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A review by gingerellaj
The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
4.0
I received this book as an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own.
In pre-civil war 18th century Virginia, we meet Hiram (Hi) Walker on a tobacco plantation named Lockless. The story centres on Hi's journey as a young man born into slavery, fathered by the plantation-owner, and the impact of his extraordinary powers of memory and intelligence.
Coates' poetic language and the imagery he creates immediately drew me in and transported me directly to Lockless. All of the characters were intriguing and sufficiently developed for me to understand their place in Hiram's story. Other reviews have discussed the somewhat meandering nature of Hiram's journey and this being a negative but for me, this was a positive. The book was just that: a meandering journey, which seemed to me a reflection of the time. During times of slavery, people's journeys rarely fit a story 'template' with a distinct beginning, middle and end with clearly-defined points or characters on a straight line. I can imagine it was a time that created disruption and confusion, torn and repaired connections, twists and turns, all taking place over limited time spans or stretching over decades, for completely unjustifiable reasons. This was what kept me intrigued and kept me reading, eagerly anticipating what might happen. All of that said, there was a section roughly three quarters of the way through where the story felt particularly as if it were in free fall and that was slightly disorientating.
There is a fantasy element to this story and when it appeared, I was definitely surprised and was unsure how Coates might weave this in with the factual underpinnings of The Underground Railroad but I was not disappointed to have it threaded in! Others have mentioned that there are many other books that have focussed on the brutality of slavery -- of which this book does not shy away from either -- but having this shimmering lightness to the dark that is slavery lifted it to a magical level for me.
I'm sad to say I'd not heard of Coates until now and so wasn't aware that this was his debit fiction novel and that he'd previously only written non-fiction. The factual details really supported the development of the story, and reading the authors' note at the end has placed The Underground Railroad Records: Narrating the Hardships, Hairbreadth Escapes, and Death Struggles of Slaves in Their Efforts for Freedom by William Still firmly on my 'to read' list.
Overall, this book really drew me in and I didn't really want it to end: I wanted to learn more about what happens to Hi. It only lost that last star for some story freefall part-way through and ending too soon. I would absolutely read Coates' next novel!
In pre-civil war 18th century Virginia, we meet Hiram (Hi) Walker on a tobacco plantation named Lockless. The story centres on Hi's journey as a young man born into slavery, fathered by the plantation-owner, and the impact of his extraordinary powers of memory and intelligence.
Coates' poetic language and the imagery he creates immediately drew me in and transported me directly to Lockless. All of the characters were intriguing and sufficiently developed for me to understand their place in Hiram's story. Other reviews have discussed the somewhat meandering nature of Hiram's journey and this being a negative but for me, this was a positive. The book was just that: a meandering journey, which seemed to me a reflection of the time. During times of slavery, people's journeys rarely fit a story 'template' with a distinct beginning, middle and end with clearly-defined points or characters on a straight line. I can imagine it was a time that created disruption and confusion, torn and repaired connections, twists and turns, all taking place over limited time spans or stretching over decades, for completely unjustifiable reasons. This was what kept me intrigued and kept me reading, eagerly anticipating what might happen. All of that said, there was a section roughly three quarters of the way through where the story felt particularly as if it were in free fall and that was slightly disorientating.
There is a fantasy element to this story and when it appeared, I was definitely surprised and was unsure how Coates might weave this in with the factual underpinnings of The Underground Railroad but I was not disappointed to have it threaded in! Others have mentioned that there are many other books that have focussed on the brutality of slavery -- of which this book does not shy away from either -- but having this shimmering lightness to the dark that is slavery lifted it to a magical level for me.
I'm sad to say I'd not heard of Coates until now and so wasn't aware that this was his debit fiction novel and that he'd previously only written non-fiction. The factual details really supported the development of the story, and reading the authors' note at the end has placed The Underground Railroad Records: Narrating the Hardships, Hairbreadth Escapes, and Death Struggles of Slaves in Their Efforts for Freedom by William Still firmly on my 'to read' list.
Overall, this book really drew me in and I didn't really want it to end: I wanted to learn more about what happens to Hi. It only lost that last star for some story freefall part-way through and ending too soon. I would absolutely read Coates' next novel!