The Sunday Read: ‘The Kidnapped Child Who Became a Poet’

my name is Wyatt Mason and I'm a. contributing writer for the New York. Times magazine. this week's Sunday read is my recent. article for the magazine about the 48. year old American poet Shane McRae. since 2009 McRae has published 13. collections a verse some 800 pages of. supremely accomplished work. he writes deeply about race about. marriage and about Sin and purgation.

through it all he's been exploring the. complexities of his biography an. exploration which prompts this latest. peace of mind on the occasion of his. just published memoir. pulling the Chariot of the Sun. McRae explores the extraordinary events. of his childhood when he was kidnapped. at age three from his black father by. his white maternal grandparents. they took him from Salem Oregon to just. outside of Austin Texas raising him.

under the premise that his father had. abandoned him before he was born. they also tried to keep mcrae's racial. identity from him raising this black kid. with the understanding that he was a. white kid who just tanned easily. he was brought up in this brutal racist. household by a grandfather who beat him. and lied to him and by a grandmother who. as much as she showed him love was also. a wildly manipulative influence brutal. in her own way.

mcrae's personal history was a nightmare. from which he doubted he could awake. mcrae's Memoir is a very complicated. piece of prose. some episodes are told many times. attempts by McRae to understand what. might have happened. my story for the magazine explores all. of that but it also goes to another. place that was unexpected for me as a. writer there was a different burden on. my part from when I write about. novelists.

I needed in a basic way to fact check. the story. not out of a sense of Suspicion so much. as due diligence. I needed to speak with any of the people. who were implicated in or involved with. his kidnapping. needless to say the first people I. thought of were the grandparents but. they were dead so I asked McRae how he. would feel if I were to reach out to his. parents both of whom are alive neither. of whom had really spoken to the other. in a quarter of a century.

McRae expressed some hesitation But. ultimately he said yes. I ended up speaking with each of his. parents many times over the course of a. month attempting to reconcile differing. accounts by mcrae's mother Denise and. his father Stanley of events that. happened more than 40 years ago. mcrae's Memoir Works towards a moment. late in the book of extraordinary. synchronicity when as a teenager he. realized that poetry was going to be the.

thing he would spend his life doing. it's a thrilling sequence of events. movingly told that I won't spoil here. but what's particularly amazing is. mcrae's clear-sightedness even as a teen. about what it was going to take for him. to learn what a poet can do. he recognized that he was going to need. to read compulsively exhaustively and so. one of the things that distinguishes.

McRae is how clearly his Artistry is a. hard-won consequence not of his. biography but of his work ethic. beginning when he was a teenager he kept. to a rigorous course of autodidacticism. reading eight books at a time 25 pages. from each 200 Pages a day. he needed to take all that in he. understood if he was going to be able to. write his way to where he wanted to go.

in reporting this story I learned once. again that a great artist isn't somebody. who sits there waiting for inspiration. to happen rather they find a way their. own way to work tirelessly. mcrae's path to poetry is unique however. and his Memoir charts his movement. through the years of Despair and drift. that began when he was kidnapped from. his father taken essentially because his. white grandparents didn't want him to be.

raised by a black man as a black man. to survive all that and to thrive after. it. what would it take. and where as a poet would it take him. so here's my article the kidnapped child. who became a poet. read by Prentice onayemi. [Music].

the weird thing about growing up. kidnapped Shane McRae the 47 year old. American poet told me in his melodious. Reedy voice one rainy afternoon in May. is if it happens early enough there's a. way in which you kind of don't know. there was no reason for McRae to have. known what unfolded in mcrae's childhood. between a June day and 1979 when his. white grandmother took him from his.

black father and disappeared and another. day 13 years later when McRae opened a. phone book in Salem Oregon found a name. he hoped was his father's and placed a. call. is both an unambiguous story of. abduction and a convoluted story of. complicity. it Loops through the American landscape. from Oregon to Texas to California to. Oregon again and even now winds through. the vast or emotional country of a child. and his parents. and because so much of what happened to.

McRae happened in homes where he was. beaten and lied to and threatened where. he was made to understand that black. people were inferior to whites where he. was taught to hail Hitler where he was. told that his dark-skinned men tanned. easily but no not that he was black. it's a story that's been hard for McRae. to piece together. my grandparents McRae explained in a. somewhat gloomy book Laden office at. Columbia University where he teaches.

poetry in its MFA program. we're so actively keeping my father away. from me they didn't want me to. investigate him at all it was just. normal. normal McRae explained because the story. he had been told by his grandparents was. that mcrae's father whose name he didn't. even know abandoned him before he was. born. they had been doing it my whole life. McRae said matter-of-factly. I didn't think of it as oh this is. pretty strange. McRae paused.

the after effects of all that he. continued it took me until to really. understand that I had been a kidnapped. child. probably my early 40s when it finally. started to make sense and I really got. it and I was like oh. this is a big deal. I had used the phrase before growing up. kidnapped but somehow used it without it. really sinking in. it was a thing that I was aware of as. this is technically true but without.

really understanding what that means. mcrae's new book The Memoir pulling the. Chariot of the sun it is being released. on August 1st is his attempt to. construct at a remove of four decades an. understanding of what happened and what. it has come to mean. the Memoir takes the reader through. mcrae's childhood from his earliest. memories after being taken from his. father the one at 16. he found him again. like many accomplished Memoirs that have. followed from Saint Augustine's.

pioneering confessions mcrae's explores. memories on certain Contours but like. few Memoirs before it pulling the. Chariot of the sun offers the experience. in prose of that uncertainty. it's essentially a 250 page avant-garde. prose poem that is more in common with. Virginia Woolf's excellent difficult. novel The Waves than with wassu's. excellent not difficult Memoir stay true. or any Memoir you might name.

mcrae's sentences are constantly stating. and retracting moving forward and. retreating establishing a perimeter. around an event while trying to. penetrate it to enter the chalk outline. drawn around a body long buried. that of the boy McRae was before he was. taken. at first the mode can be off-putting. decisions and revisions that a minute. can reverse the reader left to wonder. why the same story mcrae's birth say as.

it was reported to him is told multiple. times. but it's not long before the initial. aesthetic perplexity resolves for the. reader into the recognition that this is. how a mind works with the past. eternal return compulsive attempts to. make something hold over which you have. no control. and then the reader begins to welcome. need in fact mcrae's multiplicities. that's straining for resolution. the Memoir accumulates a hugeness of.

feeling that puts a lie to the idea that. difficulty and abusive writing is. necessarily cold or aloof or. incompatible with the kind of intense. emotion that mcrae's narrative. uncommonly yields. until I was 13 I slept with the light on. McRae writes Midway through the memoir. the main light in my bedroom the light. in the ceiling sometimes still wearing. the clothes I have worn that day. sometimes even wearing my shoes. most of my childhood I felt I had to be.

prepared to be taken from my life at any. moment. pulling the Chariot of the sun is the. story of an undoing but it is no less a. story of becoming. McRae takes the reader to the house. where he was made to live with his. grandparents documents how he was thrown. at age three into a wall by his. grandfather because he was crying for. his father. how he was knocked unconscious. how the beatings continued as McRae. matured until his grandmother divorced.

the grandfather when McRae was 14. there are visits from his mother and his. brief failed period living with her as a. teenager. time at multiple schools three and Ninth. Grade alone where he sat at the backs of. rooms a middling student largely. friendless. but there is also the freedom and. pleasure he experienced skateboarding at. which he excelled enough to be able to. see vividly the fine line that separated. his skills from those of skaters who. became Pros.

and there's mcrae's Revelation as a 10th. grader who would go on to repeat the. year that a standardized test put his. writing at an eighth grade level the. metrics of the world reporting that he. was contrary to his sense of himself. stupid. seated within that plausible sadness and. loneliness and horror and hopelessness. is the story of the strange. concatenation of events that produced. the moment when McRae found his path to. poetry. first as anchor to life and then as.

Avenue to himself. his Memoir is therefore and perhaps most. memorably a building's Roman a portrait. of a poet as a young black man. a boy raised in a particular Crucible of. capture that as part of its power enacts. the American story of seizure and. captivity of black people by white. tormentors. McRae dropped out of high school and got. an equivalency diploma. by 19 he was on his own married father.

of a daughter but without a clear path. forward only a clear ambition to write. poetry. through that period he kept to a strict. regimen of reading 200 Pages a day eight. books at once in rotation 25 pages from. each absorbing writing from every era. understanding that Beyond his need to. make it he knew nothing about poetry. what he did know having been an. excellent skateboarder was that if you. wanted to land a reverse Ollie you. needed your ten thousand hours to get.

there. he entered community college at 21. after transferring twice he graduated. from a good local College Linfield at 26. with an acceptance letter from the. premier MFA program in the world the. Iowa Writers Workshop. graduating in 2004 he went straight to. Harvard Law School to get a JD. thinking that he would briefly support. himself as a lawyer. McRae didn't like law school but. completed it and as he was doing so. because he could take courses elsewhere.

at the University he applied for a place. in the Poetry Workshop of a poet he had. been reading for years Jory Graham. it seemed at the start that he didn't. know if he should be there if he wanted. to be there Graham wrote To Me but as we. say he had an ear. he wrote a slightly conventional poem. and his heart was tight and his natural. voice was through clenched teeth. I felt anger on his page repressed anger.

I felt he had been beaten down by some. great force some injustice beyond the. Injustice of being black in America. but I could not break through to it. at some point he came to me in my office. with a strange draft where a few lines. broke apart at what would have been. presidents. and as we spoke he shared a great. personal grief and burden. and I remember this vividly I looked. back and forth from his broad open. suddenly vulnerable face to the lines.

broken open by a kind of stuttering. breath or a breath taken to squelch a. sob and I thought. here it is here we go his ear is. released. [Music]. the next week he had a handful of poems. in that form. the form worked because it correlated to. the griefs he was undergoing. since 2009 McRae has published 13 books. of poetry hundreds of pages of supremely.

accomplished verse. he has written autobiographically on the. dissolution of marriage and the. challenges of fatherhood on the reality. of racism as he has encountered it and. as American history has fostered it and. on sin and its purgation and. Transcendence not in some abstract mode. but from a decidedly Christian. perspective. McRae is a practicing Episcopalian. but these are just themes every poet has. them and they say nothing about what. might make verse notable durable.

it is mcrae's own deep knowledge and use. of the history of poetic form that has. marked his work and made it identifiably. his own. McRae has written scores of sonnets with. the form's standard 70 beats and its. characteristic meter of iamic pentameter. and yet a reader encountering these. poems for the first time on the page. where they do not look like sonnets the. lines are ruptured gapped slashed broken. at the wrong places would be. hard-pressed to see a sonnet's shape.

hiding there in plain sight. but as you not so much push through them. as are pulled Along by the currents in. them afraid of feeling accumulates and. by the end of his best poems detonates. in final lines that are often so. aggressively felt that you hardly notice. the rigor of the meter that has gotten. you there. I tend to think that poems McRae told me. they're smarter than the people who. write them and they're smarter than the.

people that read them. a poem that is successful is a poem that. you can never entirely possess. it will always resist you through its. sort of fathomless difficulty. that there's always going to be some new. thing with the poem because you haven't. gotten the whole thing. many of mcrae's poems have addressed the. pain in his own biography the first poem. the Cardinal is the marriage bird in his. first major book mule ends with the word.

wound. a suite of poems follows in which McRae. takes on the role of the book's title. animal sired black damned white poems. set in the Texas to which he was taken. among them three different poems all. called mulatto a word the Spanish root. of which means young mule capturing a. boy's awareness of the rupture at the. center of his nature or on TV a. harrowing but also strangely tender poem.

that captures the effects of his. grandfather's racism. on a little boy who liked to dance along. with the huxtables when The Cosby Show. came on with his grandmother I only ever. saw her dance with me which not at all. incidentally dances along in iambic. pentameter a complicated Act of Love. nesting within the horror. over the years McRae has burrowed into. the ugliness of how whites have treated. blacks Imagining the voices of. historical figures like Jim limber a.

mixed race orphan adopted by the family. of Jefferson Davis at the end of his. time as president of the Confederacy. irreconcilable depictions of violence. and love. all the while McRae has nudged closer to. exploring the grotesquery of his own. treatment. earlier poems using the word taken. before the newer poems Incorporated. finally the word that McRae knows to be. true. kidnapped. I wondered why McCrae felt he needed now. to approach this history already.

glimpsed in his mature work through. narrative. up until that point McRae told me. I wrote stuff that I figured one would. write. being as how I was kidnapped what is the. sort of thing a person who was kidnapped. would say. in a lot of my poems that's the way I. was thinking about it but it wasn't. until I wrote the Memoir that I started. to understand that it wasn't like being. kidnapped was someone running up to you. every day and shouting hey you're. kidnapped which is what the moment of.

the poem kinda feels like a. dramatization. being kidnapped is just you're living. your life and no one is telling you what. the premise is. [Music]. I used to think that there was something. wrong with my emotional life McRae told. me later because I had difficulty. Conjuring up feelings about like when my. grandmother died from complications of.

Alzheimer's while he was in law school. I was like okay well here's something. I'm supposed to feel. and I couldn't. I was aware that being taken from my. father when I was and my subsequent. experiences really broke something in my. ability to connect with family that is. generationally before me. what I feel is the absence of feeling. things that I should. as I sought to fill in mcrae's early. years I felt I needed to speak with his.

mother and father. he expressed some hesitation however and. before he ultimately said it would be. fine with him and with them if I did I. spoke with one of mcrae's high school. teachers who shifted those conversations. in an unexpected Direction. the day after we spoke she texted. yearbook photos from when McRae would. have been in 9th and 10th grade. there he was in two adolescent shots a. year apart his name was listed not as. McRae but as Baker oh yes that's right.

Denise Baker mcrae's mom told me on the. phone from her home in Portland Oregon. Baker was Shane's last name. Baker was the name of her stepfather. Morris whom everyone called Mori and. whom Denise called during our. conversations the monster. he was her mother's Fifth and final. husband. they married when Denise was five. Denise says that when she was still. small he kicked her down a hallway so. hard that it felt as if he broke her.

tailbone. when she became a teenager they fought. outright. he was a racist and she had black. friends. things got bad her mom and Maury called. her fat worthless stupid she repeatedly. ran away when she was around 14 her. parents told the state that she was out. of control and she was remanded to. juvenile detention for a year. after she got out she was emancipated. from her parents. they didn't want to have to take care of. me anymore Denise told me Denise talked.

about meeting mcrae's father Stanley. about which McRae writes in the Memoir. how his eventual father approached her. slowly from an impossible distance. somehow both in and Beyond the Kmart. dressed she would say like Superfly. she would have been 15. he was most. likely 17 or 18. she never told me what. he ordered she never told me what they. talked about. as to why three years later Shane was. born a baker and not a McRae as Denise.

tells it a hospital staff member said. that because she and Stanley weren't. married he wouldn't be able to put his. name on the form if he wanted to claim. paternity he could within six months if. he filed a formal application. soon after she was released from the. hospital she and Shane joined Stanley. and Salem. we hung out and talked Stanley told me. from his home in San Diego. I'm like when do I need to sign the. birth certificate and she was like well.

actually I wanted to talk to you about. that because my dad Maury can't have. kids and he was saying that if you let. him put Shane in the breaker name when. he passes everything he has will go to. Shane and I'm like really because I'm. not a rich man she said yes and I'm like. okay. he can be in the baker name when he gets. older if he wants to change it he can. change it. so this is to me where the story began.

all of a sudden he's in the baker name. it wasn't long after the birth that. Denise and Stanley were no longer in a. romantic relationship. Shane was initially with Denise in. Portland. sometimes she stayed with her parents. who were living there by the time McRae. was nearing three Denise began to feel. overwhelmed by the responsibility of. being a parent. afraid that she was going to be abusive. to Shane the way her parents had been to. her. not long after Stanley took Shane to. Salem to live with him.

on June 2nd 1979 Stanley's grandfather. died he told Denise he wanted to take. Shane to the funeral in Arizona Denise. said that was fine. probably that same day Stanley recalled. the grandmother came over I had bought. Shane this little tricycle and he just. loved it we were outside playing he's. riding on the tricycle the grandmother. pulls up and says I'd like to see him. before he leaves I'm like yeah. absolutely we're not leaving for a.

couple of days and she says well can you. spend the night I'm like no problem no. problem and she's like I'll bring him. back tomorrow. I thought nothing at all. but then the next day came and he wasn't. back that morning that evening and I'm. like what the heck she knows that I'm. leaving so I went over to her house now. I hadn't been to her house in several. years but I knew where she lived and I.

went to the house and the house was. empty. the house is up for sale. I asked Denise about the house a detail. that didn't make sense to me and she. explained that her parents had moved. before Shane was born to a house in. Portland where Stanley had never been. naturally I wanted to know what Stanley. did when he saw the empty house. he said that he called Denise and that. she said she told her mother that. Stanley was taking Shane to Arizona for. a funeral but that she had not told her. mother to take Shane.

Stanley was in touch with Denise for a. week by phone but nothing became clearer. to him about where Shane was. only that Denise said he must be with. them. and then along with the grandparents and. Shane she disappeared. here's the part of the story that no one. can clarify but it seems that the. essential sadness and horror is this. Denise's parents convinced her that they. could give Shane a better life and. absolutely a better life than he would.

have with Stanley. at some point Denise agreed that her. parents could take him to Texas where. Mori had a new job and that once she got. herself together she would come get. Shane. precisely when they moved and precisely. what degree of involvement Denise had in. that move it's clear that she didn't. tell Stanley what was happening. I don't know what I was thinking Denise. told me clearly in tears on several. calls I was so young I was not ready to. be a mom and I will regret that for the.

rest of my life. Denise did try to take custody of Shane. a year after her mother and stepfather. moved to Texas. when she went down Mori threatened her. well if you try to take Shane Denise. told me more he said we'll take him to. Mexico and you'll never see him again. Denise believed him I was just scared to. death she said but I have no idea why I. didn't just take him. I asked Stanley what he did to try to. find Shane. you know.

at that particular time back in the 80s. I'm in Salem Oregon which is basically. White. under two percent black. I was black and his name was Baker. Stanley continued the stuff I had been. through with police in my life I didn't. trust police. Stanley said he did speak with one white. officer he knew who said that without. his son having his name there wasn't. going to be any chance of getting him. back. it felt like a stupid question but I. asked Stanley how he felt after Shane.

disappeared. Shane was my world Stanley said. I was raised in church to believe that. everybody had good in them when I lost. Shane I totally turned to God I'm like. I've evidently been messing up in my. life and I'm being punished I became a. deacon in the church and would pray on. my knees and ask for my kid to show up. and for me to be able to find him. when Shane would have been about eight. or nine Stanley's sister Carol ran into. Denise in Salem and Denise went over to.

their mother's house to talk. I'm like where's Shane and she was like. well he's at my parents and I'm like. look. I agreed that your dad could use his. name because he didn't have anybody. carrying on his name and I'm trying to. be a good person but now you guys have. taken my kid and disappeared I want. Shane in my name now and I want him. Stanley paused. so Denise is like okay well yeah we can.

put him in the McRae name. she gave me a phone number for Shane but. it was a wrong number. and that was the last time I heard from. Denise. some eight years after that 13 years. after his abduction Shane found his way. back to his father. one day Stanley recalled he had been at. work and I was with my now wife of more. than 30 years Candace. and I got to my door and I was like. weird and she's like what I'm like I.

feel shame. his scent seems to be around me. I haven't had that since he was three. years old. everybody that I know Stanley said I'd. always told about Shane I mean he's my. first kid we did everything together. we'd be riding down the road and he'd go. that's the 56 Chevy at three years old. that's a 57 Chevy I'm like man look at. my smart kid I was just so proud of him. watching the way that he grew and then.

they just ripped him out of my life. a couple of weeks after he sensed Shane. Stanley told me my wife called me and. said hey guess what Shane called I'm. like what. McRae had gotten his father's name from. his grandmother a few years earlier and. at a certain point reached a moment in. his life when he sought that name in a. phone book and dialed the number next to. it so we made an appointment to pick him. up and when I got to him I'm like dude I.

told Candice I got your scent. it seemed like you had been at my door. some years later McRae changed his last. name to match his fathers. [Music]. some people go through the worst in life. and it destroys them others no less. beset see it move through them.

some people think that I am troublingly. optimistic but gray told me back in his. office. I don't know if that's true but it's. rather more that I tend to believe for. reasons I can't fully explain the good. or at least the Least Complicated. version that would fall on the side of. good. it seems to me that mcrae's optimism. might be called faith. I got this tattoo when I was in law. school McRae said rolling his left. forearm over to reveal a large black.

Latin cross. when I did my very first reading from my. first chat book one neither one. from 2009 it's cover a sketch of. shackles that can look like a pair of. eyes staring at the reader. I made sure to wear a jacket so nobody. would see it because I was afraid. growing up McRae continued there was. this kind of feeling that if you had a. Christian belief you can't believe in. God and be smart. that was the feeling I got in the. circles I ran in and I felt really weird.

about it really insecure because I did. believe McRae laughed so when I was. first trying to be a poet I didn't want. anybody to know I was a Christian. it was a source of worry for a pretty. long time. I'm also really ashamed of how at least. the Christians that get attention in. America how a lot of them Act. it fills me with dismay and I didn't. want to be associated with that. McRae told me how at 19 he'd asked God.

to give him a sign. if God did McRae would believe in him. the next day McRae went up to the Mount. Angel Monastery a half hour out of Salem. and there was a storm thunder and. lightning and when he was getting ready. to leave the road out was blocked by two. Fallen trees. McRae says he didn't feel that God would. waste his time knocking down trees so a. kid would believe. but he had asked for a sign and there. one was. McCray tried Islam taoism but eventually.

he came around to Christianity. he was baptized a Christian at 29 while. at Harvard Law School. he had also been taking classes at the. Episcopal Divinity School had imagined. still imagines another path for himself. as a priest. but after a term he learned he wasn't. eligible to take more. and yet since then the two things belief. in art and faith in God have come. together. fractured through mcrae's work then.

is what could be read as a very long. poem that has appeared in Parts through. four books. there's a Purgatory a heaven and a hell. McRae is long done with purgatory and. heaven but the hell poem which first. appeared in 2019 keeps getting bigger. a few weeks before I wrote this article. he sent me the whole poem or rather all. of it minus two sections he has yet to. write. it's harrowing and strange and also. extremely funny in moments it completes.

what I can't help seeing as the kind of. Comedia written by someone who believes. equally in the word and the word. I asked McRae about the process by which. he came to understand that Christ was. God's son and how the pain that God. allowed to be brought Upon Jesus the. wounds inflicted on his body ended up. making sense to him. in that context I asked him why we. suffer. it's actually a question that I don't. think about all that much he said.

which feels terrible because I'm so. often on the verge of tears thinking. about the suffering of others he paused. it's God's universe. God can do what God wants which is kind. of what Saint Augustine said. God doesn't owe us happy lives. throughout June and into July I ended up. going back and forth between mcrae's. parents many times trying to reconcile. their individual versions of events.

one day I got a text from Stanley. Denise contacted me on Facebook a couple. hours ago we ended up talking on the. phone and she remembers a lot but just. like me she's forgot a lot she does. remember how upset she was when her. mother lied to me and came and got chain. I believe she was really hurt regarding. that whole situation and she seems to be. struggling with how everything went down. I called Denise to ask her about the. conversation with Stanley. it's.

it's really painful for me what Shane. went through and I feel extremely at. fault. and it's something that I'll probably. deal with forever. but I wanted to help change part of that. so I looked up Oregon laws to see if. Stanley could get on his birth. certificate even now. and it sounds like he could. so I reached out to Stanley. as Stanley understood it the only thing. he had agreed to 47 years earlier was. that his son would have the baker name.

he had not known that the birth. certificate would make no mention of him. as the father. but now he had seen the evidence for. himself. I asked if I could see it he texted it. along. the certificate of live birth shows that. on September 22nd 1975. child in box one. Shane Allen Baker was born at 6 59 pm to. Mother inbox 6A Denise Allen Baker box.

8A for father is blank. it is as if no such person existed. though McRae says he was kidnapped from. his father when he was three he is in a. way wrong. it took place on the day he was born. I'm glad that's happening McRae said of. adding Stanley's name to his birth. certificate. me changing my name to his last name. when I was in my very early 20s was. really important. and that was very meaningful to me the.

public acknowledgment of him as my. father had felt as if I was doing some. small thing to right or wrong. it was emotional. I felt driven to do it. so whatever emotions would go with it. were emotions that I already felt. decades ago. on the 1st of July Stanley and his wife. each on their separate Harley-Davidsons. began the 21-hour ride from San Diego to. Oregon Stanley wanted to take the forms. in himself.

too much for too long had gone wrong he. wasn't about to let anything happen now. if in life McRae has met this Advent. with what might seem like a mildness a. Feeling. in art he has shown a fierce commitment. to inventing forms that Express. significant emotion the title of mcrae's. memoir pulling the Chariot of the Sun. alludes to the Greek myth of a son. seeking his father fayaden a mortal boy. Helios a god.

en had been told that his father was a. God but had never met him. so he went on a journey to find them did. and asked that the God give him proof of. his patrimony the God said anything you. ask of me I will grant. the boy asked to drive the Chariot of. the Sun the one that Helios drove each. day to make the sun rise pulled by four. horses of enormous power. the god knew that the boy was no match.

for the task and yet he had given. himself no choice but to say yes so. fayetteen took the reins at Dawn Rose. and of course Belle. literally dying to learn that his. father's name was his own. McCray's version of the story inverts. that myth at his Memoirs end he finds. his father learns his name. and lives. [Music].

foreign. [Music].