“Fire in the Ashes” by Jonathan Kozol
c.2012, Crown Books $27.00 / $32.00 Canada 355 pages, includes index
School started recently and the children in your neighborhood returned there with bright clothes and brighter smiles. But for some kids, the education system has failed, and Jonathan Kozol tackles that subject, among others, in his new book “Fire in the Ashes.”
The author had children in his mind eye as he reconnected with interview subjects from 25 years ago. They were so young then – but in “Fire in the Ashes,” you’ll meet the adults he found.
For the average New Yorker, the winter of 1985 was brutal. Temps stayed low, snow rose high, and winds were relentless.
For the poor and homeless staying at the Martinique Hotel in the shadow of Macy’s Department Store, winter was particularly challenging: heat was iffy at the Martinique, and busted windows often went unfixed.
Though he had worked on behalf of the poor in years past, Kozol said, “I had never seen destitution like this in America before.” Nearly every child he met that winter was hungry.
For two years, Kozol visited the Martinique, until the city relocated the hotel’s residents to housing units in the Bronx. Undaunted, Kozol followed the families across the river. He still follows some of them.
Since the release of the books that resulted from those interviews, Kozol says that his readers have wondered about the people – particularly the children – that he wrote about so many years ago. In this book, he tells us.
With assistance from the priest at the local church (“an extraordinary woman”), Kozol watched one family escape the city, though they couldn’t escape the crime. He watched a family fracture due to a mother’s death and a son’s drugs, while another family fractured because of immigration laws. He comforted a friend dying of AIDS, helped two children get out of the ’hood and into boarding schools, and he served as godfather for another boy, folding into family after family…
Opening with a story of triumph that turns tragic, Kozol grabs his readers by the collars and forces us to see that which we’d rather ignore: drug abuse as a normal part of life, murder too-common, lackadaisical schools, lack of food, lack of appropriate clothing, lack of safety.
We can’t look away, nor do we want to: Kozol then tells of the tragic-turned-triumphant children that adapted, adults who moved mountains to help, academies that opened their doors and donors – like his readers – who’ve opened their hearts.
So check your wallet. Check your soul. Then check out this magnificent book because I think you’ll like it. For anyone cares about his fellow human, “Fire in the Ashes” burns bright.
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The Bookworm is Terri Schlichenmeyer. Terri has been reading since she was 3 years old and never goes anywhere without a book. She lives on a hill in Wisconsin with two dogs and 12,000 books. Her self-syndicated book reviews appear in more than 260 newspapers.
