Joining all the accolades > if ever a book warranted its own set of CD MUSIC, it is THE TIME!

Still, the book is way too long and we rarely get to see the world from Jonah's perspective >
why does he seek out death traps like the middle of rioting cities where his color makes him an obvious target -
death wish or ???

And, it does take forever for Joseph to develop his own character apart from his brother...
and to stop using Teresa who really did not need him to screw up her life.

Along with Tony Hillerman's Navajo books, [THE TIME OF OUR SINGING]
stands as another 'What race do you have to be to write a story?' - or, to sing... ( )

My wife has told me how white painters have gotten into trouble because they made paintings of the suffering of black people. From his wikipedia page, Richard Powers sure looks like a white guy. As this novel shows, you can't tell by looking. But still. This is a novel about black and mixed race experience. I'm a white guy, so I am in no position to judge. The novel felt very sincere and real. It spoke to me, anyway.

There are so many strands here that are interwoven so intimately. The progressive dream of a society beyond racial division, the conservative realism that such a society is merely a dream. Nuclear weapons and Renaissance polyphony.

I don't know if it's the Great American Novel, but close enough. ( )

This is family saga about music, race, and time. Delia Daley, a black music student, and David Strom, a Jewish German physicist, meet at the Marian Anderson concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939. David and Delia marry. Their children are musically gifted but cannot achieve the full measure of their talent due to the racism of 20th century America. They decide to rear their children outside the confines of race, and this decision forms the primary conflict in the story. Other characters believe this decision is naïve and will only hurt their children. A major rift develops between David and his father-in-law. The story is narrated by the middle child, Joseph, who acts as a bridge between elder brother, Jonah, who follows a path of classical music, and younger sister Ruth, who pursues a path of social activism.

At 650 pages and covering a period of over fifty years, this book has the feel of an epic saga. Powers takes his time in developing the primary characters, particularly Delia, David, Jonah, and Joseph. Ruth plays a lesser role initially, but her story takes center stage in later chapters. At least one character is present during significant racial confrontations and milestones of the period. The idea of being “beyond race” turns out to be impossible in a country where their children are automatically labelled at birth.

Detailed discussions of music are present throughout, and classical music aficionados will appreciate the power of these descriptions. The referenced operas lend additional flavor to the story for those familiar with these works. It is one of the best books I have read involving musical discourse. Physics and the properties of time are also a core element in the story. David, a proponent of Einstein’s theory of the space-time continuum, plays a peripheral role in the Manhattan project, and eventually becomes obsessed with proving his theories about the circularity of time (and challenging the notion of time as a linear flow). If so inclined, the reader will enjoy piecing together the individual elements to shed additional light on the story in its entirety.

As you can tell by the length of this review, this book is not easily described in a few sentences. It offers perspectives on a number of complex issues concerning, time, memory, and change, while challenging the of the idea of race. It may be even more relevant in the current sociopolitical environment than in 2003, when it was initially published. ( )

Writing a review for this book was difficult considering our current national climate. Is it fair to bring a child into this world, knowing full well his or her life will be an uphill, hurtful, and potentially lethal journey? With Roe V. Wade being overturned, this is a burning question for me. In The Time of Our Singing it is 1939 and David Strom, a German Jewish white man meets and falls in love with an African American young lady from Philadelphia. Should they have an interfaith relationship? Could they succeed in a biracial marriage? What hardships would their children have in a world consumed with the hate and segregation and World War II? Is it blind faith to assume their offspring will thrive beyond race with the help of music? So many questions that kept me reading all 600+ pages to the very end. Time of Our Singing also tells the story of David and Delia's children. Jonah, Joseph, and Ruth come of age during the early Civil Rights movement and the turmoil of racial unrest follows them through adulthood. Jonah and Joseph go the route of music and fame, while Ruth veers violently in the opposite direction. Over time, they cannot ignore their color or where they came from. Through music comes recognition and redemption.
What I liked the most was the clever writing in that there are hints of a disaster: a photograph that has escaped being burned. What a black boy from Chicago doesn't know about deep south segregation. How hatred can burn like an inferno until it explodes in disaster. ( )

One of the blurbs at the end of my edition says "The best black novel since Beloved has just been written, and the author is white".

This more or less sums up my feelings about this book. I read the whole thing assuming that the author was black. I was, and am still, very enthusiastic about it. Through a series of back and forth between two generations, this book explores a variety of experiences of being an outsider in America, from the post-war years to the contemporary. The basic premise is to follow two brothers, born in the 60s from a former German Jewish physicist and an African-American woman, united by a common love – and practice – of music and the project to raise post-race children in a still heavily racist society.

Now, I feel a bit embarrassed about this. Is what I read a good account of the kind of ostracism and discrimination black people faced and still face, or a white person's reconstruction of it which happens to fit my own representation of a situation I never experienced (I am a white person in Europe)? I actually looked up for instance of cultural appropriation criticism about this book, but did not find anything.

This aside, it is an extremely rich book and a fantastic travel through these years, both for American society and the music world. It is also one of the very few books where I would have welcomed a companion. It should definitely have a playlist, to get a glimpse of the extraordinary musical universe which defines most of the protagonists. A more usual companion would also be useful, since the book very often alludes to people and events that are landmarks in US black history, but may be difficult to piece out for a European like me. Names I can look up on Wikipedia, but I was able to understand a mention to the Attica Prison riot only because I happen to have read Paul Auster's 1, 2, 3, 4. I am sure I missed many other events which have an influence on the story. ( )