Lise Funderberg, writing in the New York Times Book Review, described Naming the New World as "too lean," but found that "when Mr. "The haunting tales often intertwined and the stories conveyed in heart-wrenching prose," commented Booklist reviewer Kathleen Hughes.
Similarly, another character, Robert, searches within, trying to make sense of his dual feelings of intense love and disgust for his brother, a drug addict who murdered a young man in retailiation for a petty offense. Baker then advances his story to contemporary times, as Richard, a government agent, returns to Africa to connect with himself and his past following the death of his brother in Vietnam. The man's own life story flows throughout the novel, appearing periodically as the author gives voices to other characters, including Ampofo, a slave newly arrived in the Americas Tom, a plantation owner's biracial son who feels displaced in a segregated world and others. The book opens as a young man searches for his name, which he eventually discovers is River.
SIDELIGHTS: Calvin Baker's debut novel, Naming the New World, is a slim volume that takes its reader on a multi-generational journey spanning four hundred years and winding from Africa to the United States and back again. Once Two Heroes (novel), Viking (New York, NY), 2003.Ĭontributor of book reviews to periodicals, including Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and Time. People magazine, New York, NY, staff writer Bard College, member of faculty of Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts.ĪWARDS, HONORS: Recipient of grants from Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, MacDowell Colony, and Ledig-Rowohlt Foundation. (magna cum laude), 1994.ĪDDRESSES: Office-c/o People Weekly, Time & Life Bldg., Rockefeller Center, New York, NY 10020.ĬAREER: Writer.
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