I read Gods of Manhattan by Scott Mebus several months ago and I've been thinking about how to post on my issues with the book ever since. Part of me just wanted to pass the book on and not worry about it anymore but I was bothered enough by what Mebus did here that I kept thinking I needed to write something. When I read Betsy's review at Fuse Number 8 and saw that we were on the same page, I decided I really did need to write a post. I got seriously sidetracked in the last couple of months, but here now is why I was so disappointed, in this fantasy novel for kids.

On the surface Gods of Manhattan is a fairly typical fantasy. Rory has always considered himself a little bit different in that he can figure out pretty much every magic trick ever. Then one day he meets a magician who seems to know him and is able to fool him. In short order Rory discovers that there is a whole alternate Manhattan outside his door populated by all manner of magical type creatures and he can now see them at will. From there Rory and his younger Bridget quickly get involved in an epic battle being waged in this alternate Manhattan which will affect their Manhattan if it isn't stopped. Rory is, for lack of a better term, the "chosen one" that everyone has been waiting for. He has to figure out who is good who is bad and what needs to get done in order to save the world.

Yes, this is nothing new.

The twist is that Mebus' "Mannahatta" is dominated by historical figures who serve as various gods or other significant figures. Alexander Hamilton is the mayor, Walt Whitman is God of Optimism, Babe Ruth is God of Heroes, etc. Their rivals are the "Munsees" a group of Native Americans who are now confined in Central Park. There is also a group of five teens who are the Manahatta born children of famous people, like Lincoln Douglas, son of Frederick Douglas and Simon Astor, son of John Jacob Astor. These five kids though are not historically accurate as they only exist in Manahatta, not in history.

The story itself is pretty standard as these stories go with lots of intrigue and running around gathering clues and not knowing who you can trust. I am a hard sell on a fantasy such as this one because "the one" has been done to death and any author straying into these waters has to know he's going up against some major heavy hitters (i.e. Joss Whedon and George Lucas for starters) who have done this before and done it better. By adding the historical twist I'm sure Mebus was looking to make his book stand out and be unique. The problem for me is that what he ended up with is making it very white.

As in, this is the whitest version of New York City I've ever seen.

Betsy covers all of this probably better than I could (she lives in NYC after all). Here's a big chunk of her post but it explains exactly what I was thinking:

Here are the assumptions that I was making when reading this book. If you don't agree with them, then you probably won't have the same problems with the story that I did. So, the idea is that if you are famous in New York and remembered by its residents then you remain as a kind of god after your death. Fair enough. What's more, even if you've ended up a kind of urban legend or vague story, you can still be a god. There's a god of shoplifting, a god of guilt, and so on and so forth. There are quite a lot of gods in this book too. In fact, if you turn to the Cast of Characters at the beginning you can see the names of the top twelve. The Council of Twelve consists of the twelve gods that rule all the others. Now take a close look at these guys. Take a good long look. Do you see anything strange about them? Could it be that they are all white, with the exception of "Caesar Prince", who happens to be a made up character? This seemed a tad odd to me. I mean we're talking about the gods that rule Manhattan. Since when was Manhattan ever an all-white burg? So I took a closer look at the book and here are the stats I came up with.

Curiouser and curiouser. How on earth does a person go about writing a book about the people who represent Manhattan and make almost all of them white? Then I took a closer look at exactly whom Mebus has selected to represent us. The Goddess of Trends is Zelda Fitzgerald. Hunhuna? Call me kooky, but wouldn't Madame C.J. Walker, who New York schoolchildren actually learn about in school and who was black, be a better choice?

Zelda Fitzgerald is the name that caught my eye right from the beginning. The Fitzgeralds lived in NYC for three years if you are really generous with your time - meaning you don't count the months they were away visiting relatives or Europe. Zelda is a southern character, always has been, always will be. You could make an argument for setting the Fitzgeralds in Paris or for setting Scott in Hollywood and Zelda in Alabama but Manhattan? I don't think so and that makes leaving out Madame CJ Walker (or even better her daughter A'Leila) all the more disturbing.

Beyond the Walkers though, I was wondering where Sojourner Truth was, or Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington or good grief - Pierre Toussaint who is actually up for sainthood!

I know as a reviewer I have to be careful about considering the book that was written, and not bemoaning the book I wanted to read. But Mebus purposely strayed into history here and his choices are so out of character for the very real cultural makeup of the city he chose that I think he opened himself up to this kind of criticism. A lot of real people remember names like Holiday and Ellington far more than someone like John Jacob Astor or Hamilton Fish; so pushing them in while ignoring others is either a willful choice on the author's part to slight minority figures or it reveals his own very slanted view of New York history. Either way it is not good and I'm puzzled as to how on earth his publishers let this slip past them.

Beyond the choice of characters in the story the major battle itself between the white leaders of Manahatta and the Indians held in Central Park is really strange. The Indian leaders come across as either blood thirsty and desperate for revenge or wise sages who accept horrible things have been done to them but are ready to simply put it all away and move on. I'm not sure which characterization disturbed me more. Rory and his growing band of teenagers, all of whom figure out what is going on way before the adults of course, are somehow supposed to decide what is best for the Indians - because you know white adolescents are better at this sort of thing than the Indians themselves.

Are you picking up a theme here?

In the end you have Indians who have been reminded to take the higher road than their white counterparts (and the irony that Chief Wampage who if he is indeed based on the real person is advocating this position is not lost on me) and the kids will return when the Indians are all civilized and ready to be free. The fact that the Indians were lied to and imprisoned by the whites seem irrelevant in the face of the greater good of just putting it all behind us and moving on. I guess they just have to hope that Hamilton and crew will be nicer next time and not try all those evil tricks.

(And please: "I promise, one day soon you and I will sit in the sweat lodge side by side and we will soar." Every exchange with Wampage made me shake my head. How come Hamilton, Whitman and the rest can manage to speak like they are in the 21st century but the Indian characters are stuck in a bad episode of the Lone Ranger?)

Gods of Manhattan is a frustrating book because Mebus does know how to write. It is a relatively common fantasy construct for teens but not a bad one until you start looking beneath the surface. Did he and his editors mean for the book to be such a Eurocentric celebration of Manhattan's past? I don't know. But I do know enough history to see that this book is wrong and any kid reading it needs to know that as well. Consider this one wrapped in a big "Read with Caution" banner and get ready to have some long conversations about whitewashing history when your young readers are done.

[Post pics, in order: Madame CJ Walker, Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, Pierre Toussaint and Billie Holiday.]