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    Standing at the Scratch Line
    Standing at the Scratch Line
    Standing at the Scratch Line
    Audiobook25 hours

    Standing at the Scratch Line

    Written by "Guy" "Johnson"

    Narrated by Dion Graham

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Raised in the steamy bayous of New Orleans in the early 1900s, LeRoi "King" Tremain, caught up in his family’s ongoing feud with the rival DuMont family, learns to fight. But when the teenage King mistakenly kills two white deputies during a botched raid on the DuMonts, the Tremains’ fear of reprisal forces King to flee Louisiana.

    King thus embarks on an adventure that first takes him to France, where he fights in World War I as a member of the segregated 369th Battalion—in the bigoted army he finds himself locked in combat with American soldiers as well as with Germans. When he returns to America, he battles the Mob in Jazz Age Harlem, the KKK in Louisiana, and crooked politicians trying to destroy a black township in Oklahoma.

    King Tremain is driven by two principal forces: He wants to be treated with respect, and he wants to create a family dynasty much like the one he left behind in Louisiana. This is a stunning debut by novelist Guy Johnson that provides a true depiction of the lives of African-Americans in the early decades of the twentieth century.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateOct 10, 2008
    ISBN9781436142991
    Standing at the Scratch Line
    Author

    "Guy" "Johnson"

    I spend most of my time napping, but my real job is keeping the neighbor kids off my lawn.

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    Reviews for Standing at the Scratch Line

    4/5

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    • 5/5
      This book was Great!!!! I need a part 2. I think it would make a great Netflix series
    • 3/5
      This book is jam packed with -- with what? -- adventure? suspense? plot-twists? If it was a movie, it would have a form of "Deliverance" in it, a healthy dose of "Band of Brothers", a smorgasbord of "The Godfather", "Mississippi Burning", and what I would say fits the form, if not the proper setting of a terrific Western, like "Pale Rider". And yet, it ends with a mix of Old Testament Bible and Greek Tragedy. In short, it's not lacking in content. And it does not come across as contrived as it goes through all these machinations. Of course, the fact that it's centered on racially black characters, pretty much takes it off the mainstream reading list, as it would most assuredly have been a massive best-seller otherwise. I have a slight problem with the level of literary skills, but I'm comparing it to some exemplary wordsmiths whose writing styles I prefer. This is not badly written. Actually, my biggest issue with the book is the second most significant character's utter unlikability after first being setup as a potential counterbalance for the raw nature of the main character. But then, I wouldn't tolerate such total lack of personal grace, so maybe it's just me.