When the Drum Major Died Anjuelle Floyd Books
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December 28th, 1967. America has taken a respite from the heated protests and firebombing that engulfed the nation the previous summer. Martin Luther King, Jr. has begun laying out plans for his Poor People’s Campaign. Florina Gavin Austin, two days married, has moved across state to Poinsettia, North Carolina where she will begin a new life as Mrs. Redmond Austin. On approach to the house where she and her husband will live, Florina spies a woman sitting on the steps and smoking a cigarette. “You must be Redmond’s new wife,” the woman says. “All of Poinsettia’s been talking about you.” Failing to introduce herself, the woman stands, flicks cigarette buts behind the shrubbery, and proceeds into what will become Florina’s new home. The woman’s uncanny knowledge of the space that Florina will inhabit with her new husband leaves Florina feeling more than ill at ease. Following the benediction at Sunday services, Florina witnesses the woman she will come to know as Agnes, caress Redmond’s cheek. The look in Redmond’s eyes betrays longing. Agnes’ words to Redmond in a letter confirm Florina’s fears, “I will always love you.” They also force Florina to confront her own secrets--her first marriage, one that neither her parents nor Redmond know of. Florina and Agnes are neighbors. Their houses stand next to each other. Their husbands, Negro doctors in Poinsettia, hold prominent positions in the social and political life of their community. As their wives, Florina and Agnes occupy positions of similar regard. When Agnes flees to Memphis and joins the Sanitation Workers Protests, all are aghast, none more than Florina. Yet she holds empathy for Agnes, respects Agnes’ strength in standing up for what she and all Negroes across America believe and desire Civil Rights for their people in America. As they move towards the fateful day, April 4th, 1968, when a great statesman of America, perhaps the greatest ever, will be killed, Florina learns that marriage exposes the vulnerabilities of all who pledge their trough and body. It casts an even greater shadows upon the ones who vow love unto death, and do not deliver what they have promised. When the Drum Major Died shows what happens when we resist change in favor of worn out tradition, but also what can and does occur when we open our hearts and embrace the words, “ ... be first in love ... be first in generosity ... He who is greatest among you shall be your servant. ... ”
When the Drum Major Died Anjuelle Floyd Books
“The thick jungle, and the heat. It was too much. They had to cut their way through vines and over growth. No path had been laid out like usual. It was native tropical forest, untouched. They had been through their own war.” Clifford lowered his head. He teared up, redness swallowing the whites around his irises. “Towards the middle of the night the Viet Cong heated up their firing. We thought it was all over, that in the next moment their entire company would descend on us. I lost track of Ennis. Like me he was trying to keep focus on his men amid the fighting and keep them alert. Firing died down about one the next morning. We began to hope. Then one of my men reported seeing a soldier dragged off. By morning twenty-five men lay with their necks slit.” “Not more than ten yards from me Ennis lay dead.”…. “I never got to say “Good-bye,” Clifford said, barely audible. Neither had Florina.Florina had met Ennis while in college. They found themselves deeply in love and married just before he left as a First Lieutenant in the US Army on his way to Vietnam. Many saw him as a white man but Ennis’s mother was of both Negro and Cherokee heritage. This was no problem for Florina since she was of the Negro race but very light skinned. But due to his heritage, she decided to keep both Ennis and their marriage a secret from her family until after her graduation. This never took place. Ennis was killed in action while in Vietnam.
Life goes on for Florina. She found a great man and husband in Dr. Redmond Austin, one of only 3 black doctors in the small North Carolina town of Poinsettia… Redmond, his father and Macon Elders. But as all lives come with baggage...hers was in continuing to keep Ennis and their marriage a secret, Redmond’s baggage came in the form of Agnes, Macon’s wife as well as their next door neighbor.
Now and then I run across a book that has a story that simply tugs at my heart with its love/hate relationships. This is one of those books but this is more than just a love story. I grew up with boys I went to school with being drafted to fight in the Vietnam War. I grew up with segregation going on all around the little town where I lived just outside of Atlanta. I also grew up confused as to the way both white and blacks treated the one boy that was admitted to my high school. He wasn’t accepted by either race. Why? He was light skinned. I never understood the problem. As I read, When The Drum Major Died, after all these years, I have begun to understand. If you grew up as a baby boomer, especially in the south, this is a book I recommend you read. It is beautiful, educational and simply a wonderful book to read.
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When the Drum Major Died Anjuelle Floyd Books Reviews
Florina was previously and secretly married to a Vietnam soldier who died on the battlefield in 1966. She then remarried Redmond, a black surgeon, whom her parents approved of this union. However, it greatly bothered Florina for not telling anyone except her first husband's mother Melinda and unsure to share this previous marriage with her current husband Redmond. She meets an eccentric woman named Agnes once moving to Redmond's grandparents’ home. Shortly later, as the reader, I was able to see secrets between the married couple where they both had previous engagements such as Florina married to Ennis and Redmond dated Agnes. Yet I am waiting to see how the couple will either boldly tell one another about their past or previous relationships openly or keep each other guessing.
The only setback that I had with this novel (and previous work I've read by this author) is the redundancy of an important incident or episode of the character's inward secret kept being stated or re-said throughout the book. However Anjuelle Floyd taps into the inflection of the main character, intricately shares the psychological transitions of the character, and dysfunctional aspects of relationships when facing racism, prejudices, skin color complexities or inferior complexes, and other injustices.
Floyd also gently touched on the importance of education, its values and goals as a surgeon during the Civil Rights movement, and benefits of being the only Black surgeon in a small town of Poinsetta. Moreover, Redmond being a prominent figure in his community and well-educated didn’t have to marry someone of the same or similar status as others would expect like Agnes. Is education the ticket to a better life? The questions that kept being addressed or aforementioned in the novel, I was also waiting for the answer or some closure such as the significance of Redmond’s response to being with Agnes. Yet Agnes defined her meaning of the “love she had for him” and belief of “how he viewed her in reference to love” but was it enough for his wife, Florina.
Moreover, the novel itself took quite some time for me to complete and didn’t pick up for me until about 40% in the eBook version. But when it did, I couldn’t stop reading and desperately wanted questions unanswered to be answered. Although it had it slow pits because of character development and understanding the delicacy of the relationships between the characters, there were some valuable lessons taken from this read such as religious concepts, race during this era, Civil Rights Movement, and establishing relationships between married couples as well as others who play a part in making this union a success. How people married so quickly and loved so easily back then...I love a novel with historical aspects as well as relational bonds that can last a lifetime.
Love this line in the novel “If only we could let go of each other and allow those whom we love be who they are, and we all become the people God wants u to be.”
Adrienna Turner
Dream4More Reviewer
Sweet Dreams/Wooed Me Dream, 4.5 stars
Reviewed Version.
A new marriage, hidden secrets and unrequited love makes for a fabulous tale! I recommend this story to drama fans.
I’m not sure what other reviewers saw in this book to give it 5 stars. I did enjoy the story line and the characters were interesting enough, but the entire book was so badly edited I almost gave up several times. Not only were there misspelled words but there were numerous instances where the wrong word was used. And I don’t mean “their” for “there”; I mean words that were totally wrong for the sentence or situation. It seems the author likes words that sound “different” and so she uses them generously, but their meaning doesn’t make any sense where she puts them. Also, many times it seems she copied & pasted without going back and re-reading the sentence, leaving words in the wrong place or extra words that should have been deleted. There is almost no punctuation and where there is it’s usually in the wrong place, making the entire book a job to read because you constantly have to figure out what is being said. I “looked” inside a few of her other books and the same scenario applies. I would STRONGLY advise Ms. Floyd to get a professional editor. She seems to have interesting ideas and her books would be most enjoyable with some good editing.
“The thick jungle, and the heat. It was too much. They had to cut their way through vines and over growth. No path had been laid out like usual. It was native tropical forest, untouched. They had been through their own war.” Clifford lowered his head. He teared up, redness swallowing the whites around his irises. “Towards the middle of the night the Viet Cong heated up their firing. We thought it was all over, that in the next moment their entire company would descend on us. I lost track of Ennis. Like me he was trying to keep focus on his men amid the fighting and keep them alert. Firing died down about one the next morning. We began to hope. Then one of my men reported seeing a soldier dragged off. By morning twenty-five men lay with their necks slit.” “Not more than ten yards from me Ennis lay dead.”…. “I never got to say “Good-bye,” Clifford said, barely audible. Neither had Florina.
Florina had met Ennis while in college. They found themselves deeply in love and married just before he left as a First Lieutenant in the US Army on his way to Vietnam. Many saw him as a white man but Ennis’s mother was of both Negro and Cherokee heritage. This was no problem for Florina since she was of the Negro race but very light skinned. But due to his heritage, she decided to keep both Ennis and their marriage a secret from her family until after her graduation. This never took place. Ennis was killed in action while in Vietnam.
Life goes on for Florina. She found a great man and husband in Dr. Redmond Austin, one of only 3 black doctors in the small North Carolina town of Poinsettia… Redmond, his father and Macon Elders. But as all lives come with baggage...hers was in continuing to keep Ennis and their marriage a secret, Redmond’s baggage came in the form of Agnes, Macon’s wife as well as their next door neighbor.
Now and then I run across a book that has a story that simply tugs at my heart with its love/hate relationships. This is one of those books but this is more than just a love story. I grew up with boys I went to school with being drafted to fight in the Vietnam War. I grew up with segregation going on all around the little town where I lived just outside of Atlanta. I also grew up confused as to the way both white and blacks treated the one boy that was admitted to my high school. He wasn’t accepted by either race. Why? He was light skinned. I never understood the problem. As I read, When The Drum Major Died, after all these years, I have begun to understand. If you grew up as a baby boomer, especially in the south, this is a book I recommend you read. It is beautiful, educational and simply a wonderful book to read.
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