Most people regard Kansas as a place to get through on the way to somewhere else, or as a bastion of conservatism. This mentality has led to books like What's the Matter With Kansas? that ask how the birthplace of the People's Party could come up with Republican stalwarts like Senator Pat Roberts. There are fascinating events in Kansas' history, which Andrew Malan Milward chronicles in his new collection of short stories: I Was A Revolutionary. This collection deals with the often fractious history of this state, including the tensions between black and white, abolitionist and slavery supporter, populists and the established powers, men and women. This is no eat-your-spinach history lesson: sometimes Milward steps into the relative present, sometimes he's totally in the past, but his insights into human beings that illuminate the psyche of the entire United States are the real draw.
There are dozens of novels on the African American experience of Kansas, but I will focus on two. Langston Hughes, one of the more famous sons of Kansas City, made his fiction debut in 1930 with Not Without Laughter. Known more as a poet, Hughes wrote a coming-of-age story set in his home town. Gabriel's Story by David Anthony Durham follows its teenaged main character as he runs away from home with a pack of cowboys. Coerced into remaining with the group, Gabriel finally escapes only to be confronted with even more violence when the wild men come for him at his parents' homestead.
Sara Paretsky turns her hardboiled eye on her native state in Bleeding Kansas. Set in the present day, it follows the fates of three families that have farmed in the same county since the violent 1850s. While the past refuses to stay in the past, the well-drawn characters play out Paretsky's themes of religion, fear, feminism and intolerance. Another book to see the issues of the greater United States played out in miniature in the rural Midwest.
Of course, who could forget the most famous (adopted) Kansan of them all? It's Superman! by Tom De Haven is a coming-of-age-with-superpowers story. We get to meet many of the characters that Clark Kent will interact with later, including ambitious Lois Lane and equally ambitious but less ethical Lex Luthor. Just as over-the-top as any of the comic books, this might not be a bad readalike for those who read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.
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