The Ballad of Black Tom

I haven't read any Lovecraft. While he was an integral part of science fiction and fantasy, the knowledge of his racism made me feel like it wasn't really necessary to put him on the to-read list. Honestly, I don't hold a whole lot of reverence for the so-called classics. But its not like I've never held a love for a text or a work that in fact had a problematic creator or even had problematic undertones itself. So I understand why Victor LaValle wanted to revisit the mythos of Lovecraft, and somehow rectify the love he had for his work and the anger and frustration he felt for the man himself. And I think he did a brilliant job of transforming that frustration into The Ballad of Black Tom.

I like how this book is split up. The first half is the story of Tommy Tester, his family, how he's survived as a black man in 1920s Harlem, and how his world begins to unravel when he meets Robert Suydam, a wealthy man looking to conjure a powerful entity. Then there's the story of Black Tom - Tommy Tester awakened by the Sleeping King, blessed or cursed with unspeakable power - told from the perspective of Malone, a white New York City detective, a mild sensitive and amateur expert in the arcane. I think its a very clever thing that Malone is the sole sympathetic white man and still he suffers, because while I'm sure someone like Malone doesn't think his behavior could be perceived as neutral, it is. And to be neutral in the face of oppression is to be complicit. It doesn't matter that Malone doesn't look at Tommy, the black population of New York or the many immigrants he encounters as less than - it doesn't change the fact that he benefits from their marginalization. And Black Tom makes sure he knows it.

The Ballad of Black Tom is a simple, in moments sparse story. It has a purpose, and that is finding some justice. And I felt that justice reading this story, I lavished in that satisfaction much the same way I did when I read Cassandra Khaw's These Deathless Bones. Before Tommy Tester becomes Black Tom, I wondered if there was really anything special here. I wanted more of those shivers of dark magic, perhaps because the pain Tommy experienced was too real and too much. The second half of the book gets darker, more eerie, and while its still a slim story, I could see by the end that it was exactly what it needed. We don't have all the answers or all the details, but we know Black Tom's journey - from man to monster and back again.

A very clever re-imagining* of The Horror at Red Hook, which is arguably Lovecraft's most racist story. Which is a shame, because the plot has some interesting possibilities that would require acknowledgement of the race issues (rich white dude snubs his family to hang out with immigrants and people of color), but allows for arm's length commentary on those issues, rather than whole-hearted endorsement.

And The Ballad of Black Tom mines a lot of that potential. The portion of the novella told from Tommy's point of view is definitely the more powerful. The Malone point of view has its moments, don't get me wrong. Seeing the Irish mystic who thinks he knows about the occult try to cope with unfathomable cosmic horror has its own satisfactions.

You don't need to read the original story to appreciate this one (and I understand if the racism is just too much to deal with), but knowing the Lovecraft will definitely deepen your appreciation of this story.

*The story itself gives some clues about the in-world relationship with Lovecraft's story, but I won't spoil any of that here.