If you want to trip back to the last century and recall what Alameda was like in the early 1990s, when the Naval Base was about to close, the West End was still scruffy with bars and tattoo parlors, and Naval housing was just that, pick up The Color Midnight Made by Andrew Winer. Winer, a onetime resident of Alameda—as a child—remembered his time on the island and used those memories to create the setting for Midnight. The novel is literary fiction, told from the point of view of white fifth-grader Conrad Clay, whose best friend Loop is Black.
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Conrad is diagnosed as color-blind at the start of the novel, and he becomes obsessed with describing his world in colors that may or may not exist. The theme of color-blindness or awareness of race is resonant throughout.
They say I can’t see colors. They’re lying. I can see colors in people. Mom’s is yellow. Pop’s is camouflage. Our teacher Mr. Garabedian is tan like a weed. I got a color for everybody. Except me.
I told my best friend Loop he was silver and black, like the Oakland Raiders. Loop gave me a slug. “I already black,” he said.
Conrad’s parents are splitting up, and as an only child he sees his world falling apart and doesn’t know what to do about it. He prowls the streets of the West End on his skateboard to keep an eye on the city and think about his life. His inner dialogue is both sharply observant and funny, but also bittersweet.
I stuffed the note back in my Raiders jacket and ran all the way out to Naval Housing, where kids screamed and spidered over the monkey bars and a boy with mud on his cheeks pointed a space gun at me. I kept going out to Slime Canal, past the Ferry, and past a ship from China named Cho Yang. I watched a pigeon flap out of my way. I wanted to see things like everyone else did. If I practiced my colors enough maybe I’d see them right.
While some critics have called this novel a modern retelling of Huckleberry Finn, to me Conrad seems more like a case of benign neglect combined with coming of age in a rapidly changing world. In other words, it’s a novel that both teens and adults can enjoy. Conrad’s boasting, streetwise hijinks and skateboard travels make this book more like The Wonder Years than Huck Finn.
For an enjoyable journey back to the days when the Navy was closing shop in Alameda, written in sharp, honest prose, check this one out. The Color Midnight Made by Andrew Winer (2002) is available wherever you buy books, in paperback and hardcover; it’s also available at the Alameda Free Library.
Author Julia Park Tracey is an award-winning journalist, poet, and author of nine books. She is the Poet Laureate Emeritus of Alameda and occasionally writes for the Alameda Post. Find her on social media as @juliaparktracey, all platforms.