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JoeyPinkney.com Book Review – “Archie’s Psalm” by Christopher D. Burns

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JoeyPinkney.com Book Review
“Archie’s Psalm”
by Christopher D. Burns
5 of 5 Stars

christopher_d_burns_archies_psalm_amazon

In a 1970s neighborhood, the tale of “Archie’s Psalm” by Christopher D. Burns unfolds.

This book tells a story set in North Memphis, but this story holds true for Black people in many communities across the United States. It tells the story of a group of people devastated by generation after generation of men leaving families broken because of their absence. The landscape of this North Memphis neighborhood is taking a pervasive turn for the worst with festering problems like the presence of gangs that are looking younger and younger recruits to peddle drugs, lack of city planning, single-mothers working more than one job and leaving children to raise themselves and the disrespect of elders by children who aren’t being taught any better. The community center steadily gives way to gang activity. Gun violence becomes a reality. Vietnam War veterans come home zombified from heroine use or in pine boxes for burial.

In all this, much of the book centers around the lives of two characters, Archie and his young protegé, Buck. Continue reading JoeyPinkney.com Book Review – “Archie’s Psalm” by Christopher D. Burns →

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5 Minutes, 5 Questions With… Christopher D. Burns, author of Archie’s Psalm

JoeyPinkney.com Exclusive Interview
5 Minutes, 5 Questions With…
Christopher D. Burns, author of Archie’s Psalm
(CB Publishing)

Archie’s Psalm is a glimpse into the life of a latchkey kid who is encountering situations that force him to learn about the changing world around him. A coming-of-age story with a carefully crafted narrative and subplot, Archie’s Psalm shows the transitioning world of a neighborhood in Memphis, TN, ten years after Dr. King’s death.

Through the setting, vivid character descriptions and moving storytelling a hot and humid southern neighborhood comes to life. Through the use of dialect and song, the shifting tone and sound of the south reminds the reader of Zora Neale Hurston’s novels. Archie’s Psalm is a work of literature that is artistic, powerful and important – A book that could become as relevant as Ann Petry’s The Street.

Joey Pinkney: Where did you get the inspiration to write Archie’s Psalm?

Christopher D. Burns: I think Archie’s Psalm is so closely related to my own life that the inspiration came from there. I also needed to write a book Continue reading 5 Minutes, 5 Questions With… Christopher D. Burns, author of Archie’s Psalm →