Tag: Bloodline

Yecheilyah’s Book Reviews – Leaving Fatherland by Matt Graydon

Title: Leaving Fatherland

Author: Matt Graydon

Publisher: Cranthorpe Millner Publishers

Published: August 20, 2024

Pages: 326 pages

Matt Graydon’s gripping, well-researched historical fiction debut Leaving Fatherland explores the difficulties of growing up with an abusive father in the context of World War II, Hitler’s ascent, and how our early years have a significant influence on our adult life. Right away, we are introduced to the abuse Oskar Bachmann suffers at the hands of his father, Karl, who assaults his son both physically and mentally. He refers to him as weak and wishes that he, like his brother Emil, had joined the Hitler Youth.

The first time Karl hits Oskar in the book shocked me, even though the author did an excellent job showing the cruelty that led up to it. This would profoundly affect Oskar throughout his life, a life the author shares with us in such detail that it reads like an autobiography.

Contrasted against Karl’s cruelty is his mother Aneta’s kindness and gentleness, a welcome relief. She encourages him to read, which becomes his safe space. Aneta also finds a way to buy Oskar a tourist-class ticket to America to complete his education.

“The pages of the books I wrapped around my mind and soul like blankets brought distraction and great solace from the relentless strife of home life.”

-Leaving Fatherland, Oskar Bacchman

Oskar continued on to study psychology at Manhattan’s University of New York, a decision he made especially to gain a deeper understanding of his father. Even though Karl is mean to him, Oskar still loves him, evident in his desperate attempt to understand him. In his own words: “I’ve learned it’s possible to hate what your father is and yet still yearn for his approval.” As he navigates the city and makes new friends, Oskar is still affected by his father’s actions as shocking revelations about Karl’s ties to Hitler emerge.

I love the research that went into this book, even down to the Black man taxi driver referring to the ten-dollar bill as a “sawbuck.” Even though the author is not Black, his depiction of the driver and his persona was spot on. Bachmann referring to him as a “Negro cab driver” and how he had not seen many Black people growing up in Germany also fit the times (1930s).

Although a lengthy read, Oskar’s life is filled with many secrets and unexplainable fortunes, culminating in a surprising revelation that connects everything together.

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Ratings

  • Plot Movement / Strength: 4/5
  • Entertainment Factor: 4/5
  • Characterization: 5/5
  • Authenticity / Believable: 5/5
  • Thought Provoking: 5/5

Overall: 5/5

Leaving Fatherland is Available Now on Amazon!

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About the Author

Matt Graydon Author Photo

Matt Graydon has loved writing since childhood. In his early career, he trained and then worked as a journalist for local and national newspapers, developing research skills that proved vital in his historical fiction writing. He later worked as a senior public relations executive for major corporations in a global context, interacting with people from many cultures around the world. In recent years he rekindled his love of creative writing, attending expert writing courses by Faber and others to develop his craft. He is an active member of the UK’s Society of Authors and belongs to the Phoenix Writing Group in Dorking. He has had both poetry and short stories published, most recently Saigo No Tatakai, an account of a kamikaze attack in the Second World War told from both sides.

Matt lives in Surrey, with his wife, adult children and an unruly cockapoo. When not writing, he spends as much time as possible outside gardening, or engaging in astronomy and photography.

Links:

Website: www.mattgraydon.com

Facebook: Matt Graydon Writes

Instagram: @matt_graydon_writes

Twitter: @graydonwrites

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Why I Go #UNDERGROUND

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If you could go back to Harriet Tubman’s days and with what you know now, help her to free more slaves based on your knowledge of the future, would you be able to help her? With what you know about history today, would you be able to assist her in carrying more people to freedom? With all of the technology and historical knowledge and books and slave narratives and everything you’ve stored away to this point, could you honestly say that you could help her? Many of us don’t even know what direction the sun rises and sets in, let alone navigate without GPS. This is why I watch shows such as #Underground.

What amazes me is that when a Tyler Perry movie comes out, we don’t hear nothing about how we’re tired of seeing black men in dresses. I don’t hear anything about how we’re tired of seeing black men and women run around joking all the time about nothing. We make excuses for that. We don’t hear nothing about Fifty Shades of Black, Get Hard, or throwbacks like Don’t Be A Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood. When Noah and Gods of Egypt came out, I didn’t hear nothing about all the biblical inaccuracies that can be proven just by reading the first few chapters of Genesis. But when it comes to a show comprised of information we need to know, now we’re tired of slave movies even though many of our brothers and sisters don’t even know what the half of slavery was really about and the psychological trauma it still holds today.

I’m still hearing people say that the light skin slaves were house slaves but this is not historically correct. The Mulatto was the first to be sold because the mistress did not want to look at the proof of her husbands infidelity with the “niggers” every time she looked at those children. Not that mulattoes were not in the house, but the point is they were “field niggas” too. There was a ranking system based on skill and worth and it didn’t matter what color you were a slave was a slave. Whether in house or in the field none of it was esteemed over the other you was still a slave. Some of us still think Rosa Parks was the first to refuse to give up her seat on a bus. She was not, but that’s the point. There’s still lots of people who don’t know. We don’t know what Reconstruction was about. We don’t know what Jim Crow was about. We don’t know what The Harlem Renaissance was about, or for a more earlier term, The New Negro Movement. We don’t know what The Civil Rights Movement was about. We don’t even know who The Black Panthers truly were aside from the hateful militia group people tell us they were. Prince just died and they say he had no will. Prince was a man who sued people all the time in regard to the legalities of his career. He’s not the kind of man who would not have a will but this is what they tell us. The point is that we don’t know half of the black history that we think we know and even what we think we know, we don’t really know. What Harriet Tubman and the many others had to endure, I had to endure too. For we are all connected, the human family. We are the bloodline and the experiences of our ancestors  still runs through our veins. They say that if you don’t know your history, that you are bound to repeat it.  This is why I go #Underground.

Blood Line

Slavery-TodayMy nephew has my birthmark on his chest. My face has my mother’s nose, and my smile is etched with my father’s teeth. I interact with the world as if on my own. It never occurs to me that I swing my arms like my Aunt. Or that the decisions I make may have already been made before. They say there is nothing new under the sun. I cannot swim. But maybe that’s because the Great Flood has traumatized me. Can I still taste salt water seas on my tongue? Have you ever thought about the make-up of a blood line?

The possibility that maybe you inherited these ways only to gift them to someone else one day. I smile at the thought. What would a little girl look like with my eyes, my words and my hands on her hips? How do I know my favorite tree did not bleed with the stench of my ancestors? And have I ever fathomed why Hurricanes take the same route as the slave ships? Can it be that bodies still burn like melted ash upon the ocean floor? Its smoke mixed with the wind before marching out to the beat of Negro Spirituals I could have sworn I heard on the radio last night. Or maybe that’s just the Harriet in me. Perhaps I may gather poetry in my arms like the wind released of its chains. Is it possible that words can free those who do not know that they are slaves?