Three Americans in the Jim Crow South face enormous changed triggered by World War II in this epic novel by the Pulitzer-winning author of Freeman. Could you find the courage to do what’s right in a world on fire? An affluent white marine survives Pearl Harbor at the cost of a black messman’s life only to be sent, wracked with guilt, to the Pacific and taken prisoner by the Japanese. A … to the Pacific and taken prisoner by the Japanese. A young black woman, widowed by the same events at Pearl Harbor, finds unexpected opportunity and a dangerous friendship in a segregated Alabama shipyard feeding the war. Meanwhile, a black man, who as a child saw his parents brutally lynched, is conscripted to fight Nazis for a country he despises and discovers a new kind of patriotism in the all-black 761st Tank Battalion . . .
Set against a backdrop of violent racial conflict on both the front lines and the home front, The Last Thing You Surrender explores the powerful moral struggles of individuals from a divided nation. What does it take to change someone’s mind about race? What does it take for a country and a people to move forward, transformed?
Praise for The Last Thing You Surrender
“A story of our nation at war, with itself as well as tyranny across the globe. It’s an American tapestry of hatred, compassion, fear, courage, and cruelties, leavened with the promise of triumph. A powerful story I will not soon forget.” –James R. Benn, author of the Billy Boyle WWII mysteries
“Seamlessly integrates impressive research into a compelling tale of America at war–overseas, at home, and within ourselves, as we struggle to find the better angels of our nature. Pitts poignantly illustrates ongoing racial and class tensions, and offers hope that we can overcome hatred by refusing to sacrifice dignity.” —Booklist, starred review
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There are tons of novels about World War Two, and the vast majority of them are about what it did to white folks. How African-Americans experienced the Second World War, at home and on the front lines, is a neglected story. Leonard Pitts has made a good start on remedying that with this big-canvas epic revolving around two families, one black and one white, in Mobile, Alabama and the Pacific and European theaters.
It is not a pretty story. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the Deep South was rigidly segregated, black Americans constrained by a Jim Crow system enforced by periodic violence. We know the history, but it’s easy to overlook or forget the every-day cruelty of the system. Pitts brings it vividly to life.
George Simon is the son of a prosperous Mobile lawyer, an earnest, upstanding young man with all the virtues and prejudices of his class. He joins the Marines as war approaches. Thelma Gordy is a poor black woman working as a nanny in a white family. Chance brings them together when Thelma’s husband, a mess steward on a battleship docked at Pearl, saves George’s life at the cost of his own when the ship goes belly-up. When George gets out of the hospital, the War Department gets wind of the story and thinks it would be a great idea to get George together with his rescuer’s widow for a propaganda tour to encourage black people to join the segregated military and fight for the country that tolerates their subjugation. Needless to say, neither George nor Thelma is keen on being exploited. Thelma’s brother Luther, traumatized and permanently embittered by witnessing their parents’ lynching as a child (a hideous crime vividly depicted), is even less enthusiastic. This trio is the focus of the book. George ships out to the Pacific, Luther is off to Europe with the legendary 761st tank battalion, and Thelma goes to work in a Mobile shipyard, the war offering her and many other blacks and women their first chance at a decent job, in the face of bitter opposition from their white co-workers. Meanwhile, George’s father, in the course of a grudging attempt (at George’s request) to get the authorities to prosecute the instigators of the long-ago lynching, finds his consciousness slowly being raised. Things don’t go well for anybody; Pitts does not spare us the details of the war or the violence Thelma faces on the home front.
It is, nonetheless, a hopeful story. Pitts could have merely written a screed about prejudice and the cruelties of Jim Crow; instead, he tries to get inside the heads of his white and black characters alike. While making us confront the ghastliness of the war and the lives of poor black people, he also shows a country coming out of the war ready at last to confront its racial divide; without too much sentimentality he shows us how individual redemption and reconciliation are possible. I would not call him a great prose stylist, but he is a fine narrator, and this is a terrific book.
This is an important story that illustrates the horrors of war and of racism. A very compelling read
Leonard Pitts does it again. This historical fiction tale reads like a true retelling of a not so distant past.
Don’t start this book unless you have a few days free. The story is compelling, gut wrenching, heart breaking and yet, considering the time period (1941-45) ends on a fairly hopeful note. Like Mr Pitts post civil war story, FREEMAN, these two books are more historical than fiction and serve as a needed history/civics lesson that many of us never learned in school. Mr. Pitts is not only an outstanding columnist but also a world class author. I can’t thank him enough for writing such brutally honest and truly beautiful stories. THE LAST THING YOU SURRENDER is a must read.