The Talented Ribkins

June 26, 2017
Blending the superhuman with the civil rights movement, this debut novel is an ambitious, if uneven, attempt to explore new dimensions of the struggle for racial justice. Johnny Ribkins—a 72-year-old with an uncanny talent for making maps of any place, whether he’s ever seen it or not—has five days to pay a debt to a Florida crime boss. He sets out on a whirlwind tour of the state to dig up all the secret caches of money he’d planted decades earlier, when the Justice Committee—the organization he founded with similarly gifted family members and friends to protect black activists in the ’60s—was dissolving. The ideals that animated the Justice Committee feel long gone: after his dream of making “more theoretical” maps that would chart not just space but “actual corridors of power” failed, Johnny turned to facilitating burglaries using his blueprints. Johnny’s lightning-quick friend Flash is solely focused on getting his sprinter son to the Olympics, while Johnny’s cousin Simone, able to “make people think they were in the presence of the most beautiful woman they’d ever seen,” has used her power to seduce and marry a wealthy judge. The mix of lofty ideals, uncanny skills, and human frailty Hubbard invokes is compelling, but the debt-repayment plot brings with it ever more convoluted revelations about Johnny’s past. Amid these ponderous (and often repetitive) historical detours, Hubbard’s unique conceit never quite becomes the provocative take on race relations it aspires to be.

Narrator Kevin Kenerly depicts several generations of family members as Johnny Ribkins retrieves money to pay off his mobster boss by digging up caches of it spread throughout Florida. At the first stop, he discovers his brother had a daughter. With the 15-year-old in tow, Ribkins reconnects with different family members, allowing Kenerly, through tone and inflection in particular, to show his facility with characters of all ages. Kenerly is particularly adept at depicting strong women as he shows the family dynamics in action. At each stop, Ribkins reconnects with a part of his history, recapturing his sense of pride, an attitude that Kenerly gradually builds into his persona. J.E.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine