Kingsblood Royal Book

Neil Kingsblood is an affluent white male who recently returned to the mythical town of Grand Republic, Minnesota after being wounded in World War II. After he settles into his predictable life of a rising bank executive, he is asked by his father, who believes that they have distant relatives in the English royal family, to research his genealogy. Instead Neil learns that his ancestor, thought to be a French voyager, was actually black, which makes him 1/32 black. He keeps the news from his family as he strives to learn more about the black society in his community, something completely alien to his upbringing and worldview. Thus begins an unpredictable life journey that changes his family, community and future.

Lewis's depictions'as it was written in 1947'of Negro culture, white (and black) racism and the interaction between the races is as relevant today as it was then. Indeed, in the conversations Neil has with his new black friends, within his white social circle and his family are probably among the most honest I've ever read. The gradations of white racism that Lewis sums up in Chapter 31 are masterful highlights.

The writing reveals idiosyncratic northern and southern racial stereotypes that hadn't (and haven't) changed much since the writing of Mark Twain's classic Pudd'nhead Wilson. Considering the time since novel was written more than 75 years ago and taken together with the recent resurgence of vocal bigotry and racism in the U.S., an apt subtitle for it today might be: The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Lewis has created some of the most iconic fictional figures in American literature'Carol Kennicott, George Babbitt, Martin Arrowsmith, Elmer Gantry, and Sam Dodsworth. Neil Kingsblood is less-known, but deserves his place alongside them. This great book is convincingly constructed on a foundation of moral clarity and human tension.