Anjuelle Floyd

“Everything doesn’t begin and end with the color of a person’s skin,” says Florina’s father, the Major. But his wife has seen this prejudice work both ways, and it hurts, especially when it’s family laying down law. Now Florina has moved to her new husband’s hometown of Poinsettia. It’s a place where everyone but she knows everyone’s secrets. But nobody knows Florina’s hidden secret, that she’s been married before; and even Florina doesn’t know the secrets of her heart.

When the Drum Major Died is a novel of secrets and lies, prejudice and guilt, war and rebellion, color and clarity, riches and poverty, education, history, poetry and more. It covers a dangerous time in America’s recent past, and describes the turmoil of multiple characters, including Cherokee Negro, Jewish sympathizer, preacher, lovers, mourners, parents and children, and descendants of Negro slaves. Long languorous sentences evoke a slower time when life seemed unchanging and American prejudice wholly indestructible. Black America commits its youth to the betrayals of war, just as lonely women commit to the betrayals of marriage, and Martin Luther King speaks out. For herself, “Florina had read some of Dr. King’s articles expounding on white America’s love/hate relationship with him, and also of the ambivalence that middle class Negroes held towards his recent and unyielding stance against the war.” But Alice, who seems so deeply involved with Florina’s new husband, is the one planning to go on the march, while Florina plans a return to education and poetry, that which she creates from secrets “to her own fiction that fit the truthful lie of her life.”

The story reads slowly, covering its multiple issues with well-researched care. Some typos slow and confuse the reading, but it’s a fascinating tale, one where “[e]very situation consist[s] of at least two perspectives, most often created and furthered by two or more entities.” Human lives and loves intertwine with human war and history. But a thread of true love shines through all, blessed with mercy and forgiveness.

When the Drum Major died tells a story of a wounded world taking steps toward renewal, and of its wounded people taking strides. It’s a long, slow, languorous read filled with memorable characters and scenes, deep soul-searching questions, and a convincing reality.

Disclosure: I was given a free ecopy and I offer my honest review.… (mais)

A fascinating story.

When I started reading this book, the first thoughts which came into my mind were that, it’s amazing how ignorant one can be, about events which happened in your own lifetime. Being a British child at the time these events were taking place, somehow they slipped into a hole between the history I was taught at school, from ancient up to and including WWII, and the recent history which I remember as an adult.

The main character in the story Florina, is a young colored woman who has married Dr Richmond Austin, and moved to his home town Poinsettia, in the South of America. Her new in-laws are very welcoming and her new home is to be his grandparent’s house. However, she very quickly discovers that her new neighbour Agnes, who is married to the other colored doctor in the town, Macon, used to go out with Richmond, and Florina fears that the attraction is still there. However, she has her own secret, one not even her parents know… A secret which lies buried in her heart and which she can only hint at in her very poignant poetry.

This incredibly absorbing story is set at a very turbulent time for the colored people of America. The Civil Rights movement was strong, and was led by the Baptist minister and activist Martin Luther King Jr., a man who worked tirelessly for, and who played such a strong part in the ending of the legal segregation of the African-American people.

Also all the time, in the background, and twisted inextricably throughout the plot of this story is the Vietnam War which was taking thousands of lives…

However, another element of this story, which was very interesting to me, is that I never realised that there was such color snobbery within the families of colored folk, causing so much tension, prejudices, terrible rifts, and great sadness. This was so evident in this book, where at one end of the spectrum there was immense color pride and at the other the seemingly desperate need to appear white.

This book is amazing, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. For me, it has all the essential ingredients for a good story excitement, intrigue, love triangles, lies, deceit, confessions, betrayal I could go on. However, more importantly for me, it gives a fascinating fly on the wall account of what it was really like as a colored person to live in those times, something I would never be able to experience otherwise.… (mais)

When the Drum Major Died by Anjuelle Floyd

Set in 1967 North Carolina when Martin Luther King was planning his Poor People March, young Florina Gavin Austin is newly married to Dr. Redmond Austin. She tries to adjust to her new home and life as a doctors wife. But she holds secrets and she is not ready to share. She meets her neighbor Agnes, a woman who also has secrets of her own, some involving Florina's husband. Will Florina be able to let go of her past, accept the present and move on to her future? What will happen when all the secrets are revealed?

A well written emotional read. I loved the story, it felt so real as if it really did happen. Filled with many secrets, twists and turns, I was hook from the first page. I was able to feel what each person was going through, almost as if I were there. I am a big fan of Anjuelle Floyd and When the Drum Major Died was as fantastic as I knew it would be. Next to read by Ms. Floyd will be Seasons in Purdah. I highly recommend to those who love women s fiction.… (mais)