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4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
How is this book's overall rating over 4 stars? This book was immensely difficult to get through. Do yourself a favor and read books that actually center Black people's experiences instead of books that put any sort of Black experience so heavily through the lens of all the white characters in the book.
It's shocking that a Black author wrote this book because all it does is give these white Southern characters pats on the back for not being *as bad as they could have been.* Like, wow, good job to all these whites who now have to live among freed slaves after losing the Civil War! You were real shitty at the beginning of the book and "not as shitty" at the end! "Not as shitty" is in quotation marks because I think the author intended for the reader to sense ~growth~ in these white characters, but really all he did was make them all white saviors. Aka valid growth in the eyes of indiscriminate white readers who are desperate to applaud anyone who "helps those less fortunate."
Here are some nice Reconstruction-Era archetypes that make an appearance in this novel: The staple former slave who's, the staple former slave who must endure the , the whore (who is, of course, Black) who is surprisingly morally superior to and wiser than everyone else and who loves to dole out sage advice to the white characters on command, and the white savior family who do things like take in newly freed slaves and make them work their land (but pay them this time) when they could have given those jobs to white soldiers just home from the war, help the former slave escape, , and more!
It's shocking that a Black author wrote this book because all it does is give these white Southern characters pats on the back for not being *as bad as they could have been.* Like, wow, good job to all these whites who now have to live among freed slaves after losing the Civil War! You were real shitty at the beginning of the book and "not as shitty" at the end! "Not as shitty" is in quotation marks because I think the author intended for the reader to sense ~growth~ in these white characters, but really all he did was make them all white saviors. Aka valid growth in the eyes of indiscriminate white readers who are desperate to applaud anyone who "helps those less fortunate."
Here are some nice Reconstruction-Era archetypes that make an appearance in this novel: The staple former slave who's
Spoiler
beaten to deathSpoiler
death of a family member and then get thrown in jail and almost hanged for no reasonSpoiler
almost hangedSpoiler
die so that the almost hanged former slave can live
4.5 There were passages in this book that were very difficult to read because Harris has a gift for writing such realistic scenes. The setting, the language, the climate and so many other aspects, were so vivid. The story itself is one of heartbreak and hope. What a talent we have in Nathan Harris.
This (just) post-civil war novel brings together George Walker, an aging gentleman who lives in two-story "cabin" outside of Old Ox, Georgia, and brothers Prentiss and Landry - formerly enslaved by George's neighbor, Ted Morton, now camping on George's land. George is wealthy by local standards as he inherited a lot of land. He's a cipher to the locals, the son of Northerners, progressive in his thinking, a bit of a studious dreamer, talkative without giving away too much and with no need to work. Isobel, his wife is similarly considered a strange bird. George does their cooking. She has some roses but tends them sporadically. She knits. She cleans house, but she also is dreamer. Neither considered marriage seriously till they found each other. George and Isobel have one son, Caleb, who left home to fight for the Confederacy, largely to be beside his lifelong friend, August Webler.
The Sweetness of Water is both a lovely book and a painful book, which makes sense when freedom and individuality are hard won and resented all around by those favoring the status quo. Every character in this book is richly drawn. Likewise, the many relationships, informed by childhood trauma, by tradition, by wealth, by poverty, by biology are painstakingly and wonderfully portrayed. Throughout, we learn the intricacies of a marriage that works... kind of .. between two strong, appealing but uncommunicative people, with unconventional interests. Their innermost thoughts and beliefs about one another and their caring is strong, yet they do not really understand the other. Does one ever understand one's partner?
Prentiss and Landry, formerly enslaved on a cotton plantation by Morton, a violent master, are as close as people can get. They only have each other. Morton sold their mother when she could no longer serve him usefully. Each is the holder of the other's childhood, one more traumatic than the other but hard to say what that means under the circumstances. Landry is silent and often off in his own world while Prentiss is notably bright, an excellent observer of human nature, suitably cautious while learning to actually speak his thoughts and make plans for the future. He practices some ideas on George but he also knows to keep his own counsel. George is practicing too, at being a farmer. He has tried on so many failing ideas in the past, that this venture is suspect from the start. Meanwhile, because the town is aware George and Isobel have been friendly to the brothers, animosity grows against them. Where once they were just odd, now they may be enemies.
Caleb and August are best friends in an unequal relationship, each profoundly shaped and affected by their fathers. Mr Webler is coarse and harsh. George is absent even when he's present. George's only friends seem to be his father's best friend and a woman of the night who listens to him tell her his deepest thoughts. Isobel's best friend, a widow, supports her in the face of others' rejections or confusion about how to be with Isobel. One doesn't always speak plainly in the South, where we all know "bless your heart" does not mean "bless your heart." That was even truer post-Civil war with the conventions of social interactions well-defined. Acceptable behavior didn't include fraternizing with formerly enslaved people. The town of Old Ox is itself a character. I love when places come alive in such a way that I can imagine the streets, who is walking near me, the smell of horse manure and sawdust from the lumberyard and food from the taverns. Union forces are there, but not yet the serious enforcers and certainly not the carpetbaggers. Change is in the air. Tempers run hot.
Ultimately, The Sweetness of Water is about a group of interconnected people, formerly enslaved people, former slaveholders, miscellaneous townspeople (with various degrees of standing and power), Union army occupiers, poor people, rich people, returned Confederate soldiers, all faced with uncertainty beyond anything they ever dreamed possible. It's a slice of what might have happened in a small town and rural area the year after the war ended. It is about good and evil, pettiness and generosity, gratitude and meanness. There is no definitive resolution to most of the individual stories, which was disconcerting at first. But I found I had a a deep satisfaction in thinking and thinking about each person's fate. Harris gives enough to suggest where folks are headed in life and how their post-war experiences shaped their destinies.
I read this as an audio book. William DeMerritt read it and his work was prize-worthy! His voicing of the characters was spot on, timing, phrasing and emphasis were perfect. I'm going to actively look for his reading.
The Sweetness of Water is both a lovely book and a painful book, which makes sense when freedom and individuality are hard won and resented all around by those favoring the status quo. Every character in this book is richly drawn. Likewise, the many relationships, informed by childhood trauma, by tradition, by wealth, by poverty, by biology are painstakingly and wonderfully portrayed. Throughout, we learn the intricacies of a marriage that works... kind of .. between two strong, appealing but uncommunicative people, with unconventional interests. Their innermost thoughts and beliefs about one another and their caring is strong, yet they do not really understand the other. Does one ever understand one's partner?
Prentiss and Landry, formerly enslaved on a cotton plantation by Morton, a violent master, are as close as people can get. They only have each other. Morton sold their mother when she could no longer serve him usefully. Each is the holder of the other's childhood, one more traumatic than the other but hard to say what that means under the circumstances. Landry is silent and often off in his own world while Prentiss is notably bright, an excellent observer of human nature, suitably cautious while learning to actually speak his thoughts and make plans for the future. He practices some ideas on George but he also knows to keep his own counsel. George is practicing too, at being a farmer. He has tried on so many failing ideas in the past, that this venture is suspect from the start. Meanwhile, because the town is aware George and Isobel have been friendly to the brothers, animosity grows against them. Where once they were just odd, now they may be enemies.
Caleb and August are best friends in an unequal relationship, each profoundly shaped and affected by their fathers. Mr Webler is coarse and harsh. George is absent even when he's present. George's only friends seem to be his father's best friend and a woman of the night who listens to him tell her his deepest thoughts. Isobel's best friend, a widow, supports her in the face of others' rejections or confusion about how to be with Isobel. One doesn't always speak plainly in the South, where we all know "bless your heart" does not mean "bless your heart." That was even truer post-Civil war with the conventions of social interactions well-defined. Acceptable behavior didn't include fraternizing with formerly enslaved people. The town of Old Ox is itself a character. I love when places come alive in such a way that I can imagine the streets, who is walking near me, the smell of horse manure and sawdust from the lumberyard and food from the taverns. Union forces are there, but not yet the serious enforcers and certainly not the carpetbaggers. Change is in the air. Tempers run hot.
Ultimately, The Sweetness of Water is about a group of interconnected people, formerly enslaved people, former slaveholders, miscellaneous townspeople (with various degrees of standing and power), Union army occupiers, poor people, rich people, returned Confederate soldiers, all faced with uncertainty beyond anything they ever dreamed possible. It's a slice of what might have happened in a small town and rural area the year after the war ended. It is about good and evil, pettiness and generosity, gratitude and meanness. There is no definitive resolution to most of the individual stories, which was disconcerting at first. But I found I had a a deep satisfaction in thinking and thinking about each person's fate. Harris gives enough to suggest where folks are headed in life and how their post-war experiences shaped their destinies.
I read this as an audio book. William DeMerritt read it and his work was prize-worthy! His voicing of the characters was spot on, timing, phrasing and emphasis were perfect. I'm going to actively look for his reading.
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
In the past 18 months I've tried to read to learn intentionally about my racism, biases, and about the oppression of people. I've learned so much about the world's horrifying and basically, default,
setting of hate and systemic murder.
Fiction continues to be the best teacher for me; I'm a fairly curious student of didactic learning, but the STORY is still what connects me. I don't know if that's anti-academic, or unsophisticated, or naive, or what. But this small (in the grand scheme of things, huge in its place in America's shameful history) story is so powerful and to think it's a debut novel is astounding.
Think about this quiet observation, about a newly freedman. How enslaved people in some ways never got a chance to even be who they were:
... the blossoming of his personality under the proper circumstances.
Do we as enlightened people even think of how the chains of slavery, poverty, political oppression, fascism actually suppress who people even *are* at their core? That we can be whoever we like, with not one thought about that? This book is filled with really quiet words like that, that hit me a microsecond after I read them.
setting of hate and systemic murder.
Fiction continues to be the best teacher for me; I'm a fairly curious student of didactic learning, but the STORY is still what connects me. I don't know if that's anti-academic, or unsophisticated, or naive, or what. But this small (in the grand scheme of things, huge in its place in America's shameful history) story is so powerful and to think it's a debut novel is astounding.
Think about this quiet observation, about a newly freedman. How enslaved people in some ways never got a chance to even be who they were:
... the blossoming of his personality under the proper circumstances.
Do we as enlightened people even think of how the chains of slavery, poverty, political oppression, fascism actually suppress who people even *are* at their core? That we can be whoever we like, with not one thought about that? This book is filled with really quiet words like that, that hit me a microsecond after I read them.
Started reading this on Juneteenth (fitting coincidence). Very richly written characters and striking story.
challenging
emotional
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
A tragic, character-driven narrative about two brothers (former slaves) attempting to forge a new life of freedom, with a shared history of trauma and abuse that's never far from their memories. Prentiss is eager to put some distance between himself and the Georgian town of his youth but his brother, Landry, is finding such peace in the woods and lakes that he's never had the luxury to explore, so they'll stay on for just a bit longer. (Which, of course, develops into a horrific outcome)
There's a temptation to characterize a small-minded, bigoted Southern town as a cliche, as other reviewers have - but it's not that simple. The foundational culture of the Southern states heavily relied on their continued control and domination of slave labor. The fear of losing their free workforce, the ensuing financial struggle to pay enough workers to maintain a profitable venture, the seething rage at being forced to make such changes by outsiders - these are not cliches; this was reality. And it made for brutally dangerous interactions and still does.
If a reader only sees this as historical fiction, they're missing half the point. In many ways, things haven't changed enough. This fear and rage are still very much alive. Don't let yourself complacently focus on "how it was back then" or you've missed the power of it. This isn't the past - this is perhaps an origin story - that is still being written today.
There's a temptation to characterize a small-minded, bigoted Southern town as a cliche, as other reviewers have - but it's not that simple. The foundational culture of the Southern states heavily relied on their continued control and domination of slave labor. The fear of losing their free workforce, the ensuing financial struggle to pay enough workers to maintain a profitable venture, the seething rage at being forced to make such changes by outsiders - these are not cliches; this was reality. And it made for brutally dangerous interactions and still does.
If a reader only sees this as historical fiction, they're missing half the point. In many ways, things haven't changed enough. This fear and rage are still very much alive. Don't let yourself complacently focus on "how it was back then" or you've missed the power of it. This isn't the past - this is perhaps an origin story - that is still being written today.
Georgia, soon after the Emancipation Proclamation. We meet George and Isabelle, a middle-aged couple living outside a small town, and two Black brothers whom George befriends, Prentiss and Landry, embarking on a fresh life as freedmen. Something awful happens that forces these people to confront who they are and who they'll be in the future. The main characters are drawn exquisitely. Remarkably, Nathan Harris also creates believable portraits of a half dozen other supporting characters in a few paragraphs or pages, like George's father's best friend, a busybody woman with a penchant for offending everyone who nonetheless is a great friend to Isabelle (my fave), a PTSD-afflicted officer of the law, many others. This is the author's first novel and I look forward to his next.