A journey into family

Of the various pleasures associated with reading, uncovering new voices is a favorite. This was the author's debut though I wasn't aware of it until reading her second, The Rib King. Here we learn of Johnny Ribkin and others from the Rib King family as he sets out to right the wrong of his deceased brother Franklin. Filled with surprises and insights, Johnny's map making skills come to light though the term is a disguise for their true nature, a fact held secret until the end. After years in prison he meets his teen aged niece and takes her on a life changing journey. Hidden motives, Johnny must dig up buried 'treasure' in order to save his skin; in the process his niece meets the entire family. Brilliantly executed, the characters, plot and theme immerse the reader into a story unlike most where compassion reigns over wrong doing. Having known about the famous Rib King, learning more about him and the family was heart warming as were details about a devious political figure that met his demise. Her ability to engage readers with story using themes that raise our spirits, it's no wonder the book was heralded by critics. Highly recommended regardless of the genre of preference. ( )

This has been a great year for audiobooks, and I’m so glad this popped up on my radar. I don’t remember how or why it did, but hooray! Kevin Kenerly is the kind of reader I listen to and then look for what other recordings he’s done. Great performance!
I loved the road trip team of 72-year-old Johnny Ribkins and his 13-year-old niece Eloise. Their present day journey and Johnny’s reflections back to his Justice Committee days complemented each other nicely and drifted back and forth at a reasonable pace. I loved the different Ribkins talents and the themes of family, regret, and second chances. The surprises at the end were fantastic.
Highly recommended, especially on audio. ( )

An enjoyable, well-written story that I easily sank into and looked forward to getting back to when I had reading time. A strong debut from an imaginative writer who gracefully incorporates big issues such as race, class, gender, family and more.

The protagonist of this strong debut novel is Johnny Ribkins, a 72-year-old African American man who is in debt to a mobster that doesn’t mess around. Johnny has one week to pay back the money he owes this ruthless man or else. Over the years, Johnny had buried bags of money and jewelry around the state of Florida, so he starts to drive around digging them up. Fearing Ribkins is trying to run away, the mobster sends two henchmen to keep an eye on Johnny.

Johnny is a man who seems to have been coasting through life for years, floating in a cloud of grief over the death of his brother and the loss of days gone by — from his days as a math teacher trying to educate plantation workers to the years he was part of a group called The Justice Committee during the Civil Rights movement.

Pieces of Johnny’s life and family are revealed as he drives from place to place. Hubbard also seamlessly weaves in cultural trends and historical and contemporary discrimination against African Americans. Early on Johnny meets Eloise, a niece that he didn’t know he had who, surprisingly, ends up in his care. More of Johnny’s backstory rolls out as he slowly awakens to the reality of the girl traveling with him. It’s a bit of an odd couple/buddy road trip story.

With each family member he stops to visit, Johnny pieces together more about his brother’s life and in the process gains understanding and self-awareness. His niece meets and learns about her father’s family for the first time and she also gains some valuable lessons along the way. The members of Johnny’s family all have “special powers” that they’ve not always used lawfully or with integrity, but these powers bind them together. The special powers were a bit of a weakness or distraction for me. They didn’t seem to go far enough, be developed enough within the plot, or perhaps I just didn’t read as carefully as I could have to better understand their nuances and metaphorical purposes.

The members of Johnny’s family all have “special powers” that they’ve not always used lawfully or with integrity, but these powers bind them together. The special powers were a bit of a weakness or distraction for me. They didn’t seem to go far enough or be developed enough within the plot. Perhaps I just didn’t read as carefully as I could have to better understand their nuances and metaphorical purposes. I admit I’m not a fan of magical realism.

On the other hand, one of my favorite aspects of this novel is its realism about aging. I appreciate how Hubbard shows the recalibration that’s sometimes necessary in life as we age. When Johnny first tries to find the location of one of his stashes, he’s unsuccessful. He paces off, digs a hole, finds nothing. Tries again from another angle with no luck. He feels tired and old. Then it hits him:

“He stood up, positioned himself on the bottom step and started walking again, this time channeling the cocky stride of his much younger self. He narrowed his eyes, pursed his lips and tilted his shoulders so that his left side rolled back below his right. He dropped his hips and let his legs slide out in front of him and then sidled across the yard in this manner for a full twenty paces. When he stopped he realized he was almost twice the distance his careful plodding steps took him now. He cocked his head to the left and took ten more winding steps toward the oak tree. He hoisted his shovel and started digging. Yes, sir, he thought. How do you think you got this old? Been around for years and trust, this ain’t nothing. If there’s one thing you do know it’s how to survive this world. Johnny Ribkins always lands on his feet. He lowered his shovel and felt the sudden crack of metal against metal.”

Later he realizes that he’s no longer seen as a threat with his young niece at his side. He’s a gray-haired grampa figure. In his new understanding of himself as a senior and as a caretaker he feels, “old age, the illusion of frailty, a warm sense of anonymity flooding his entire body.”

This story is told with such warmth and tenderness that it was sometimes jarring to remember Johnny is on a life or death mission.

Overall, a highly original story from a gifted storyteller. If you’re looking for a socially conscious yet easy going novel with characters that you want to care about, The Talented Ribkins is for you.

This review originally posted on my blog: https://wildmoobooks.com/2017/08/09/book-review-the-talented-ribkins-by-ladee-hu... ( )

Rating: 4* of five...but barely...when it should've been five

The Publisher Says: At seventy-two, Johnny Ribkins shouldn’t have such problems: He’s got one week to come up with the money he stole from his mobster boss or it’s curtains.

What may or may not be useful to Johnny as he flees is that he comes from an African-American family that has been gifted with super powers that are a bit, well, odd. Okay, very odd. For example, Johnny's father could see colors no one else could see. His brother could scale perfectly flat walls. His cousin belches fire. And Johnny himself can make precise maps of any space you name, whether he's been there or not.

In the old days, the Ribkins family tried to apply their gifts to the civil rights effort, calling themselves The Justice Committee. But when their, eh, superpowers proved insufficient, the group fell apart. Out of frustration Johnny and his brother used their talents to stage a series of burglaries, each more daring than the last.

Fast forward a couple decades and Johnny’s on a race against the clock to dig up loot he's stashed all over Florida. His brother is gone, but he has an unexpected sidekick: his brother's daughter, Eloise, who has a special superpower of her own.

Inspired by W. E. B. Du Bois’s famous essay “The Talented Tenth” and fuelled by Ladee Hubbard’s marvelously original imagination, The Talented Ribkins is a big-hearted debut novel about race, class, politics, and the unique gifts that, while they may cause some problems from time to time, bind a family together.

A big-hearted novel about a family with special gifts who sometimes stumble in their efforts to succeed in life, The Talented Ribkins draws on such novels as Toni Morrison’s Sula and Colson Whitehead's The Intuitionist to weave themes of race, class, and politics into a wonderfully accomplished and engaging novel.

THIS WAS A YULE GIFT TO ME FROM MY DELIGHTFUL YOUNG GENTLEMAN CALLER. YOU ROCK, ROB!

My Review: First, read this:

“Johnny Ribkins, there was a time when you could've been anything you wanted to be, a doctor, lawyer or an Indian chief...instead all you are is a damn shame.”
–and–
"It’s not your job to try and compensate other people’s lack of vision. You’ve got enough to do just trying to be true to your own."

I'm not sure what you like in terms of first novels. I hope you're willing to run around on your usual genres with a superhero-adjacent tale of the, um, strange descendents of the yahoo who lost the rights to The Rib King™—the miracle delicious barbecue sauce of all time. Johnny Ribkins is the dishonest remaining scion of the line that's made its business to get in on that amazing concoction, rightfully theirs.

But Johnny and his line were, if not superpowered, at the least gifted in some peculiar ways other mortals aren't. He, for example, can map places. And they don't have to be real yet. His maps enable him to, when his time aiding "the Justice Committee" during the 1960s Civil Rights struggle (and sinful wicked shame on our country for allowing it to be dismantled while we watch), use his unique talent to hide in undiscoverable places the money he just knows he will need in the future. (Don't expect to go too deep into how and why that should be...it's not a huge piece of this book.)

Now that he's got the need for his funds, he and his teenaged niece (with a really, really cool "talent" that utterly eludes me, personally) travel from pillar to post together literally digging the future out of the muck and dirt of the past, while he shares with his brother's daughter all the stuff he wishes he'd said, the people he knew and their effects on him and the world, with the family's latest and last survivor.

So, that four star rating up there? That's all about the Ribkins not really getting into it, about the told-not-lived nature of a reflection and road novel. It isn't bad, it's got lovely sentences that say a lot about what it means to be Othered among others, and how very sad it is to leave so few things other people care about behind for them to enjoy.

But as a first novel being the same as a first at-bat, it swings for the fences and gets an RBI though not a home run. That's still a hell of an achievement. ( )

Johnny Ribkins comes from a diversely talented family. His artist father could perceive more colors than most people. Someone else could see in the dark. Another breathes fire. One channels voices. Johnny makes maps of places he's never been. His late brother, Franklin, could climb anything, including walls.

With Johnny and Franklin's skills, they decided they were thieves. Now 72, Johnny's mapmaking for a criminal disbarred lawyer gets him in trouble after he skims some money. He has a week to pay it back so he travels around Florida digging up cash and other things he's stashed in various places, including the homes of family members. That's how he meets Franklin's daughter, Eloise, the 13 year old niece Johnny didn't know he had. (She can catch anything thrown at her.) With her mother's permission Johnny takes her with him on him on his travels. Of course they each have something to teach the other along the way as Johnny tries to get himself out of trouble. ( )