Sweetbitter (Inscribed First Edition)

Turn-of-the-century East Texas. A world that offers no home for Reuben Sweetbitter, a young half-Choctaw, half-white man. Left as a child to fend for himself after the death of his mother, he finds his uneasy way through the world, searching always for a place to belong. He has lost contact with his Choctaw heritage and yet can belong neither to the white world nor that of the blacks who give him shelter. He finds his way to the town of Three Rivers, where he falls in love with Martha Clarke, the young, headstrong daughter of a local lawyer. Their forbidden love is tested when they are forced to flee amid an explosive lynching climate.

The first hardcover fiction release from Broken Moon is a promising debut on both counts. Poet Gibbons (Five Pears or Peaches), who is also the editor of TriQuarterly, has written a sweeping yet intimate first novel that tells the story of the Choctaw Indians through the troubled life of one Reuben S. Sweetbitter, half Choctaw, half white. Set around the turn of the century, the story focuses on the protagonist's experience of racism. When his mother dies as they're heading west from Mississippi, young Reuben must make his own way in the world and eventually lands in East Texas. There, he learns that he fits in nowhere-neither among Indians nor "coloreds," and certainly not among whites. Trouble is assured when, in 1910, Reuben falls in love with Martha Clarke, the white daughter of a local lawyer. Threatened with a lynching for their act of miscegenation, the couple flees. For a time, they live in peace, but the pursuit by whites bent on racial purity never stops and, finally, an inevitable day of reckoning arrives. Gibbons artfully combines Choctaw myth and history with Reuben's personal search for identity. Though greater use of dialogue would have enlivened the narrative, his graceful and evocative prose makes this an absorbing story.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

An unremarkable forbidden-love story that pursues only superficially the strong situations it sets up. Reuben S. Sweetbitter, half-Choctaw, half-white, 24 years old, lives in turn-of-the-century East Texas in a sort of limbo. He grew up with his mother and her family (his white father was never spoken of) and knows Choctaw tales, words, and ways. But he also knows how to act like a ``negro,'' because after his mother died he found shelter with a black family. They sought to cure Reuben of his ``heathen'' habits by teaching him to read the Bible, so he speaks as well as most white folks and can almost ``pass'' with his light complexion. His chameleon-like talents are a help when Reuben decides, justifiably, that it is safest to stay as invisible as possible as he moves from town to town in search of work. But in Three Rivers he falls in love with a white lawyer's daughter, Martha, and they steal away together. After months on the run, the couple settles in with a wealthy woman who thinks herself a liberal for accepting an interracial relationship. But years later, with a guest house and two kids, Reuben still acts as a chauffeur and practically walks a pace behind. Martha resents being shut out of the society she was born into, while Reuben awaits the day when her brother arrives to strike him down. These are powerful themes that should have been explored, but the characters never pose any questions that might reveal their deepest sentiments. If TriQuarterly editor Gibbons (Five Pears or Peaches, not reviewed) thought the addition of chapters containing contemporary opinions on lynching and Choctaw histories of creation would add weight to his story, he was wrong: These sections merely serve as a distraction from the annoyingly shallow characters. Preachy and long-winded. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Gibbons is a celebrated poet, the highly respected editor of TriQuarterly magazine, and a novelist of truly impressive scope, subtlety, and power. His first novel is not the sort of autobiographical coming-of-age tale we've come to expect from novice novelists in spite of the fact that it's set in his home state of Texas. Instead, this is a novel about the coming-of-age of America and the violent conflicts between races and cultures that mar our history. Gibbons' hero, Reuben, embodies the covert mingling of blood that fueled the hatred and paranoia of the South. Reuben, half Choctaw and half white, loses the only parent he knew when his Choctaw mother dies in 1896. He is taken in by a generous black woman who graces him with his full name, Reuben Saved Sweetbitter, and teaches him to read. Reuben grows up handsome, strong, independent, smart, and adept at navigating the treacherous currents that divide whites, blacks, and reds. But then he falls in love with Martha, the fair-skinned, wild-haired, willful, and sensual daughter of a prominent lawyer. Their forbidden passion is enough to get them killed in this land of virulent racism and the KKK. Clearly, this is an adventure story and a romance, but in Gibbons' hands, it's that and much more. Reuben muses that there are "too many worlds," and Gibbons captures the rhythm of each, masterfully describing every nuance of attitude, from fear to compassion to cowardliness to courage. Exquisitely rendered and deeply felt, this is as astute and absorbing as fiction gets. Donna Seaman

Gibbons's first novel takes place in east Texas in 1910 during the time of white rule-not by law but by lynch mob. Amid the suffocating racism and fear, half-Choctaw, half-white Reuben Sweetbitter and Martha Clarke, a white woman, fall in love. Forbidden to be seen together, they escape to the town of Harriet, where an influential friend of Martha helps them settle down and raise a family. Atypical of love stories, this realistic work maintains a historical perspective in lending the couple short-lived happiness. Martha's brother James comes for vengance, and Reuben flees to the forest, which has always been his refuge from the white world. Reuben and Martha's love is strong, but, dishearteningly, racism is stronger. Timely in the subject of interracial love, this authentic, richly detailed novel plumbs sacrifice, fear, and the loss of one's identity, bringing the anguish of the two young lovers to life. Highly recommended.
Lisa Degliantoni, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.