The Ballad of Black Tom

I haven't read any Lovecraft. While he was an integral part of science fiction and fantasy, the knowledge of his racism made me feel like it wasn't really necessary to put him on the to-read list. Honestly, I don't hold a whole lot of reverence for the so-called classics. But its not like I've never held a love for a text or a work that in fact had a problematic creator or even had problematic undertones itself. So I understand why Victor LaValle wanted to revisit the mythos of Lovecraft, and somehow rectify the love he had for his work and the anger and frustration he felt for the man himself. And I think he did a brilliant job of transforming that frustration into The Ballad of Black Tom.

I like how this book is split up. The first half is the story of Tommy Tester, his family, how he's survived as a black man in 1920s Harlem, and how his world begins to unravel when he meets Robert Suydam, a wealthy man looking to conjure a powerful entity. Then there's the story of Black Tom - Tommy Tester awakened by the Sleeping King, blessed or cursed with unspeakable power - told from the perspective of Malone, a white New York City detective, a mild sensitive and amateur expert in the arcane. I think its a very clever thing that Malone is the sole sympathetic white man and still he suffers, because while I'm sure someone like Malone doesn't think his behavior could be perceived as neutral, it is. And to be neutral in the face of oppression is to be complicit. It doesn't matter that Malone doesn't look at Tommy, the black population of New York or the many immigrants he encounters as less than - it doesn't change the fact that he benefits from their marginalization. And Black Tom makes sure he knows it.

The Ballad of Black Tom is a simple, in moments sparse story. It has a purpose, and that is finding some justice. And I felt that justice reading this story, I lavished in that satisfaction much the same way I did when I read Cassandra Khaw's These Deathless Bones. Before Tommy Tester becomes Black Tom, I wondered if there was really anything special here. I wanted more of those shivers of dark magic, perhaps because the pain Tommy experienced was too real and too much. The second half of the book gets darker, more eerie, and while its still a slim story, I could see by the end that it was exactly what it needed. We don't have all the answers or all the details, but we know Black Tom's journey - from man to monster and back again.

A very clever re-imagining* of The Horror at Red Hook, which is arguably Lovecraft's most racist story. Which is a shame, because the plot has some interesting possibilities that would require acknowledgement of the race issues (rich white dude snubs his family to hang out with immigrants and people of color), but allows for arm's length commentary on those issues, rather than whole-hearted endorsement.

And The Ballad of Black Tom mines a lot of that potential. The portion of the novella told from Tommy's point of view is definitely the more powerful. The Malone point of view has its moments, don't get me wrong. Seeing the Irish mystic who thinks he knows about the occult try to cope with unfathomable cosmic horror has its own satisfactions.

You don't need to read the original story to appreciate this one (and I understand if the racism is just too much to deal with), but knowing the Lovecraft will definitely deepen your appreciation of this story.

*The story itself gives some clues about the in-world relationship with Lovecraft's story, but I won't spoil any of that here.

The Ballad of Black Tom is the reimagining of the Lovecraftian tale, “The Horror at Red Hook” and is one of those rare books that can straddle the dividing line of fiction and urban fantasy. It is a book of many hats.

The story is one of a street hustler named Charles Thomas Tester of Harlem in the 1920s. Charles, who goes by Tommy, makes his way as best as he can by a variety of hustling gigs. Whether it's as a Delivery man or guitarist, Tommy does pretty much anything to make some money. Along with the hustles are the obvious and not so apparent undercurrents of racism present in 1920's Harlem. Tommy is an African-American man and deals with Racism and prejudice on all sides. The writing about the racism of that era is poignant and well done. Tommy gets involved with some occult figures throughout the story, and different types of tragedy ensue. He begins to take matters in his own hands, and the story ends on a bit of a cliffhanger.

The original story “The Horror at Red Hook” was stunningly racist as was Lovecraft is as a person. It makes sense why LaVille would respond to that story from the angle of an African-American Protagonist. I think it is fitting. That being said, I have not read “The Horror of Red Hook.” Matter a fact, when I originally picked this up I was reading it blind having known nothing about the back story of this novella. I was familiar with the writer and the stories status as a Hugo award nominee which guided me in selecting it to read, but that's it. I have got to tell you overall I was not impressed. I found LaVille's writing to be excellent. He has a way with both the structure of his sentences and the imagery his sentences evokes. However, the pacing of the story was slow and frankly a bit boring for my tastes. That might be because I am unfamiliar with the original Lovecraft story and style. Or, I just was not in the right mind frame to read it. Either way, I am not the right reader for this story.

Read for Bookoplathon 2021 - 48 hour round

I really did enjoy this novella especially the historical and commentary elements. I didn't like the fantasy bits nearly as much, and it's because they weren't developed as much. There was a time skip that made the readers miss a lot, and I would have preferred to have seen that. This also wasn't as horrific in the traditional sense like I expected and is more a fantasy to me than horror. I'm not familiar with Lovecraft's works, so I can't attest to that, but I understood what was going on the whole time. In general, I would recommend this to people looking for people looking for a dark fantasy/horror with racial commentary!

This was a fantastic story, both as a creepy horror story and as a look at institutionalized racism. LaValle takes the tropes and elements of traditional weird horror and looks at them from the perspective of outsiders. Throughout the novella, he contrasts the corrupt, racist environment of 1920s New York, and the threat of impending doom on the part of the Deep Old Ones. As the injustices pile on, he starts to see less of a distinction between the two.

LaValle is reimagining an old Lovecraft story in this novella, so the endgame of the characters are a bit of a fixed point for him. However, he manages to work in and around that framework in such a way that the end result stands alone as a great example of what a modern horror story is capable of.

Interesting retelling of The Horror at Red Hook, shifting much of the emphasis to an African-American confederate of Robert Suydam.

In lieu of an analysis, here are strong and weak points –

Strong:
LaValle treats the themes of immigrants and poverty in early 20th century New York with much greater insight than HPL, turning one of his ugliest stories into a look at marginalization and resistance.
The characterization is solid.
The plot moves nicely and keeps the tension up.

Weak:
The prose is serviceable but sometimes clunky.
It significantly cuts down the plot, which means the climax comes nowhere near the psychedelic weirdness of the original.

Now THAT is what I wanted out of a Halloween read. As I gather this is a response to the racism rampant in an HP Lovecraft novella, it's not a surprise that there are strong themes of racism, xenophobia, alienation and the abuse of power. You get a sweeping sense of dark power, bloody vengeance, tempered by the inevitable lesson that revenge is always destructive, to all involved. Impressive how a strong a vision of a particular time, place and fantasy elements is built into a world in such a short book. I was invested in and worried for Tommy immediately, as much as I hoped his rapscallion hustling might provide a better future rather than more trouble. LaValle ensures you feel Tommy's loss, and understand his choice that leads down a grimmer path. The switch to Malone's perspective was a little jarring, but it does make the climax that much more intense, and adds to the mystery in how much you don't see the minutiae of how Tommy became Black Tom and his first evil/morally gray deeds. The implication that his work to summon the Sleeping King explains our present day struggle with climate change is the cherry on top. The writing overall is superb. Definitely need to pick up more horror from this author.

Please give my Amazon review a helpful vote: https://www.amazon.com/gp/review/R136O7PJGCTFD?ref_=glimp_1rv_cl

The author, Victor Lavalle, has taken H.P. Lovecraft's story, The Horror at Red Hook, and written a sort of backstory into and through it. This approach actually works well and has the added virtue of giving a kind of slice of life of Harlem and Brooklyn in the 1920s.

After reading a few pages of this novella, I set it aside to read Lovecraft's original. I was not impressed by it. The Horror at Red Hook is well-known, at least I've heard it mentioned in various lectures. I found it to be an overwrought, confusing, undisciplined piece of prose. Presumably, it is noteworthy for displaying Lovecraft's racial prejudices, but, honestly, one could easily overlook the occasional comments about middle-eastern Yazidis without affecting the story. (Also, Lovecraft apparently thought that people living in Iraq looked like the Chinese.)

Lavalle has taken the basic outline of the Lovecraft story, omitted some elements of the story and written the story around the character of Charles Thomas Tester, an African-American conman/street musician. Tester is the “Black Tom” of the title. Initially, Tom is involved in a bit of the “weird,” as part of which he meets Detective Malone and Robert Suydam, who are both characters from “The Horror at Red Hook.” Lavalle also adds in a corrupt, vicious, racist detective named Howard, whom I think may be modeled on Lovecraft's friend Robert Howard. One thing leads to another and Tom becomes the central character of the events of “The Horror at Red Hook.” Tom starts out sympathetic, becomes vengeful in response to racism, and seems to become sympathetic at the end, albeit he has unleashed Cthulhu in some way.

Lavalle's story does not map onto the Lovecraft original. The Tom character is not mentioned in the story, neither is the injury inflicted on Malone. In fact, it is hard to harmonize the two stories.

Nonetheless, this story was well-written and I enjoyed the tone and the sense of a historical place.

I feel the same about this as I do “The Chosen and the Beautiful” by Nghi Vo: it's a retelling of a story (in this case Lovecraft's “Horror at Red Hook”) and without having read it or any Lovecraft I did not appreciate this as much. I didn't find this a solid novella and I think the storytelling in LaValle's novel “The Changeling” is stronger. I liked the novel so much that LaValle's other works are still on my TBR.