Sunday June 14, 2009
Man going up?
Review by BARBARA ER
MAN GONE DOWN
By Michael Thomas
Publisher: Grove Press, 432 pages
ISBN: 978-0802170293
TAKE a man. An African-American man. Teach him from birth that the American dream is not a dream, that it is within his reach, and that he must attain it. Put him in an environment that’s so different, he stands out like a bruised thumb, and where his peers do not know how to react to him.
Walk him through lingering images of his ancestors’ lives by exposing him to abuse, alcoholism, and abandonment so that he learns not to make those same mistakes himself. Ingrain in him the notion that after being given opportunities from young, he should not fail. At the same time, also let him know that you, and society at large, do not expect him to succeed.
Take a man, an African-American, and give him all this and more. What you get is Michael Thomas’ unnamed protagonist in Man Gone Down who, at 35, is living in the bedroom of his friend’s six-year-old kid (with his own son’s goldfish as a roommate), unemployed and broke.
This man (who remains unnamed, except when he briefly introduces himself as Ishmael – for a laugh), once slated to succeed in life with his college degree and a white collar job, falls through the cracks of life. Now, the man has four days to raise US$12,000 (RM42,000), an amount that is hopelessly out of his reach, so that his Brahmin wife and three kids will have a roof over their heads, and the kids can begin their new school year in a posh private school.
In this debut novel, Thomas has captured accurately the dark side of life, of growing up and assuming responsibility, dealing with the pressures of being “the one to watch”, being a husband and a parent, and stumbling along the way, and scraping your knees so badly, you wonder if you should even attempt to rise, much less run, again.
Yet, the author subtly assures us that while the man is in for a rough time, he has learnt the tenets of the American dream well, as the book opens with the line, “I know I’m not doing well”. As they say, “Acknowledgement is the key to recovery”.
Sure, the man may resort to stealing nickels and dimes from the change bowl in his friend’s home, but at least he’s attempting to fulfil his commitments. Which has us following him to spot jobs at construction sites, to open mic nights (though I can’t help feeling that it was singing’s therapeutic effects rather than the money that made him take on this one), and chasing down his former landlady for his security deposit refund in his bid to raise that US$12,000.
To tell the truth, I found myself silent egging our nameless hero on and wanting the tide to turn with each new chapter, which is an indication of how captivatingly Thomas has painted this tale.
This is undoubtedly a deeply melancholic book, but the author keeps complete darkness in check with scattered notes of optimism. In reading more about Thomas, it is clear that he has relied upon “what-ifs” from his own life, which gives this book a strong sense of realism.
But, overall, reading Man Gone Down was a somewhat disturbing experience. Especially when one compares this fictional, unnamed character with another African-American who made history recently by becoming the first black American president.
Thomas’s lead character has very much the same start in life as President Barrack Obama, yet, he does not make it, not through some cosmic catastrophe, but simply by not being able to live up to the stereotyped expectations of success thrust upon him. When I look at Obama on the evening news, I ponder how easily we might not have come to know his name if he had gone the way of Man Gone Down.
Yet, as the book winds down, the audacity of hope and humanity does indeed shine through: the man buys a new pair of jeans for his wife and a Ronaldo T-shirt for his son, orders a proper sandwich at the diner, and assures the landlady it’s all right that she couldn’t return him the security deposit.
As dark and twisted as Man Gone Down may seem, read between the lines for the message: life may be filled with many near impossibilities, but in the face of adversity and despair, one must persevere and, of course, try. Again.
With such a pertinent message, it is no wonder that Man Gone Down is this year’s winner of the Impac Dublin Literary Award.
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