Audiobook7 hours
Daddy Was a Number Runner: A Novel
Written by Louise Meriwether
Narrated by Karen Murray
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
5/5
()
About this audiobook
This modern classic is "a tough, tender, bitter novel of a black girl struggling towards womanhood" in 1930s Harlem-with a foreword by James Baldwin (Publishers Weekly).
Depression-era Harlem is home for twelve-year-old Francie Coffin and her family, and it's both a place of refuge and the source of untold dangers for her and her poor, working class family. The beloved "daddy" of the title indeed becomes a number runner when he is unable to find legal work, and while one of Francie's brothers dreams of becoming a chemist, the other is already in a gang. Francie is a dreamer, too, but there are risks in everything from going to the movies to walking down the block, and her pragmatism eventually outweighs her hope; "We was all poor and black and apt to stay that way, and that was that."
First published in 1970, Daddy Was a Number Runner is one of the seminal novels of the black experience in America. The New York Times Book Review proclaimed it "a most important novel."
Depression-era Harlem is home for twelve-year-old Francie Coffin and her family, and it's both a place of refuge and the source of untold dangers for her and her poor, working class family. The beloved "daddy" of the title indeed becomes a number runner when he is unable to find legal work, and while one of Francie's brothers dreams of becoming a chemist, the other is already in a gang. Francie is a dreamer, too, but there are risks in everything from going to the movies to walking down the block, and her pragmatism eventually outweighs her hope; "We was all poor and black and apt to stay that way, and that was that."
First published in 1970, Daddy Was a Number Runner is one of the seminal novels of the black experience in America. The New York Times Book Review proclaimed it "a most important novel."
Author
Louise Meriwether
Louise Meriwether is author of six books, including the novels Daddy Was a Number Runner, Fragments of the Ark, and Shadow Dancing.
Related to Daddy Was a Number Runner
Related audiobooks
Rattlebone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Speaking of Summer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Disgruntled Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Daughter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Miss Chloe: A Memoir of a Literary Friendship with Toni Morrison Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gone Missing in Harlem: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Quicksand Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Our Nig, or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, In A Two-Story White House Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Homemade Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Jim Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Love You, Charlie Freeman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5None But the Righteous Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Movement Made Us: A Father, a Son, and the Legacy of a Freedom Ride Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Leaving Atlanta Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Folk Could Fly: Selected Writings Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wedding Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lazaretto: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mama Day Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hundred Wells of Salaga: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bedrock Faith: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Farming of Bones Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Price of A Child Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Star Side of Bird Hill Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Thalia Book Club: Ann Petry's The Street with Sapphire, Sonia Manzano, and Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Notes on Her Color: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAdé: A Love Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Color Line: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Other Madisons: The Lost History of a President's Black Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Only the Strong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Long Division Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Literary Fiction For You
Demon Copperhead: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Remarkably Bright Creatures: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Alchemist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Bell Jar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Yellowface: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Covenant of Water Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Stardust Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tom Lake: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Road Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Man Called Ove: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Picture of Dorian Gray: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poisonwood Bible Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The One Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Measure: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lady Tan's Circle of Women Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dutch House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Future Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stardust: The Gift Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Their Eyes Were Watching God Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Third Mrs. Galway Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Keeper of Lost Things: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of The Oxford Translators' Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Perks of Being a Wallflower Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beartown Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Daddy Was a Number Runner
Rating: 4.888888888888889 out of 5 stars
5/5
9 ratings0 reviews