Take a photo of a barcode or cover
midici 's review for:
Washington Black
by Esi Edugyan
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
~Spoilers~
I'm having a really hard time rating this book. First, the prose is beautiful. The way Edugyan writes is so evocative and paints such a picture in my mind. I was really hooked into the story right in the beginning, and I loved the first two sections. We get to know Wash and his relationship to Kit and their life on the plantation, and we get introduced to Titch who ends up catapulting Wash into a totally new life.
Through Titch, Wash has a chance to explore talents and abilities as his 'assistant.' He's still enslaved, but he learns to read, do mathematics and measurements, and most importantly, learns to sketch which is something he has a rare talent for. He spends over a year with Titch, helping him with his scientific endeavours, before tragedy strikes and they both flee the plantation.
I like the sequence where they're running away to the Arctic - Titch definitely is in over his head, and Wash is experiencing so many new things for the first time in his life, and he's also on the run with a $1000 bounty on his head. It definitely feels fast-paced and has almost a quest-like aspect as they try to discover if Titch's father is still alive.
It's the second two sections of this book where I lose some of the intense interest the first two sections brought. His life in Nova Scotia is hard and it makes sense - he's scared, he's focused on survival, he has no time for art, or science, or beautiful things. But he slowly begins trying to change his life to make it something he can be proud of. He meets Geoff and his daughter Tanna, and suddenly there is science and art and beauty in his life again. But his joy is offset by his continuing paranoia, and I found his confrontation with Willard wasn't at all what I was expecting. He was menacing in the pub but the attack afterwards didn't feel like a resolution.
Wash journeys to England with Geoff and Tanna and he works with Geoff to make his dream of an ocean exhibit with live specimens into a reality. But unlike in his earlier work with Titch, Wash is plagued with doubts and is obsessed with finding Titch and confronting his past.
I don't mind the idea of Wash needing to confront the past in order to move forward with his life, but instead of a resolution it becomes a loop. In the Arctic, Titch confronts his father, a man he is obsessed with impressing and who's love and pride he desperately wants and feels he can't have. He walks into a snowstorm and is believed dead. Wash rediscovers Titch in Morocco and realizes that Titch has become like his father - he has not spent that much time considering what happened to Wash, is not fully cognizant of any wrongs he might have done to him, and has been preoccupied with his scientific endeavours. Wash, who has a woman who loves him and a groundbreaking exhibit about to unfold back in England, walks into a sandstorm at the end of the book.
I thought he would be confronting his past so he could truly be free but instead it felt as though he mirrored Titch instead of becoming his own person or breaking the cycle. It definitely left me with mixed feelings on the plot despite the lovely writing.
I'm having a really hard time rating this book. First, the prose is beautiful. The way Edugyan writes is so evocative and paints such a picture in my mind. I was really hooked into the story right in the beginning, and I loved the first two sections. We get to know Wash and his relationship to Kit and their life on the plantation, and we get introduced to Titch who ends up catapulting Wash into a totally new life.
Through Titch, Wash has a chance to explore talents and abilities as his 'assistant.' He's still enslaved, but he learns to read, do mathematics and measurements, and most importantly, learns to sketch which is something he has a rare talent for. He spends over a year with Titch, helping him with his scientific endeavours, before tragedy strikes and they both flee the plantation.
I like the sequence where they're running away to the Arctic - Titch definitely is in over his head, and Wash is experiencing so many new things for the first time in his life, and he's also on the run with a $1000 bounty on his head. It definitely feels fast-paced and has almost a quest-like aspect as they try to discover if Titch's father is still alive.
It's the second two sections of this book where I lose some of the intense interest the first two sections brought. His life in Nova Scotia is hard and it makes sense - he's scared, he's focused on survival, he has no time for art, or science, or beautiful things. But he slowly begins trying to change his life to make it something he can be proud of. He meets Geoff and his daughter Tanna, and suddenly there is science and art and beauty in his life again. But his joy is offset by his continuing paranoia, and I found his confrontation with Willard wasn't at all what I was expecting. He was menacing in the pub but the attack afterwards didn't feel like a resolution.
Wash journeys to England with Geoff and Tanna and he works with Geoff to make his dream of an ocean exhibit with live specimens into a reality. But unlike in his earlier work with Titch, Wash is plagued with doubts and is obsessed with finding Titch and confronting his past.
I don't mind the idea of Wash needing to confront the past in order to move forward with his life, but instead of a resolution it becomes a loop. In the Arctic, Titch confronts his father, a man he is obsessed with impressing and who's love and pride he desperately wants and feels he can't have. He walks into a snowstorm and is believed dead. Wash rediscovers Titch in Morocco and realizes that Titch has become like his father - he has not spent that much time considering what happened to Wash, is not fully cognizant of any wrongs he might have done to him, and has been preoccupied with his scientific endeavours. Wash, who has a woman who loves him and a groundbreaking exhibit about to unfold back in England, walks into a sandstorm at the end of the book.
I thought he would be confronting his past so he could truly be free but instead it felt as though he mirrored Titch instead of becoming his own person or breaking the cycle. It definitely left me with mixed feelings on the plot despite the lovely writing.