The Time of Our Singing by Richard Powers
**Overview of "The Time of Our Singing" by Richard Powers**
"The Time of Our Singing" is a novel by Richard Powers that explores the intersection of race, identity, and music through the lives of a mixed-race family in America. The story begins with the unlikely union of David Strom, a Jewish physicist fleeing Nazi Germany, and Delia Daley, a talented African American gospel singer from Philadelphia. Their marriage sets the stage for a narrative that spans three generations and grapples with the complexities of racial identity in a divided society. They raise three musically gifted children—Joey, Jonah, and Ruth—while striving to provide a sheltered environment that protects them from societal prejudices.
As the children grow, they face the harsh realities of racial discrimination, even in seemingly progressive academic settings. The novel weaves historical events, including World War II and the civil rights movement, into its fabric, showcasing how these influences shape the family's experiences. Through the characters’ journeys, especially that of Jonah, who struggles with his identity as a world-class tenor, the narrative delves into the broader themes of belonging and artistic expression. Ultimately, the story raises poignant questions about the future, particularly through Rootie’s son, Robert, as the family confronts the enduring legacy of racism and the hope for a different path forward.
The Time of Our Singing by Richard Powers
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 2003
Type of work: Novel
The Work
On the Easter Sunday of 1939 when David Strom, a German and a nonpracticing Jew who has fled from Nazi Germany, met Delia Daley, a gifted black gospel singer from Philadelphia, the two were drawn irresistibly to each other. Delia, a physician’s daughter, and David, a physicist teaching at Columbia University, were well aware of the complications that their marriage would ignite both in Delia’s family and in their own lives. Nevertheless, they married and had three children, one of whom, Joey Strom, is Powers’s narrator. Each of the children, Joey, Jonah, and Ruth (nicknamed Rootie), is gifted musically, but Jonah is a world-class tenor, who eventually flees to Europe to pursue his career in an atmosphere where he will be identified as a singer rather than as a “black singer.”
David and Delia do everything they can to protect their children from the racial difficulties that mixed-race children faced in New York—indeed, in most of the United States—at that time. They home-schooled the children, and music became the center of their lives, the unifying force that enabled them to create their own exclusive realities. It is a combination of music and physics that causes Albert Einstein to make a cameo appearance in the novel.
When the children are of an age to leave home, their parents attempt to find the most compatible situations for them, but even in racially tolerant educational institutions in Boston, they are subjected to racial discrimination on a social if not professional level. The story, which encompasses three generations, takes its characters through World War II, Hiroshima, the Korean War, the Kennedy brothers’ assassinations, and up to such contemporary debacles as the Rodney King beating in Los Angeles and the race riots in 1992 that ensued.
By the time of these riots, Rootie has become a civil rights activist. After her activist husband is killed by police, Rootie opens an alternative primary school in Oakland. Joey, who has tried various musical pursuits, now settles down to teaching music in his sister’s school. Jonah, who attempts to be apolitical, became involved nevertheless in the Watts Riot on one of his return trips to the United States and was injured.
Now home again on tour, he visits with Joey in Berkeley before continuing his tour in Southern California. There be becomes involved in the riots following the King beating, is struck in the face by a police officer’s baton, and the next morning is found dead in his hotel room.
The one hope for the family now seems to be in Rootie’s bright, musically gifted son, Robert, whose life may be less scarred by racial prejudice than were the lives of his parents and uncles. It appears that Robert’s closest associations, however, will be with the black rather than with the white community.
Review Sources
The Atlantic Monthly 241 (January/February, 2003): 190-193.
Booklist 99, no. 4 (October 15, 2002): 390.
The Economist 366, no. 8309 (February 1, 2003): 71.
Harper’s Magazine 103, no. 1832 (January, 2003): 69-70.
Kirkus Reviews 70, no. 20 (November 15, 2002): 1500-1501.
Library Journal 127, no. 18 (November 1, 2002): 130.
New York 35, no. 2 (January 20-27, 2003): 68-69, 99.
The New York Times Book Review, January 26, 2003, p. 12-13.
The New York Times Book Review, February 23, 2003, p. 31.
The New Yorker 79 (January 11, 2003): 85-86.
Publishers Weekly 249, no. 40 (October 7, 2002): 50.