I finished reading a book called Patch of Blue today. It was written by an Australian author, Elizabeth Kata and adapted into a fairly well known American movie starring Sydney Poitier.
I learned from Lord Wiki that the American movie is much more uplifting and optimistic than the novel.
The novel's end might have a vague amount of hopefulness in it. Or at least you can add it yourself if you're in a good enough mood while reading it.
The book is about Selina, a severely abused young woman, who was blinded as a child in a domestic violence incident.
Selina is sweet, innocent, and...very racist. She's never seen a black person before but knows they're horrible.
One day Selina goes to the park and has a bead-dropping accident. She's helped by a man named Gordon. They become friends. Gordon becomes the first person that has ever made Selina feel loved and happy.
The thought-provoking irony of the story is that Gordon is a black man. Selina doesn't realize this.
The book made me sad. It's not just that I felt sorry for Selina. But also....even though I'm not blind, abused, or racist, I could relate to a lot of the feelings in the book.
My circumstances are so different from Selina's. Yet I share some of her inner turmoil.
I guess life is like that.
Even though the book made me feel sad, unsettled, and a bit hopeless about certain things, I thought it was good a good one. Its better than the books that make me feel nothing and are very boring.
I learned from Lord Wiki that the American movie is much more uplifting and optimistic than the novel.
The novel's end might have a vague amount of hopefulness in it. Or at least you can add it yourself if you're in a good enough mood while reading it.
The book is about Selina, a severely abused young woman, who was blinded as a child in a domestic violence incident.
Selina is sweet, innocent, and...very racist. She's never seen a black person before but knows they're horrible.
One day Selina goes to the park and has a bead-dropping accident. She's helped by a man named Gordon. They become friends. Gordon becomes the first person that has ever made Selina feel loved and happy.
The thought-provoking irony of the story is that Gordon is a black man. Selina doesn't realize this.
The book made me sad. It's not just that I felt sorry for Selina. But also....even though I'm not blind, abused, or racist, I could relate to a lot of the feelings in the book.
My circumstances are so different from Selina's. Yet I share some of her inner turmoil.
I guess life is like that.
Even though the book made me feel sad, unsettled, and a bit hopeless about certain things, I thought it was good a good one. Its better than the books that make me feel nothing and are very boring.
The title triggered something in my memory. I had to check. I must have seen the 1965 film at some point, or perhaps read the book.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw in the sidebar that you were reading this book I wondered how old it is [thanks Andrew].
ReplyDeleteIt was very much a product of its time, highlighting not just the stupidity of blind racism, but that non-seeing people did not always have a very fulfilling life open to them either.
Not long after the movie of APOB was released, Sidney Poitier appeared in the English made To Sir With Love [1967]. Amongst the many reasons I loved this movie was that it prompted my first ever screen crush. [Not Sidney… a girl, silly.]
My favourite story from that era was My Sweet Charlie, filmed for TV in Texas – with some interference from the locals – and finally released in 1970. It also explored the idea of unquestioned prejudice. This was the movie that finally put together many of the pieces of the puzzle of life [as it was then] for me; racism; prevalent sexual mores; class; human decency; and hope. As for the ending…
Then there was Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner [1967], which looked not only at racism but miscegenation, and the hypocrisy of liberals.
One of my current faves is Guess Who [2005], essentially a remake of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, with the colours reversed. It has a good parallel story and a lot of laughs thrown in. Humour can sometimes lend support to important themes, and help a story reach a wider audience.
I’m with you, Dina, believing a story which evokes emotional responses, either positive or not so positive, is far more interesting than a story that’s less emotionally engaging.
Thankfully, the world has changed a little for the better over time, and stories about issues of race are less earnest than they were in the 60s and 70s.
But this was a good find – I’d forgotten all about it.
Andrew: Or maybe you did both....??
ReplyDeleteFruitcake: Which actress did you have a crush on? Ignore the question if it's too personal. I'm just nosy.
It seems Sidney Poitier was in a lot of these interracial relationship movies.
I've seen parts of "Guess Who". It's cute. And I think you're right. Humor does help with these situations.
There was another movie involving interracial relationships. It's with the Aussie actor from The Mentalist. My mind has drawn a blank on his name. And I'm trying to remember if the movie was like Guess Who's Coming To Dinner and Guess Who (dealing with family's reaction to potential interracial in-law) or was it just about the couple themselves.
I'm going to go Google....
It seems Sidney was typecast in the name of enlightenment.
ReplyDelete