D'aron Davenport feels like a catfish out of his pond when he leaves his Georgia town of about 700 people to go to school in Berkeley, Calif. But within just a few months, it's his hometown that becomes a little hard to understand in his own, changed eyes.
He brings three Berkeley friends from diverse backgrounds back home to Georgia, where they decide to stage a mock lynching during a Civil War reenactment — and it proves to be a bit too close to real history. D'aron is the creation of T. Geronimo Johnson, a visiting professor at the Iowa Writer's Workshop and author of the previously praised novel, Hold It 'Til It Hurts.
The new novel is Welcome to Braggsville, and Johnson tells NPR's Scott Simon that D'aron's not trying to cause a huge disruption in his home town, "but once he nears home, he starts to feel as though having this particular menagerie — as he thinks of it — with him establishes him as being significantly more cosmopolitan that the folks that he grew up with."
Interview Highlights
On D'aron's plan for the reenactment event
So D'aron and his three friends who dub themselves the "Four Little Indians" intend to stage a mock lynching at the Civil War reenactment, and two of them go through with it. And the two that go through with it are Candice, who's white, and Louis, who is Asian. So Louis puts on a muscle suit and an Afro wig and covers his face with black shoe polish and then straps himself into a harness and they hang him from a tree and wait for the soldiers to arrive.
On whether this is an important statement, or a lark
You know, that's a question that came up very early when I was working on the book, and I never thought of it as a lark. From my point of view as the writer, I wanted to deal with four kids who are a bit uncertain about the world. They are questioning their received knowledge and they have the best of intents. Even though they may not make the wisest decisions, their motivations are indeed well meaning and noble.
On generational differences on questions of race, identity, and ethnicity
When I watch the kids in undergrad hang out and socialize and move through space, they seem to do so with a greater ease between the races. I don't necessarily notice the same kind of anxieties that were around when I was in college with this generation that were talking about, but then I always remember that I'm not actually one of them, so I don't know what it's like to be on the inside. But on the outside, especially on a lot of the college campuses and in places like Berkeley, I see a lot of Gen-Yers who are amazingly dedicated and committed to making this country a better place and I find it heartening.
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Transcript
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
D'aron feels like a catfish out of his pond when he leaves his Georgia town of about 700 people to go to school in Berkeley, Calif. But within just a few months, it's his home town that becomes a little hard to understand in his own changed eyes. He brings three Berkeley friends, from a diversity of backgrounds, back home to Georgia where they decide to stage a mock lynching during a Civil War reenactment, and it proves to be a bit too close to real history. D'aron is the creation of T. Geronimo Johnson, a visiting professor at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, director of the UC Berkeley Summer Creative Writing Program and author of the previously praised novel "Hold It 'Til It Hurts." His new novel is "Welcome To Braggsville." T. Geronimo Johnson joins us now from Ashville, N.C.
Thanks so much for being with us.
T. GERONIMO JOHNSON: Thank you for having me. It's a tremendous honor to be on the show.
SIMON: D'aron brings home a diverse group of people, back home to Georgia. Your book suggests there's something a little showy in it?
JOHNSON: He's not necessarily trying to put on a show, but once he nears home he starts to feel as though having this particular menagerie, as he thinks of it, with him establishes him as being significantly more cosmopolitan than the folks that he grew up with.
SIMON: He's got a friend who's an African-American from Chicago, another, Asian-American?
JOHNSON: And then Candice. And he comes from a town where there are very few people of African-American descent and Asian-American descent routinely socializing or intermixing with people of European-American descent.
SIMON: What do these young students want to do with the Civil War reenactment?
JOHNSON: So, D'aron and his three friends who dub themselves the four little Indians intend to stage a mock lynching at the Civil War reenactment. And two of them go through with it. And the two that go through with it are Candice, who's white, and Louis, who is Asian. And so Lewis puts on a muscle suit and an Afro wig and covers his face with black shoe polish and then straps himself into a harness and they hang him from a tree and wait for the soldiers to arrive.
SIMON: And we don't want to give away anything after that.
JOHNSON: Right.
SIMON: You do in your very deft narrative though keep raising the possibility in the mind of the reader, they are students after all - is this an important statement they want to make, or at some level is it also a lark?
JOHNSON: You know, that's a question that came up very early when I was working on the book. And I never thought of it as a lark. From my point of view as the writer, I wanted to deal with four kids who are a bit, you know, uncertain about the world. They're questioning their received knowledge and they have the best of intents. Even though they may not make the wisest decisions, their motivations are indeed well-meaning and noble.
SIMON: Do you think there's a generational difference, even between your own generation which is still young, and students now on questions of race identity and ethnicity?
JOHNSON: It feels as though there is. You know, when I watch the kids in undergrad hang out and socialize and move through space, they seem to do so with a greater ease between the races. I don't necessarily notice the same kind of anxieties that were around when I was in college, with this generation that we're talking about. But I always remember that I'm not actually one of them, so I don't know what it's like to be on the inside. But on the outside, especially on a lot of the college campuses and in places like Berkeley, I see a lot of Gen Y-ers who are amazingly dedicated and committed to making this country a better place, and I find it heartening.
SIMON: Yeah. Are you one of those novelists that complains that teaching gets in the way? Or, at least based on the evidence that I have in this book, teaching seems to nourish your creativity?
JOHNSON: You know, I think that it can. I think that teaching - the thing is, you know, teaching is one of the most dangerous things you can do because it's too easy for you to fall into a rote habit and to just repeat yourself day in and day out, semester after semester. And I think that kind of routine is the death of creativity, but as long as instructors remember that it's their classroom too, and they keep it active and dynamic and fresh, then it's good for everyone. And I think that's really the most important thing. And so, hopefully we're all getting smarter. That's what I want to see happen in the classroom, that we're all getting smarter, myself included.
SIMON: T. Geronimo Johnson, his new novel, "Welcome To Braggsville."
Thanks so much for being with us.
JOHNSON: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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