Reading Wednesday
What did you just finish?
Song Yet Sung by James McBride. A novel set in the 1850s in eastern Maryland, an area of swamps and uncharted rivers and rough living. Liz Spocott is the main character, a runaway slave who has visions of the future. Because of this, she is regarded as incredibly important by most of the other characters, who include Amber, a slave who falls in love with Liz; Patty Cannon, a vicious slave stealer who wants revenge on Liz for escaping from her hold; Denwood, another slave hunter - though one with a bit of a code of honor - who has been hired by Liz's master to track her down; the Blacksmith, the local leader of the Underground Railroad; and the Woolman, a feral black man who has been living isolated in the nearby woods for so long that he's forgotten how to speak English; plus an entire crowd of secondary characters. The book starts off with a bang but loses pace in the middle, wandering around aimlessly for a while until the dozens of plot threads come together for an energetic ending. I have to admit that I did get bored in the middle, but the ending was good enough to make up for it.
There's a strong thread of magic realism here, most obviously in Liz's visions (which are recognizable to the reader, though Liz and the other characters mostly don't understand what she's seeing). The functioning of the Underground Railroad is depicted as so intricate that it comes off as magical as well - complete with complex passwords, secret signals, morse code, spies, costumes, and more. My understanding is that most historians think it tended to be much simpler, but of course a secret code - and especially one that was illegal and/or likely to get you lynched - is exactly the sort of thing that doesn't get written down, so who knows. And, as McBride points out in his afterword, it's a great opportunity to indulge in a little fantasy. But there's real history here as well; Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and Martin Luther King Jr don't actually appear on page, but Liz's story reflects each of them in significant ways.
The writing is beautiful, particularly the descriptions of the landscape, and the questions of good and evil, freedom and bondage, are very well done. The characterizations could be deeper, but overall I enjoyed the book.
What are you currently reading?
Arab Jazz by Karim Miské. You guys, this book is terrible. Weird post-modern writing style where I'm not even sure what is happening half the time, plus violent misogynistic fantasies from most of the male characters, plus apparently the bad guy is going to turn out to be the Jehovah's Witnesses, which keeps making me laugh. Also - this is petty - but the author does not seem to understand the geography of Brooklyn. If I wasn't reading this for NetGalley and thus need to come up with a review, I would have put it back by page two.
This entry was originally posted at http://brigdh.dreamwidth.org/12334.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Song Yet Sung by James McBride. A novel set in the 1850s in eastern Maryland, an area of swamps and uncharted rivers and rough living. Liz Spocott is the main character, a runaway slave who has visions of the future. Because of this, she is regarded as incredibly important by most of the other characters, who include Amber, a slave who falls in love with Liz; Patty Cannon, a vicious slave stealer who wants revenge on Liz for escaping from her hold; Denwood, another slave hunter - though one with a bit of a code of honor - who has been hired by Liz's master to track her down; the Blacksmith, the local leader of the Underground Railroad; and the Woolman, a feral black man who has been living isolated in the nearby woods for so long that he's forgotten how to speak English; plus an entire crowd of secondary characters. The book starts off with a bang but loses pace in the middle, wandering around aimlessly for a while until the dozens of plot threads come together for an energetic ending. I have to admit that I did get bored in the middle, but the ending was good enough to make up for it.
There's a strong thread of magic realism here, most obviously in Liz's visions (which are recognizable to the reader, though Liz and the other characters mostly don't understand what she's seeing). The functioning of the Underground Railroad is depicted as so intricate that it comes off as magical as well - complete with complex passwords, secret signals, morse code, spies, costumes, and more. My understanding is that most historians think it tended to be much simpler, but of course a secret code - and especially one that was illegal and/or likely to get you lynched - is exactly the sort of thing that doesn't get written down, so who knows. And, as McBride points out in his afterword, it's a great opportunity to indulge in a little fantasy. But there's real history here as well; Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and Martin Luther King Jr don't actually appear on page, but Liz's story reflects each of them in significant ways.
The writing is beautiful, particularly the descriptions of the landscape, and the questions of good and evil, freedom and bondage, are very well done. The characterizations could be deeper, but overall I enjoyed the book.
What are you currently reading?
Arab Jazz by Karim Miské. You guys, this book is terrible. Weird post-modern writing style where I'm not even sure what is happening half the time, plus violent misogynistic fantasies from most of the male characters, plus apparently the bad guy is going to turn out to be the Jehovah's Witnesses, which keeps making me laugh. Also - this is petty - but the author does not seem to understand the geography of Brooklyn. If I wasn't reading this for NetGalley and thus need to come up with a review, I would have put it back by page two.
This entry was originally posted at http://brigdh.dreamwidth.org/12334.html. Please comment there using OpenID.