Driving the King
Summary (from the publisher): A daring and brilliant new novel that explores race and class in 1950s America, witnessed through the experiences of Nat King Cole and his driver, Nat Weary
The war is over, the soldiers are returning, and Nat King Cole is back in his hometown of Montgomery, Alabama, for a rare performance. His childhood friend, Nat Weary, plans to propose to his sweetheart, and the singer will honor their moment with a special song. But while the world has changed, segregated Jim Crow Montgomery remains the same. When a white man attacks Cole with a pipe, Weary leaps from the audience to defend him—an act that will lead to a 10-year prison sentence.
But the singer will not forget his friend and the sacrifice he. Six months before Weary is released, he receives a remarkable offer: will he be Nat King Cole’s driver and bodyguard in L.A.. It is the promise of a new life removed from the terror, violence, and degradation of Jim Crow Alabama.
Weary discovers that, while Los Angeles is far different from the deep South, it a place of discrimination, mistrust, and intolerance where a black man—even one as talented and popular as Nat King Cole—is not wholly welcome.
An indelible portrait of prejudice and promise, friendship and loyalty, Driving the King is a daring look at race and class in pre-Civil Rights America, played out in the lives of two remarkable men.
The war is over, the soldiers are returning, and Nat King Cole is back in his hometown of Montgomery, Alabama, for a rare performance. His childhood friend, Nat Weary, plans to propose to his sweetheart, and the singer will honor their moment with a special song. But while the world has changed, segregated Jim Crow Montgomery remains the same. When a white man attacks Cole with a pipe, Weary leaps from the audience to defend him—an act that will lead to a 10-year prison sentence.
But the singer will not forget his friend and the sacrifice he. Six months before Weary is released, he receives a remarkable offer: will he be Nat King Cole’s driver and bodyguard in L.A.. It is the promise of a new life removed from the terror, violence, and degradation of Jim Crow Alabama.
Weary discovers that, while Los Angeles is far different from the deep South, it a place of discrimination, mistrust, and intolerance where a black man—even one as talented and popular as Nat King Cole—is not wholly welcome.
An indelible portrait of prejudice and promise, friendship and loyalty, Driving the King is a daring look at race and class in pre-Civil Rights America, played out in the lives of two remarkable men.
Review: I received an uncorrected proof copy of this book from HarperCollins.
This novel is told from the perspective of Nat Weary, a contemporary of Nat King Cole, who faces tragedy when he goes to see his former schoolmate perform. Weary witnesses a man attempting to attack Nat King Cole and rushes to his defense. In the era before the Civil Rights Movement, it was unfathomable that a black man who raise a hand to a white man, even in self-defense. Weary serves ten years in prison. However, when his sentence has been served, he finds that Nat King Cole has not forgotten him and gives him a job as his driver.
This novel does a great job depicting the hardship of life in the 1940s before the Civil Rights Movement, while at the same time highlighting the significance of a famous black singer for the African American community. "She had taken a picture of the marquee as we made the turn from Dexter Avenue. NAT COLE TRIO. He was the most famous man, black or white, ever to be born in my hometown, but that sign was a first for us back then. A Negro name with that much light behind it" (20).
It was both devastating and infuriating to see Weary's future ripped away, all because he stepped in to save Nat King Cole's life. Weary has returned home from the war to his girlfriend and has a budding career, but all that disappears when he is sentenced to ten years in jail. It's hard to fathom what ten years feels like. "Since the place had no mirrors, it would be years until I saw my face again. I saw what the future looked like on the faces of the men all around" (59).
Howard's writing is lyrical and moving. "Bone's hair had turned the same color mine had, gray twisted with black like the herringbone in his blazer. We were equal parts young and old, with our heads keeping tally of the days, the ones gone and the ones we had left" (239).
My greatest issue with this novel is the movement of the narrative, which was hard to keep track of. The narrative is centered around Weary's triumphant return to his hometown as the driver of Nat King Cole when Cole returns for a surprise performance. The novel is broken into chapters of Weary readying for the performance, interspersed with chapters that detail his past, his time in prison, and everything he lost while he was incarcerated. Time moves rather fluidly and at times it was difficult to place where the characters were. Additionally, I thought the narrative would have functioned better as one solid flashback telling Weary's story, rather than continually moving forward and backward in time.
After Weary is finally out of jail, many people that he meets have heard rumors of his courageous act. "They used to talk about a soldier that jumped a stage" (261). The details are confused, the true story never publicized, but in his own way, Weary is famous for protecting the symbol that was/is Nat King Cole.
Stars: 3
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