Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman
Jun. 27th, 2007 12:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Callum is a nought - a second-class citizen in a world run by the ruling Crosses ...
Sephy is a Cross, daughter of one of the most powerful men in the country ...
In their world, noughts and Crosses simply don't mix. And as hostility turns to violence, can Callum and Sephy possibly find a way to be together? They are determined to try.
And then the bomb explodes ...
Malorie Blackman's central idea for this book is astonishingly simple - create a parallel world where it's the black population who are the ruling class and the white population who were the former slaves-turned-underclass. It's a brilliant concept and one that automatically makes teenagers think about the world in which we live and the experiences of other races. Unfortunately, whilst I know that this book is one that is frequently recommended, I found the story and the concept too heavy-handed and at times, reminiscent of a soap opera for it to truly work.
I have an underlying issue with the social set up for the book because whilst Blackman has set her alternate universe in the United Kingdom, she has mixed in elements of the United States civil rights struggle to give her story more punch - e.g. the Liberation Militia are a clear parallel with the Black Panthers and she uses their tactics to set up the idea of one man's terrorist being another man's freedom fighter whilst the riot at Heathcroft school when noughts are first admitted is reminiscent of historical footage of segregation protests in Alabama schools. What bothers me is that the racial experience in the UK was very different to the US - whilst we didn't have that overt segregation struggle, we did have racism being practiced in schools, by the police, shops, hospitals etc - and had Blackman used those parallels she could have created a much more subtle story - one that truly makes you think about racism rather than drawing things in absolute black and white.
It's those broad brushstrokes that spoil the story because Blackman is so determined to show how there is racism and mistrust on both sides, that her characters of Callum and Sephy are really little more than cyphers who are there for her to bang her political drum. It's not helped by the fact that she tinges their forbidden romance with soap opera romance - their love is tainted by the hatred around them, causing them to misinterpret what each other is doing and for two people who are supposed to be in love, they never once have a conversation where they're honest about what each is going through - something that I found very unrealistic, even given the age of the protagonists. Blackman relies on their concealing information from each other, deliberately choosing not to read vital correspondence or have them miss critical phone calls to move the plot and I found it wearying and contrived.
Similarly, the supporting characters lack depth and at times, I find their motivation difficult to understand - particularly Jude and Kamal (Callum's older brother and Sephy's politician father). Jude's story actually comes out more in the short story tagged to the end of the book 'An Eye For An Eye', although I still felt unable to understand why he should hate Sephy so much that he wants to kill her when he knows that she's carrying Callum's child and I also fail to understand why he would assume that Callum raped Sephy when he knows how close they used to be.
What Blackman does do well is her refusal to pull her punches. This is not a happy-ever-after book and I found the prison and execution scenes to be very believable and effective. I also think that she does very well in pacing the story - it certainly doesn't stop moving and the use of alternate first person perspectives forces the plot along so that the contrivances aren't quite as jarring as they otherwise might be.
The Verdict:
I've been left wondering what all the fuss is about. This is really soap opera dressed up in a "racism is bad, mmkay?" plot line that's too heavy handed to be truly thought-provoking. Whilst Blackman handles the most dramatic scenes well and keeps the plot moving, I just didn't feel emotionally engaged with either character, particularly when they are acting in a contrived and/or naive manner, which robbed the book of the Shakespearian tragedy overtones that Blackman is going for. If I can find the next two books in the trilogy in a library, I'll probably read them to find out how the overarching story ends, but I'm certainly not interested enough to buy them.
Callum is a nought - a second-class citizen in a world run by the ruling Crosses ...
Sephy is a Cross, daughter of one of the most powerful men in the country ...
In their world, noughts and Crosses simply don't mix. And as hostility turns to violence, can Callum and Sephy possibly find a way to be together? They are determined to try.
And then the bomb explodes ...
Malorie Blackman's central idea for this book is astonishingly simple - create a parallel world where it's the black population who are the ruling class and the white population who were the former slaves-turned-underclass. It's a brilliant concept and one that automatically makes teenagers think about the world in which we live and the experiences of other races. Unfortunately, whilst I know that this book is one that is frequently recommended, I found the story and the concept too heavy-handed and at times, reminiscent of a soap opera for it to truly work.
I have an underlying issue with the social set up for the book because whilst Blackman has set her alternate universe in the United Kingdom, she has mixed in elements of the United States civil rights struggle to give her story more punch - e.g. the Liberation Militia are a clear parallel with the Black Panthers and she uses their tactics to set up the idea of one man's terrorist being another man's freedom fighter whilst the riot at Heathcroft school when noughts are first admitted is reminiscent of historical footage of segregation protests in Alabama schools. What bothers me is that the racial experience in the UK was very different to the US - whilst we didn't have that overt segregation struggle, we did have racism being practiced in schools, by the police, shops, hospitals etc - and had Blackman used those parallels she could have created a much more subtle story - one that truly makes you think about racism rather than drawing things in absolute black and white.
It's those broad brushstrokes that spoil the story because Blackman is so determined to show how there is racism and mistrust on both sides, that her characters of Callum and Sephy are really little more than cyphers who are there for her to bang her political drum. It's not helped by the fact that she tinges their forbidden romance with soap opera romance - their love is tainted by the hatred around them, causing them to misinterpret what each other is doing and for two people who are supposed to be in love, they never once have a conversation where they're honest about what each is going through - something that I found very unrealistic, even given the age of the protagonists. Blackman relies on their concealing information from each other, deliberately choosing not to read vital correspondence or have them miss critical phone calls to move the plot and I found it wearying and contrived.
Similarly, the supporting characters lack depth and at times, I find their motivation difficult to understand - particularly Jude and Kamal (Callum's older brother and Sephy's politician father). Jude's story actually comes out more in the short story tagged to the end of the book 'An Eye For An Eye', although I still felt unable to understand why he should hate Sephy so much that he wants to kill her when he knows that she's carrying Callum's child and I also fail to understand why he would assume that Callum raped Sephy when he knows how close they used to be.
What Blackman does do well is her refusal to pull her punches. This is not a happy-ever-after book and I found the prison and execution scenes to be very believable and effective. I also think that she does very well in pacing the story - it certainly doesn't stop moving and the use of alternate first person perspectives forces the plot along so that the contrivances aren't quite as jarring as they otherwise might be.
The Verdict:
I've been left wondering what all the fuss is about. This is really soap opera dressed up in a "racism is bad, mmkay?" plot line that's too heavy handed to be truly thought-provoking. Whilst Blackman handles the most dramatic scenes well and keeps the plot moving, I just didn't feel emotionally engaged with either character, particularly when they are acting in a contrived and/or naive manner, which robbed the book of the Shakespearian tragedy overtones that Blackman is going for. If I can find the next two books in the trilogy in a library, I'll probably read them to find out how the overarching story ends, but I'm certainly not interested enough to buy them.
