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Razorblade Tears
by
S.A. Cosby

⭐⭐⭐          Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

I know to be wary about books that get a lot of hype, but I fell for it this time. When I saw the critical acclaim from The New York Times, NPR, The Washington Post and many others, naming Razorblade Tears one of the best books of 2021, I wanted to read it.

In the beginning, I thought I was part of that cheering crowd, but I soon changed my mind. Here’s the premise of the book:

Ike Randolph and Buddy Lee Jenkins are two ex-cons whose gay sons, Isiah and Derek (married to each other) were gunned down outside a wine shop in Richmond, Virginia. When Buddy Lee suggests they combine forces to avenge their sons’ deaths, Ike agrees.a successful Black business owner, has kept a clean record in the fifteen years he’s been out of prison for manslaughter. And he’s kept his violent temper at bay. He needs to, especially now that he and his wife have custody of three-year-old, Arianna, Isiah and Derek’s daughter. Buddy Lee, who is white, is a career con man and an alcoholic, living in a dilapidated trailer. On top of their grief, they have many regrets about shunning their sons for their homosexuality. Now they have a chance to make things a little better.

They soon learn that Ike’s son, Isiah, a journalist, was about to expose a scandalous relationship between a woman named Tangerine and an unnamed powerful man she’d met. On the other side, this powerful person has hired a hit man and his violent gang to find Tangerine and kill her before the story gets out.

Over a period of several days, Ike and Buddy Lee chase the killers and the killers chase them. And there are many violent casualties along the way, described in graphic detail. Between the violence, they move towards friendship as they joke around and share their struggles about accepting their sons. Ike also sets Buddy Lee straight on a number of racial assumptions. I thought these were good ways to bring out the subtleties of racism, one of the better parts of the book.

I was interested in the premise, but honestly, the rest of the book just isn’t that good, with all kinds of weird metaphors and choppy sentences. Razorblade Tears is described as noir fiction, and as a reader you have to accept the violence as part of the genre, but I found the characters to be stereotypical and the fight scenes hard to follow. In addition, to say you must suspend all disbelief is a huge understatement.

In the end, I felt manipulated by the hype and in the heavy-handed message about race, gender, sexuality, and a host of other social issues. I felt this could have been a much better book if the author had focused more on the characters and had chosen one or two issues.

Other WordPress bloggers have written mixed reviews. You can check them out here.

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In April 2020, museums around the world issued a challenge to recreate famous works of art at home and then share those results on social media. This, of course, became the #covidclassics challenge that swept the Internet and kept us all going during some of the darkest months of the pandemic.

That said, one person took the #covidclassics challenge very seriously… maybe too seriously?

Most definitely WAY too seriously!

Yes, that person is yours truly and the result is twenty-one months of #covidclassics. Of course, all things must come to an end and my mission of crafting hilarious parodies of classic works of art for your amusement (and education?) is now complete.

It takes a lot of outside-the-box problem solving to stage a well-known two-dimensional painting or photograph in one’s living and/or working space. You have to consider the lighting, the costumes, the makeup and hair and even the editing after the fact. I can say with 100% confidence that I am so glad I put in the work to make so many of these #covidclassics because if they made even one person smile or chuckle to themselves, then it was all worth it.

Because nostalgia is a powerful drug and we all need a little something extra this time of year, I am pleased to share with you this video of ALL the #covidclassics. Be sure to look closely as there are a few images that I never posted to the blog. Plus, I included all the pop culture parodies I created since April 2020 that I shared only to my personal social media.

My thanks go out to all those who “liked” and commented on my images over the past twenty-one months and to those who laughed along with me.

Special thanks go to my forever sidekick – Chipper the Regal Beagle – for her patience with me as she was included in quite a few #covidclassics… whether she liked it or not.

Of course, the unsung hero in this entire project is my incredible husband – Mike Lee – who never shied away from photographing his wife’s crazy scenarios and shenanigans. Plus, he made the video!

The #covidclassics challenge was a lot of work, a lot of fun and ultimately…

It was a challenge well met.https://www.youtube.com/sqolaman E?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en&autohide=2&wmode=transparent

If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again. This doesn’t apply to failing relationships, so stop trying and trying again when you already know it’s not going to work out.

I’m completely guilty of double, triple, quadruple thinking my decisions especially when it comes to relationships. After ending something I often wonder if I cut it off too abruptly, if I’m lonely now because I was meant to be with them, if maybe we could work if I just gave it a third chance.

And in my experience, the relationship had died, is still dead, and does not need to be revived.

Nostalgia brings up so many emotions, especially when you’re feeling lonely. It might seem like a good idea to send a text to your ex and see if you can still get that attention you need. But in most cases, it’s not a good idea.

Remember all  the reasons you broke up in the first place? The distance. The fighting. The cheating. The lying. The mistrust. Whatever it may have been – none of that has changed. All of the words exchanged can’t be forgotten and all of the pain that you went through will come back again when trying to rekindle an old flame.

Maybe you can give them a second chance, if all of the circumstances seem to be different this time. But a third chance is pushing it. A fourth chance is overdoing it. A fifth chance is just nonsense.

It’s not going to work, it’s never going to work. Stop trying to dredge up the past just to make yourself feel better. In the end, it will probably only make you feel worse.

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Sqola_man