****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
It has become commonplace to call a book a "page-turner" or one that you simply cannot put down. "Tenth Man" is a book that, when you do finish it, you promise yourself to go back and reread it - at least once a year.This is the story of one of the first black policemen in large city in the South, and how he dealt with the challenges of the job and those of raising a large family on a policeman's salary until his life came to an end. That alone will keep the book in your hand, as it did with me. But this great book doesn't stop there.The manner in which the book presents itself holds your attention without your even knowing it. The Author skillfully sets the stage and takes you though the life of a remarkable man and an equally remarkable family, filling in background at exactly the right moments. It tempts you to look ahead and to sneak a peek at the future, while gently warning you that you will likely miss something if you do - something good, and warm, and ageless, and genuine.The setting is the extraordinary city of Savannah, Georgia in arguably the most formative part of the twentieth century. Describing how Savannah led the Country in hiring black men and women to work in law enforcement or public service would have been recognition enough for the purpose of the story. But, the book goes well beyond that, reminding the reader of the contributions of "America's first planned city" to Industry (Eli Whitney), Religion (John Wesley), Government (James Oglethorpe), and Society (Girl Scouts of America); of Union Bag (now Union Camp, part of Kraft), the bustling Port of Savannah, and of the 2400 Liberty Ships built in Savannah that brought the fight to the enemy during WWII and the Vietnam War.Above all, it is the Author's tender but exacting history of the family values he learned that is the most endearing feature of the book, and the one that will bring the book back down from your bookshelf as it did from mine. To fully appreciate the book's family values, you need to first appreciate what these good folks meant by "family", and how the term "uncle" can describe a neighbor who, while not a blood relation, uniquely fills an empty space in the heart of a small child. You will read about the immediate and forthright manner in which uncles and aunts take over for missing parents and about cousins more like brothers and sisters. You will be reminded of the often mislaid moral imperative of young family members to care for aging parents and grandparents, and to care for, value, and protect handicapped brothers or sisters, no matter what the cost. You will read how a family recipe can be a more valued heirloom than a watch or necklace, and about wedding anniversaries as sacred as Christmases.Read this book. The story is great and the inspiration is greater. Put the book down if you can, but don't put it where you can't find it again easily. If you lend it out, make sure you get it back. It is that good.Eugene A. RazzettiCertified Management Consultant
