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A review by inkerly
Little Black Girl Lost #1 by Keith Lee Johnson
3.0
3.5 Stars
Little Black Girl Lost is a tale of black womanhood and a young black girl's struggle to survive in 1950s segregated New Orleans.
When I first heard about this book, I was intrigued that a black man would write a book on the struggles and complexities of black women growing up in a time that hypercriticized and hypersexualized black bodies. Johnny Wise is such a girl. She's 15 when she is "sold" by her prostitute mother to a white man infatuated by her youth, flesh, and beauty.
I was intrigued to see how Johnson would portray this, since all too-often stories about the 50s rarely harp on the taboo race relations that also went on during the hypocritical era of segregation.
This book has some level of self awareness to do that, but quickly devolves into this overly simplified perverse narrative that is ridiculous at best, and misogynoir through the black male gaze at worst.
There is something deeply unsettling to me about a black man writing the narrative of a black girl being sexually exploited by grown white men ---who for some reason.
I'm not saying that this story has to show only 1 reality of what a young black girl goes through in 50s Orleans, but to boldly write a character who actually benefits in the end from her stacked misogyny and racism? That's more than absurd, but speaks to what the other thinks of the black female experience in a post-racial society.
There seems to be this underlying assumption and myth, particularly among black men, that black women somehow "have it easy" because white men lust after them, and thus can use their sexuality to climb their socioeconomic status.
We see this hit home through Margeurite, Johnny's mother, and Johnny herself. Margeurite, a beautiful black prostitute is able to "get by" and "save enough money to take care of herself without needing to pimp out Johnny" because white man can't get enough of her.
And Johnny, little 16 year old Johnny, is able toWhy well-to-do white men would compromise their entire livelihoods for a poor, uneducated, and unruly black girl in 1950s New Orleans is beyond me. But it just goes to show how this story can manage to highlight the misogynoir of the era and explore the slavery-based stereotypes that manifested in modern times--- all while perpetuating these very same stereotypes it tries to condemn in the same breath.
That's what I couldn't stand with this book. The blatant hypocrisy. Johnny becomes a smart, quick-witted complex character who emerges from her trauma and learns to leverage her body for a better life. And at the same time is the biggest mixed Mary Sue character, where all the men lust for her and all women envy her. Margeurite's twisted form of "teaching" Johnny about how life truly reflects the generational suffering and hurt she too went through as a young black girl to survive, and there's a sort of pity for her. But then we see her in other segments relishing in being a prostitute and telling Johnny how empowering it is. So is sex empowering for them or crippling? Is Johnny to be admired or sulked at? Because the author's attempts at exploring all these possibilities just ends up being half hearted in the end.
And by the end of the novel, this story turns into a soapy mess with more twists and turns than a Love & Hip Hop storyline. Sex, lies, infidelity, murder, more sex, my golly. I have a feeling I would have been 2x as frustrated with the book if I'd read the words myself. The audiobook has this piquing effect on you, where I was still overall entertained by the book due to the lively narration, but still had these underlying concerns about it.
A book about taboo race relations in the 50s should know better. Especially to cheapen its own talking point by toeing the line between exploring and exploitation. I see that its sequels, Book 2 - 5, focus on the other outlandish soap-opera-y subplots aforementioned, and I don't want to entertain any of those books w/o the proper rendition of Johnny's story. But oh well.
Little Black Girl Lost is a tale of black womanhood and a young black girl's struggle to survive in 1950s segregated New Orleans.
When I first heard about this book, I was intrigued that a black man would write a book on the struggles and complexities of black women growing up in a time that hypercriticized and hypersexualized black bodies. Johnny Wise is such a girl. She's 15 when she is "sold" by her prostitute mother to a white man infatuated by her youth, flesh, and beauty.
I was intrigued to see how Johnson would portray this, since all too-often stories about the 50s rarely harp on the taboo race relations that also went on during the hypocritical era of segregation.
This book has some level of self awareness to do that, but quickly devolves into this overly simplified perverse narrative that is ridiculous at best, and misogynoir through the black male gaze at worst.
There is something deeply unsettling to me about a black man writing the narrative of a black girl being sexually exploited by grown white men ---who for some reason
Spoiler
instead of staying poor and disenfranchised like most exploited women's reality, becomes a sex charlatan and weaponizes her sexuality successfully against her predatorsI'm not saying that this story has to show only 1 reality of what a young black girl goes through in 50s Orleans, but to boldly write a character who actually benefits in the end from her stacked misogyny and racism? That's more than absurd, but speaks to what the other thinks of the black female experience in a post-racial society.
There seems to be this underlying assumption and myth, particularly among black men, that black women somehow "have it easy" because white men lust after them, and thus can use their sexuality to climb their socioeconomic status.
We see this hit home through Margeurite, Johnny's mother, and Johnny herself. Margeurite, a beautiful black prostitute is able to "get by" and "save enough money to take care of herself without needing to pimp out Johnny" because white man can't get enough of her.
And Johnny, little 16 year old Johnny, is able to
Spoiler
woo a rich white man, a white stockbroker, and a white crime boss into being at her beck and call, giving her anything her liberated mind desires, all in exchange for sex. Seriously.That's what I couldn't stand with this book. The blatant hypocrisy. Johnny becomes a smart, quick-witted complex character who emerges from her trauma and learns to leverage her body for a better life. And at the same time is the biggest mixed Mary Sue character, where all the men lust for her and all women envy her. Margeurite's twisted form of "teaching" Johnny about how life truly reflects the generational suffering and hurt she too went through as a young black girl to survive, and there's a sort of pity for her. But then we see her in other segments relishing in being a prostitute and telling Johnny how empowering it is. So is sex empowering for them or crippling? Is Johnny to be admired or sulked at? Because the author's attempts at exploring all these possibilities just ends up being half hearted in the end.
And by the end of the novel, this story turns into a soapy mess with more twists and turns than a Love & Hip Hop storyline. Sex, lies, infidelity, murder, more sex, my golly. I have a feeling I would have been 2x as frustrated with the book if I'd read the words myself. The audiobook has this piquing effect on you, where I was still overall entertained by the book due to the lively narration, but still had these underlying concerns about it.
A book about taboo race relations in the 50s should know better. Especially to cheapen its own talking point by toeing the line between exploring and exploitation. I see that its sequels, Book 2 - 5, focus on the other outlandish soap-opera-y subplots aforementioned, and I don't want to entertain any of those books w/o the proper rendition of Johnny's story. But oh well.