The Good Lord Bird

THE GOOD LORD BIRD
by James McBride

 Award: National Book Winner 2013

Nominations: Carnegie Longlist 2014, Dublin Longlist 2015
Date Read: August 6, 2014

 I enjoyed The Good Lord Bird and the well-intentioned humor definitely hit it's mark with this reader. After meeting the abolitionist John Brown in a tavern, the hero of this story, Henry Shackleford, is mistaken for a girl and is placed in a dress for nearly the entire novel. Shackleford and Brown unite forces and through their travels meet historical figures Fredrick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, culminating in the raid on Harpers Ferry.

 This novel has been widely compared to Huckleberry Finn, but with a more noted absence of humanity. I honestly don't find Huckleberry Finn all that dripping with humanity and have always been put off by it. I believe McBride achieved his objectives quite well as writing the characters as he did. I thought they were brilliant.

 I read somewhere that if Mark Twin and Mel Brooks had ever collaborated, they would have come up with The Good Lord Bird. I find this to be the best analogy for this novel!

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