Orange Laughter.Orange Laughter by Leone Ross Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, November 2000 $23.00, ISBN ISBN abbr. International Standard Book Number ISBN International Standard Book Number ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m 0-374-22676-8 I must admit I was skeptical. How would a British author write a novel about Southern life? I was expecting a trite plot and dialogue that would mimic Ebonics, not Southern dialect Many languages have a southern dialect, sometimes more than one. This page does not list all possible southern dialects; you may have better luck looking up the language in question. . As a southerner, I was pleased when Ross delivered neither of these. Instead Orange Laughter is an intricately woven tale that bounces between what was and what should be and collided in a conclusion that takes six degrees of separation to another level. Set in the 1960s in Edene, North Carolina North Carolina, state in the SE United States. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean (E), South Carolina and Georgia (S), Tennessee (W), and Virginia (N). Facts and Figures Area, 52,586 sq mi (136,198 sq km). Pop. , and 1990s New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. , Orange Laughter submerges the reader in three lives connected by the joy and pain they share--and those which continue to haunt them. The three individuals--Tony, Mickey and Agatha--meet in unusual circumstances. Agatha is the housekeeper HOUSEKEEPER. One who occupies a house. 2. A person who occupies every room in the house, under a lease, except one, which is reserved for his landlord, who pays all the taxes, is not a housekeeper. 1 Chit. Rep. 502. for Mickey's great-grandmother and a caretaker for Tony, who has been bounced from home to home. Tony has witnessed a trauma that has forced him to trust no one. The love of Agatha and the friendship of Mickey helps change Tony, who finds his voice and a passion for writing, until the traumas of the past confront him in adulthood, forcing him to retreat within himself and reconcile his past. "I've been afraid all my life. How many of us black folk been living with fear like its food?" Ross' use of songs as themes and eloquent summary of emotions are threaded consistently throughout the book. "I lived with the image of the hanged in my mind, we all did. I never saw anyone lynched but I lived with the possibility ... of that all the time." Although a twist of plot hints toward a stereotypical South, and at times the storyline Noun 1. storyline - the plot of a book or play or film plot line plot - the story that is told in a novel or play or movie etc.; "the characters were well drawn but the plot was banal" becomes a bit bizarre, Orange Laughter is ringing with a truth that, while difficult to digest, speaks to the pain in the hearts of everyone who survives the multifaceted mul·ti·fac·et·ed adj. Having many facets or aspects. See Synonyms at versatile. Adj. 1. multifaceted - having many aspects; "a many-sided subject"; "a multifaceted undertaking"; "multifarious interests"; "the multifarious oppressions of an unjust society. Michelle R. Gipson is an award-winning writer who is currently working on her first novel. |
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