed return to exceptional literature by an African-American writer in 20 years. This multi-dimensional, emotionally cathartic work easily puts Ross in the same category as James Baldwin, who wrote such classics as The Fire Next Time, Go Tell It On The Mountain, Notes of a Native Son, Giovanni’s Room, Sonny’s Blues, Another Country and Just Above My Head (my personal favorite). In hindsight, reading “Manhood” was very much like reading each of the aforementioned novels in one setting, a testament to the strength of Ross’s writing style.
Like Baldwin, Ross has a creative way of exploring complex social and psychological issues of our time (personal and self identity, sexuality, family abuse, drug addiction, sexual deviance, HIV/AIDS) and branding them with his own uniquely urban, funky stamp of revelation. To his credit, Ross takes the politically correct dichotomy we painstakingly try to uphold and makes it a living, breathing character.
Through the primary characters Tyrone Hunter, Pascal “Face” Depina, David Richmond, Faison “Browny” Brown, Ross takes readers through an incredible, mind stretching journey of family, friendship, betrayal and murder that spans a 20-year period. Creatively using metaphors, images, and sometimes apparitions, Ross’s “Manhood” is an INCREDIBLE story by a gifted writer whose words express the tightly woven tapestry of humanity that lives in all of us
Tyrone, a reflective renaissance artist, finds himself tormented for years by the brutal and untimely murder of his lover. Face, a tragically beautiful ambiguous creature, is a deeply flawed and tortured soul that has adopted a “life mask” in order to survive. David, the dancer that put the “D” in the word, is the ultimate example of the Madonna-Whore complex that lurks in all of us. Browny, a singer whose vocal cords have been kissed by the angels, deals with personal demons of insecurity dating back to his upbringing that inhibits his ability to share his gift with the world.
A word of caution is in order: you won’t just read “Manhood” as an objective outsider; you will become part of the storyline as Ross literally puts you in the shoes of his primary and secondary characters. As I read this great work, I found myself consciously indulged in examining my own biases against my fellow man or stripping away emotions I had erected in my life for survival. So this novel, in addition to being great literature, was soul revealing…
With the introduction of well-developed supporting characters in the storylines (as well as New York City as its own living, breathing character), Ross successfully pulls a fait accompli by making Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man” (i.e., mankind in all its diversity) visible again through the writing of “Manhood.” Yes, “the truth is the light and light is the truth.”