In the Face of the Sun by Denny S. Bryce
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Web ID: 18023709A moving family drama w/ a touch of suspense
40 years apart (1928/1968), Daisy and Frankie do their best to navigate two turbulent times in 20th century, Black American history. What I loved about this book is that the characters are realistic, the historical settings spot on, and the plot has the perfect amount of suspense to keep the pages turning. A quick read, the reader will nonetheless have the opportunity to learn through Daisy's eyes about early Hollywood and the emerging presence of Black talent in L.A. during the Roaring Twenties. The fear and tension of the Civil Rights Era was eerily palpable in the challenges Frankie faced while fleeing a violent husband. While I'm honestly not a fan of dual timelines in a novel, I thought it worked here, since Daisy's experiences in the past heavily impact Frankie's journey in the 60's. At times, Ms. Bryce's prose can be a bit pedantic when it comes to the historical facts, but that also made it clear she had done extensive research, and the book shines because of it. A engaging read that I would highly recommend to any historical fiction reader!
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
History
Most of the alternating storylines I’ve read recently have been two different characters connected by some thing. Bryce takes us in a different direction with the same character in two different periods. Bryce deftly captures the outlandish 60s, and the significance of 1928, in a fun, must read novel.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Character driven historical novel
A character driven, historical novel told from two different timelines, 1928 and 1968. It's a murder mystery, a family drama, a racial injustice saga,,and a love story all rolled into one. The story sucked me in from the very beginning and never let go. Highly recommended
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Jazz Age meets 1968 in Family Story
"In the Face of the Sun" is a portrait of several generations of a Los Angeles family, initially living in a Sears Roebuck home, built from a kit, living a fairly middle class/working class life. In 1928, Daisy and Henrietta still live at home with their parents, but their mother is seriously ill. She suffered a heart attack and stroke in the aftermath of a dam collapse that killed her brothers. Daisy and Henrietta's father is a chauffeur by trade, working for the actor Alfred Lunt at the moment. Daisy left college when her mother became ill. She's the older daughter. Henrietta is around 16. The "girls" are working in the luxurious Sommerville Hotel. The hotel is just about to celebrate its grand opening as the first high end hotel built and owned by a well off couple and serving a Black clientele. The NAACP is holding its convention at the hotel shortly after it opens with W.E.B. DuBois as the keynote and a host of high profile men and women from the civil rights movement and from the entertainment industry. As hotel staff, Daisy and Henrietta are in their orbit if not at the elevated levels of these powerful guests. There really was a Hotel Sommerville, later the Dunbar Hotel, in L.A.. Bryce does a nice job creating the setting, the city in this time and what was happening in the upper class Black community and with the staff members who served them. It is the jazz age, and the nightlife and music of this period, still part of the prohibition era, are deftly woven in. Bryce also does a fabulous job focusing on the Black publications of the era, with a character who is a columnist for the California Eagle. (An aside: you can read the California Eagle on Newspapers.com where it is archived. It served as one source for this novel). Although the novel opens and closes in 1990, the story alternates between this era in 1928, when Daisy and Henrietta are on the brink of adulthood, and 1968 when Henrietta's daughter Frankie looks up her Aunt Daisy in Chicago. They never met and Frankie needs help to leave her abusive husband. Her relationship with her mother is strained at best. Frankie knows Daisy and Henrietta have not talked since 1928, but not why. Frankie runs hot and cold about her Aunt Daisy, who pursued her interest in writing/journalism over the years and has become a chain smoking character. Daisy agrees to take Frankie to the bus station. It is that point in 1968 when anti-war sentiment is strong, but Frankie's father died in Korea and she considers service a patriotic duty. Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed only a few months earlier and Robert F. Kennedy's death is on the horizon. Aretha is on the radio. Frankie is starting off on a difficult physical and personal journey. She's tried to leave her husband before and keeps returning to him. Meanwhile, we learn Daisy is driving to L.A., for unclear reasons. She drops Frankie off at the bus station, heading off to start her own trip to the same destination. And that's fine with Frankie. I enjoyed the juxtaposition of the two eras and the ways Bryce brings elements of then current attitudes on race/civil rights, music, class, domestic violence, the Black press and the many lines still firmly drawn between races, classes, men and women. Yet, in both eras, there are inroads and determined activists as well as folks just living their lives in their Sears homes and their Hollywood mansions. The story did drag a little for me here and there, yet I ended up being happy for every detail included in the whole. I eventually was riveted. "In the Face of the Sun" is a lovely, loving piece, well researched, with compelling characters, drama, happiness... life.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Dual timeline family saga
I love reading historical fiction books because they not only entertain me but also teach me, this book wasn't the exception. I didn't know much about the 1920's "Black Hollywood" or about the Dunbar Hotel (known on this book as the Somerville Hotel) considered the finest black hotel in the nation and an important gathering place for notable figures, intellectuals, and community leaders. This book is told in a dual timeline, the first one the year 1928 the other being 1968, and a brief section on the 90's. And by two main protagonists, Daisy in 1928 and Frankie, along with Daisy, in 1968. This story is a story of family, ambition, love, and redemption. I thought it was beautifully written, but at times it felt lagging and with some unexplained points, there is an element of mystery, mainly the killing of a the movie star, which gets resolved at the end with a big surprise. The ending felt a little rushed, i would have liked it to be more detailed but overall it was a very enjoyable read.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
From old Hollywood to 1960's Chicago!
1928. Sisters Daisy and Henrietta Washington work as chambermaids and at the newly opened Somerville Hotel. Daisy wants to be a journalist, she anonymously hands inside information to a reporter and for a good reason. This causes Daisy to lose two important things, her sister stops speaking to her and she no longer knows who she can trust in Hollywood. 1968. Francine Saunders is married to Jackson, she’s eight weeks pregnant and she wants to leave her abusive husband. Her aunt Daisy offers her a ride to Los Angeles, Frankie isn’t prepared for her aunt’s reckless behavior, she chain smokes and swears and she wasn’t expecting a third person to join them. Frankie’s worried that two colored women driving in a bright red car with a draft dodging white man will attract unwanted attention and during such troubled and violent times. But Frankie wants to know why her mother and aunt haven’t spoken in forty years, she’s not going to give up her one opportunity to find out and she has no idea Daisy is planning revenge. The unconventional road trip is an interesting and entertaining plot combination of Driving Miss Daisy on drugs and Thelma and Louise. I received a copy of In the Face of the Sun from Kensington Publishing Corp in exchange for an honest review. Denny S. Bryce has written a relevant story set in old Hollywood and 1960’s Chicago about racism, love, tragedy, and the stages of grief, forgiveness and the lasting impact of physical and emotional abuse in the African-American community. Five stars from me and I can't wait to read Wild Women and the Blues.
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