Aspen Author Brooke Newman visits Avon Public Library to talk about her new book Jenniemae & James: A Memoir in Black & White.
This event is FREE and open to the public.
About the book:
James Newman was a brilliant mathematician, the man who introduced the mathematical concept "googol" and "googolplex" (aka "google" and "googleplex") to the world, and a friend of Einstein's. He was also a notorious philanderer with an insatiable appetite for women and fast cars, a man who challenged intellectual and emotional limits, and a man of excess who oftentimes fell victim to his own anxiety.
Jenniemae Harrington was an uneducated, illiterate African American maid from Alabama who began working for the Newman family in 1948—and who, despite her devout Christianity, played the illegal, underground lottery called “policy,” which she won with astonishing frequency.
Though highly implausible, these two dissimilar individuals developed a deep and loyal friendship, largely because of their common love of numbers and their quick wits. Jenniemae and James had a friendship that endured even during an era when segregation still prevailed. It is this extraordinary relationship that the Newmans' daughter, Brooke, reveals in Jenniemae & James, as she elegantly weaves together the story of two very distinct and different people who each had a significant impact on her upbringing. In doing so, she also paints a vivid political and cultural picture of the time—when the world was terrified by the possibility of nuclear war; when America was reeling from the McCarthy hearings; when technological advances like televisions, satellites, and interstate highways were changing the country; when America was just beginning to venture into Vietnam; and when African Americans were still considered second-class citizens with limited rights, before the explosion of racial tensions in the early 1960s.
"Jenniemae & James is a beautifully toned memoir about the depths as well as the vagaries of humanity. A lovely book, giving us much to ponder." —Larry McMurtry
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