WEEKS OF JUNE 19 - JULY 9
I’m Down
by Mishna Wolff
Nonfiction
St. Martin’s Press
May 2009
John Wolff redefines fatherhood in “I’m Down,” a touching memoir written by his oldest daughter Mishna Wolff. An all-black, inner-city neighborhood in the Rainier Valley of Seattle is home to a white girl, her white sister, Anora, and her white father.
It’s easy for John and his youngest daughter, Anora to make friends. But Mishna struggles to fit in, waging a personal war between the worlds of black and white, rich and poor.
Early on, Mishna’s father grooms her for anything rough, tough, and competitive. From running track to playing basketball to swimming, as fast as he can sign her up, her father cons her into participating in just about every seasonal sport available to girls. According to Mishna, it’s her father’s attempt to have the “son” he always wanted.
John wants nothing but the best for Mishna, so he schools her in the ways of “black” America. To teach her a lesson, he decides to punish her by “putting a ball in her hands.” He avoids the white recreation center and heads for the black recreation center where she can play with the “best,” an all-black girls basketball team.
On my first day of practice, Dad and I walked into the gym where my teammates were “messing around before practice.” Underneath the hoop were five six-foot-tall black girls who must have had a ball in their hands as soon as they pried the tit out … I couldn’t believe these girls were the same age as me. They looked like they drove themselves there and had a club to go to later. Dad laced up my shoes painfully tight and sent me over to shoot with the big girls.
Mishna shares a gutsy story about her colorful, and sometimes painful childhood. She grants readers front-row seats to black culture from the perspective of a young white girl who lives it.
Mishna is forced to prove herself, and she finally earns her props in the game of capping (telling someone off). And boy is she is really good at it. Too good. But she finds out that capping on her classmates at the “white” and gifted school isn’t the coolest thing to do.
It’s easy to feel sorry for Mishna, but don’t. Eventually laughter wins you over with her father’s off-the-cuff remarks and manly antics. Serious stuff is tossed in with humorous anecdotes, like growing pains and the lingering fear of a dead-end job at McDonalds. Unlike her mother, afraid to stand up to their father, Mishna shows signs of being gutsy and driven to succeed beyond her circumstances.
Readers will alternate between dislike and admiration for John Wolff, an “expert” on social injustice, sports (all sports), women, dominoes and just about anything. If only her father didn’t have to always do things his way. For years, the home is a tacky, ongoing remodeling project with building materials scattered about the yard and a 10-foot drop out the front door. Okay, that’s not so bad. But having a steady job and providing three square meals a day is not at the top of his list either.
But John is there for his girls (even if he’s always running late) whether Mishna wants him around or not. And as she blossoms into womanhood, so does the father-and-daughter dance, an uncomfortable groove that one day just happens between a father and daughter.
Is Mishna down? Compared to her father, John, she’s not down at all, but she’s still pretty cool.
MORE BOOKS PEOPLE ARE TALKING ABOUT
The Scarecrow
by Michael Connelly
Fiction
Little, Brown & Company
May 2009
Can You Hear Me Now?: The Inspiration, Wisdom, and Insight of Michael Eric Dyson
by Michael Eric Dyson
Nonfiction
Basic Books
May 2009
Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan
by Doug Stanton
Nonfiction
Simon & Schuster Publishing Group
May 2009