I have been watching the HBO series based on this novel. The series is about half way finished (episode 5 aired last Sunday 9/13/20) and I have been enjoying it for the most part. It does however deviate quite a bit from the novel. Although the gist of the novel is included in the TV show, it tends to embellish the story quite a bit and go in quite a few different directions. I'm curious to see how the series ends and whether or not HBO decides to do a second season.

As far as the novel, I really enjoyed it. The story takes place in 1954 and is focused on a family of African-Americans living in Chicago. Atticus Turner, a lover of science fiction and horror stories, has just been discharged from the Army after serving in Korea and when he gets home he finds out that his father, Montrose, is missing. Turns out he has been lured to a small town in New England called Ardham by a man whose ancestor had owned as a slave one of Atticus's ancestors. So Atticus, along with his Uncle George and his childhood friend, Letitia, take a road trip to try to find him. George is also the publisher of the "Safe Negro Travel Guide" which is used by Blacks to travel to destinations and accommodations within the U.S. that do not discriminate against Blacks. Turns out Montrose was lured to Ardham because the manor owner there, Samuel Braithwhite, a sorcerer and practitioner of the black arts, needed Atticus (a descendant of the original estate owner) as a sacrifice to perform a ritual for their secret cabal. There are monsters and malevolent spirits encountered along the way but the worst are the harsh actions taken by white townspeople and police against these black travelers. The novel continues on and is broken up into several succinct adventures involving the family while they fight the forces of evil and take journeys to strange places including the far reaches of space.

Overall, this was a great mixture of horror/science-fiction/fantasy set in the period of Jim Crow laws and the segregation of the 1950s. Although the family is being chased by various cultists and warlocks, the real danger to them is the prevalent racism. Included in the story was a chapter describing how George and Montrose survived the Tulsa race massacre that happened in the 1920s. Very harrowing stuff. The "Safe Negro Travel Guide" was based on the real "Negro Motorist Green Book" which was used by African-Americans to find hotels and restaurants that would serve them. The 2018 movie "Green Book" used this as a focus for the movie about "a working-class Italian-American bouncer becomes the driver of an African-American classical pianist on a tour of venues through the 1960s American South." I saw this movie recently and would highly recommend it. I would also highly recommend the novel LOVECRAFT COUNTRY but the juries still out on the TV series...

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It's so important to realize how far we've come, respective to where we've been, notwithstanding our current problems. That said, this was one of the most intense books I've ever read in my life. It's a good reminder of how things were for a group of people long marginalized, and, in many ways, who still are. The fact that there ever had to exist an actual book entitled "The Negro Motorist Green Book," which essentially provided travelers with "safe havens," not unlike some type of modern-day Underground Railroad, is beyond comprehension. It's vital to acknowledge that at this time, in the 1950s, "Sundown Towns" weren't an abstraction: they were so real to actual people that a book was written and widely circulated on how to avoid them.

This is one of the most creative and sophisticated novels I've read in quite some time. It tells the story of an enigmatic family, the Turners, whose mysterious origins come back to haunt them, in a way they could least expect. The various family members, notwithstanding the unimaginable reality they face, are surprisingly relatable, as each individual has a unique story of their own. The Turners are anything but superheroes: they face their unique challenges with human weaknesses, but also with dignity and surprising reslience. These include both the horrors they face in their everyday lives which boggle the mind, and the ethereal machinations of a scheming, modern-day wizard, Caleb BraithWhite (play on words from "Braithwaite?"), who murdered his father and his entire "coven" to gain control.

The most striking, and appalling, feature of the novel is the juxtaposition of the supernatural horrors the Turners encounter with the everyday horrors of Jim Crow racism, which plagued every Black living in the US in the 1950s, and, as the novel depicts, not just in the deep south. H.P. Lovecraft, whose blatantly racist ideas feature prominently in his writings, was a product of an elite, New England (specifically, Providence, Rhode Island) upbringing, not a southern one. His early works supported and promulgated segregation as a way to preserve both distinct races and cultures, although, curiously, he married a Jewish woman, whom he described as "well-assimilated." It's long been argued that his collection of space oddities, a diverse world of aliens and supernatural beings, are essentially proxies for humans of different races, whose stereotypical features often mirror those of their terrestrial counterparts.

Lovecraft himself was not highly educated, dropping out of high school and never attending college, but he was quite well-read and considered himself an atheist, choosing to put his faith instead in science as opposed to religion. As such, he was well-read in the sciences, including chemistry and astronomy, but without much formal training, it's questionable as to how critically he was able to engage with the material he was absorbing, as much of it was viewed through the lens of so-called "scientific racism," which clearly influenced his thinking, and, subsequently, his writings. He constitutes yet another tragic example of someone who knows how to believe, an inherent human ability, but who has never been taught to think, an acquired ability - the latter being the REAL purpose of education, which this talented and creative author lamentably never received.

The novel intertwines a series of vignettes of pulp fiction regarding the encounters of the Turners and the people around them, from their vicious neighbors, to the cultists who are bent on what appears to be world domination. I don't want to provide many spoilers here, but, fair warning, it's definitely not for the faint of heart. The overt racism is sickening, especially if you've seen or experienced it firsthand, but it provides an opportunity to present some much-needed realism to an audience who may otherwise not ever encounter this type of material. It's something of a covert history lesson, and a much-needed one. It's now reaching an even greater audience, as it's become an HBO series, which I haven't seen, but might be looking for now, although the subject matter is admittedly disturbing.

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