I noticed this book on the Caudill list for 2012 (view the list here).  There are several historical fiction titles this year – this is one of the better on the list that I am familiar with so far.  The topic is very engaging – the Civil Rights Movement in Chicago, an important local link to the broader history of Civil Rights, and one that many people are not familiar with (King’s visit to Chicago as part of the Chicago Freedom Movement, Jesse Jackson’s leadership arising through his Chicago roots, the 1968 Democratic National Convention, and so on).  As far as the topic is concerned, this is the best kind of historical fiction – the kind that unearths links between the past and present, that makes history a palpable part of the world around us.  Magoon’s book almost fulfills the potential of the subject matter.

The book begins with the main character at a rally led by his father, a fictional Civil Rights leader of the late 60’s.  His older brother intervenes when a white agitator attacks the crowd, and Sam – the main character – watches his brother get hurt.  They flee to the hospital, and the painful portrayal of the racism of the period begins, with the stubborn refusal of the nurse to treat Stick (the older brother), and the horrible mistreatment Sam receives from the owner of the gift shop.  A predictable conflict ensues, between the nonviolent Civil Rights ethos of Sam’s father and the action-oriented philosophy of the Black Panthers that Stick is pulled toward.  When Sam and the girl he likes, Maxie, witness the beating of their good-natured friend Bucky at the hands of the police, Sam is forced to question both his father’s nonviolent philosophy and the potential violence of his brother and the Black Panthers.

The novel’s greatest success is in Sam’s struggle to make sense of the conflict around him.  He seems to blame himself for the consequences of his decisions, and his ability to eventually control his response to things is believable and interesting.  There is a lot of conflict and drama in this novel, and a little violence.  It doesn’t seem gratuitous, given the subject and time period, but it can be emotionally taxing.  (Listening to this book in the car, for example, and then walking into work might make people wonder about what happened to you in the car.)

What I didn’t like about the novel was how fuzzy things become, in the end.  By the end of the novel there seems to be no discernible difference between the violence of the Black Panthers and the nonviolence of Martin Luther King’s followers.  The novel seems to teach the lesson that the only difference is a difference in means.  This seems to oversimplify to the point of injustice.  The repeated refrain that “people fear ideas more than anything” seems muddled by the end.  What idea – or ideas – are really causing the fear and backlash?  What path does Sam need to follow?  What’s the best choice for him?

Despite the confusing, unresolved ending, Sam’s story is worth reading for its gripping reconstruction of a crucial moment in Chicago history, for its realistic depiction of deep, intriguing, complex characters, and for a dedication to realism and conflict so serious that it cannot, in the end, be resolved.