Josephine Baker’s Last Dance, by Sherry Jones. Gallery Books, 2018

Josephine Baker, born in 1906 to a poor family in St. Louis, was used pretty much as a slave from the time she could walk. Her mother put her out to white families as a live in servant, with Josephine’s pay going to her. Josephine never saw anything of it. Worse, she was sexually abused starting at an early age. But she was determined that she would be a dancer and singer; it was the one way she could see out of her impoverished situation. She just needed to get a chance….She was told by producers that she was too skinny, too dark, and didn’t have a strong enough voice to be a chanteuse. She was relegated to the chorus line in all people of color reviews.



But in 1925 she sailed to Paris and started breaking down barriers. She was the first woman of color on a Paris stage, the first to star in a movie, the first to sing in an opera. But her most famous act is, sadly, something that started as sarcasm. She was designing her own costumes in Paris. The man in charge, however, thought she was trying to dress too elegantly. So she drew her next costume as a skirt (a belt, really) of bananas and nothing else. That, of course, is what the costume maker produced and that is what she danced in for many performances, and that is the picture that will come up first when you Google her.



In Paris she was received as an equal, not some subhuman servant like she was see in the US. She was the center of any party, the star of the stage. She rubbed elbows with the American ex-pats. Of course, the Nazis came and everything went to hell. So she did what any rebel would do- she joined the French Resistance. As a star and party giver, she had access to the Nazi bigwigs who didn’t know she spoke German. She risked her life giving information to the Resistance- and then spent time flying supplies for the Red Cross.



This was all exciting. After the war she led a much quieter life. She adopted 12 children, of different races and cultures. She tried to come back to the US, but found herself denied service in restaurants and denied rooms in hotels. She was treated like dirt.



I loved the book, but the last part of her life was rushed over. What became of all her children? What kind of relationships did she have with them? After her last big performance- a production that frames the story- what did she do? I know she worked for equality.  How did she die? Who was with her then? But it’s still a five star book, because I couldn’t put it down. She was a fascinating woman, and lived her life to the fullest.

Daughter of Moloka’I, by Alan Brennert. St. Martin’s Press, 2019

We first meet Ruth in an orphanage on Oahu, the half Japanese, half Hawaiian daughter of occupants of the Moloka’I leper colony. Over the course of 54 years, from 1926 to 1970, we follow her life as she is adopted by a Japanese family who move to California to farm. Of course, come Pearl Harbor, they are put in an internment camp and later have to start over in the aftermath. Ruth is contented with her life; she loves her parents and is starting a family of her own. Then, out of nowhere, a letter arrives from Rachel – her birth mother. Will Ruth want to meet the woman who gave her up when she was one year old? Can she love both her birth mother who she doesn’t remember and her adoptive mother, the only other she’s known? Can she even understand the woman who gave her up- and who lived a significant amount of her life in the leper colony?

The characters are mostly well drawn and three dimensional. The author brings places to life, too- the islands, central California, the internment camps. I think this description of the inhumanity of putting people in internment camps like animals comes at a time when the US is doing the same thing all over again, and I hope it will make some difference in the minds of readers. Five stars.

Victoria & Abdul: The True Story of the Queen’s Closest Confidant, by Shrabani Basu. Vintage Books, 2010

By the time Queen Victoria started the last decade of her life, she had lost her beloved Prince Albert in 1861 and her Scottish personal servant, John Brown, in 1883- many people speculated that she and Brown were secretly married, they were so close. She was a sad and lonely woman. Then, unexpectedly, she found a new friend: Abdul Karim, from India.

He arrived as part of a contingent of Indians, a gift, as it were, to her for her Golden Jubilee. While a number of high ranking Indians visited England for the event, Karim was sent over (along with several others) as a servant. At first he waited at table, but he moved on swiftly. Despite a language barrier, the Queen and Karim began to communicate. He was solicitous and caring. Soon he was teaching her Hindi; soon after that he became a secretary. He took care of her correspondence and performed other duties. When they were apart, they wrote each other constantly. As they became closer, Victorian began to advance him in rank and give him valuable gifts and honors. This brought out jealously in both the servant’s quarters and the court- especially the court. He was being allowed to walk, sit, and ride with the court elite, and this made them furious. He was from the lower middle class, he wasn’t a Christian, and, worst of all, he had brown skin. Obviously inferior! He was with her until her death; the last person to be with her body before it was put into the coffin. Needless to say, the court instantly stripped him of as many things as they could, demanded all of Victoria’s letters to him and burned them on site. He went home to India.

Having read a couple of biographies of Queen Victoria, I knew much of this story already, but it was written from the court’s point of view- that Karim (known as the Munshi, a Hindi term for ‘secretary’) took horrible advantage of the Queen. But the author found Karim’s family in Karachi, and they had a trunk full of his journals. This unlocked the past and gave the Munshi’s side of the story.

Because I’d read about Victoria’s life before, I found some of the book tedious. But if you’ve not read about the Queen’s later life, it won’t be tedious. It’s a short, interesting book that shows us how some things never change. 

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The Fortunes, by Peter Ho Davies. Houghton Mifflin, 2016

“The Fortunes” is one novella and three short stories about Chinese-Americans and the problems they have- and still do- face.

“Gold” is set in Gold Rush era California, where young Ling has been sent by Big Uncle- the owner of a floating brothel in China who raised him after his Chinese mother died and his white father paid Uncle to take care of him- to labor in a laundry. From working as an opium boy in the brothel he’s picked up some English and other languages, so he has an advantage in America. He’s hired by Charles Crocker, founder of the Central Pacific Railroad which was the western portion of the Transcontinental Railroad, as a valet. Dressed in western clothing, his que cut off, and his hat slanted over his eyes he can pass as white in dim light. He’s moving up on the socio-economic ladder, and Crocker sees his gentility and submissiveness as evidence that the Chinese will make the ideal work force for the railroad, working for less money. This causes Ling to reexamine his identity and his loyalties.

“Silver” is about Anna Mae Wong, the first Asian Hollywood star, as she makes her only trip to China. The story is told in an odd format; short, choppy episodes. This should have been my favorite story, given my interest in old Hollywood, but I found the style off-putting. The story tells how she cannot get ahead; she can only get roles as a dragon lady villain or a young butterfly-like maiden. What should have been the role of her lifetime, the lead in “The Good Earth”, was given to a non-Asian actress. Miscegenation laws prevent her from having an onscreen kiss with any white actor. Her options are limited.

“Jade” is about the brutal murder of Vincent Chin; a hate crime perpetrated by auto workers laid off by the influx of Japanese imports thinking the Chinese-American Vincent was Japanese. The narrator is Vincent’s friend, thirty years later, the friend who was present at the killing but ran to safety. There is, of course, survivor guilt for him to deal with. Somehow, despite the horror of the killing, the intensity that you’d think would be there never makes it.

“Pearl” is about a Chinese-American man and his white wife going to China to adopt a baby girl. At home, he has always felt he stood out and didn’t fit in. Now, in China, he blends away into the crowds, but doesn’t feel Chinese enough.

All these stories are anchored by the question of Chinese-American identity, of having a foot in each culture. In these stories, even those born here have that quandary: to whom do I owe allegiance? There is also the continual problem of having to face prejudice.

In the end, my favorite story was “Gold” and I rather wished it had been made into a full novel. The characters are well developed and interesting, unlike those in the shorter tales. As a whole, the book is uneven. Four stars out of five.

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Their Promised Land: My Grandparents in Love and War, by Ian Buruma. Penguin Press, 2016

Prolific writer of history and sociology Ian Buruma has focused on a very personal history in this book: that of his grandparents, Win and Bun (Winifred and Bernard) Schlesinger. Their love affair started around the same time that WW I did (although at that point it was discouraged by both families because of their youth) and continued right up to Bernard’s death in 1984, and it’s an affair that was closely narrated by their letters. During their separations during both World Wars, they wrote every day and many of those letters were saved, providing a treasure trove for Buruma.

Bun and Win’s parents were all prosperous- both their fathers were stock brokers- Jews who emigrated from Germany to England. They strove to fit into their adoptive country, celebrating Christmas and ignoring the anti-Semitism they ran into. When the First World War came, Win and Bun both desired to serve; Win became a nurse and Bun was a stretcher bearer on the fields, where he saw horrible things. Between the wars they married and started a family- which, during WW 2, increased suddenly by 12 Jewish children rescued from the Nazis.

Buruma’s focus is not just on the loving marriage of his grandparent’s, however. It’s also about cultural assimilation and anti-Semitism. Despite facing prejudice- Bernard’s employment prospects were limited because he was Jewish- the family remained devoted to England and *almost* all it stood for. This is a fascinating look at what is going on all around us now as people leave their home countries and face the same kind of prejudice. 

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