Book Report: Ghost Town written by Pat Hartman
By Jaime
Forjador
Teacher told us kids that we
each had to read a book about Venice and write a two-page report about it to be
read aloud in class!
I chose Ghost Town, because I thought it
would be scary. Well, it was scary all right, but not because of any ghosts
('cept one).
My Mama told me that some
people used to call Oakwood Ghost Town because they didn't like Black people.
But Ms. Hartman says there are other reasons that some people called it Ghost
Town. I only know that Mama would get really mad at me if I called it that.
Anyway, Ms. Hartman, a white lady,
lived in Oakwood from 1978 to 1984. I liked reading about it because that's when
my Mama and Papa, and Uncle Billy, were little kids and lived here. They liked
her book and they would read it at night after I went to bed. Sometimes I would
hear them laughing about something the book made them remember. Mama said it was
pretty realistic.
Well, you may wonder
how a white lady can write a book about Oakwood. My Uncle Billy says there
weren't any white people in Oakwood back then. But he must not have known Ms.
Hartman or some of her neighbors. Besides, it turns out that she had a daughter,
Carla, who was not only half-Black, but liked to hang out with Cholos. Carla was
deaf and her mother worried about her a lot. I think Carla had more fun going to
the beach and parties and living in Oakwood than her Mama
did.
Ms. Hartman worked a lot. She had
at least two jobs at a time but she doesn't talk about them much. Ghost Town is
all about her neighborhood in Venice. She also had a Beachhead route and helped
out with art shows and stuff. Mama says what's different about us Venetians is
that we work so we can live while other folk live so they can work. I think what
she means is that we like to stay in Venice and play with our
friends.
Ghost Town is really a book
for adults cause it's got stuff about drugs and crime and bad people. But Mama
says I need to know about all that before I grow up. Ms. Hartman tells about
some people she knew who got really messed up on hard drugs. She wanted Carla to
see that so she wouldn't try any.
She
also talked about the Crips and the V13 gangs. Some of their members were nice
and some were mean. Uncle Billy knows all about them but when I ask him to tell
me, he says, "Mijo, you're too young for
that."
According to Ms. Hartman, nearly
everyone in Oakwood back then was really poor. People were always getting robbed
or their apartments broken into. The only rich people were the Landladies, and
they always wanted more money.
People
moved around a lot too. Mama says now days we can't move because the rents are
too high if you haven't lived in the same place for a long time. That's ok with
me because all my friends live
here.
Ms. Hartman never says exactly
where she lived in Oakwood, but I know where it was. We pass by her old place
when we go to the bread store on Rose. She gives some clues in the book, like
the big house that used to be a store and the two alleys behind their place that
go in different directions. See if you can figure it out when you read her
book.
This is the longest book I have
ever read. It's 542 pages! But Ms. Hartman broke it up like a journal with short
stories of what happened from one day to the next, to make it easier to read.
She is a really good writer. Sometimes I forgot I was reading a book and felt
like I was there. Of course, if some of the people in the book, like the Houston
kids, Rev. Ross or El Sordo (I don't think those are their real names) wrote a
book of their own I bet it would be lots different.
Even so, Ms. Hartman tries to look at
everything through other people's eyes as well as her own. But Uncle Billy says
you can't really get inside someone else's head. You can't know what it's like
to be homeless or what it's like to be in prison if you haven't been there. He
should know!
Ms. Hartman wrote another
book about Venice titled Call Someplace Paradise. While Ghost Town is all about
Oakwood, her other book is all about the rest of Venice, way back when
(1978-84). I want to read it too. I hope my Mama will buy it during summer
vacation. She said she thinks they have it at Small World Books. If not, Ms.
Hartman, has a website, www.virtualvenice.info, where you can get
it.
Ms. Hartman inspired me to keep my
own journal of what's happening from day to day. In a few years I'll have a book
about Venice in the 21st Century!
I
would recommend Ghost Town to everyone who wants to read a good book about our
town. Not only did I learn a lot about Venice, especially Oakwood, but I learned
a lot about people. What more can you want from a
book?
The End
Posted: Wed - June 1, 2005 at 06:48 AM