Recent Reviews
The Sweetness of Water
‘The Sweetness of Water’ by Nathan Harris is an erudite depiction of a small Georgian town turned upside down after the Civil War. In the fictitious town of Old Ox, the white community viciously resists slavery’s end. Without dismantling oppressive social structures, the freedom of former slaves was limited; the seeds of Jim Crow were planted. The dialogue between the characters is filled with palpable tension and glimpses of hope. ‘The Sweetness of Water’ was on the 2021 Booker Prize Long List, President Obama’s 2021 Favorite Book List as well as Oprah’s Book Club selection for June 2021. A gifted writer, Nathan Harris was only 29 years old when this book was published!
George Walker is the primary protagonist. Born in the North, he never embraced the culture of the South. He and his wife Isabelle live on a farm on the outskirts of a fictitious town called Old Ox. The Civil War has ended, and they believe their son Caleb, who fought for the confederacy, is dead. They are bereft. One day, George encounters two former slaves named Landry and Prentiss. The brothers have fled the cruel plantation adjacent to the Walker farm and begun walking toward a new life. What that life will look like, they are not sure. When asked about their plans, Prentiss says, “It’s just nice. To be left alone for a time.” He also states that they want to find their mother, who had been sold. When George offers to pay the brothers a fair wage to help him farm his land, they accept. They will need money for their upcoming journey.
Miraculously, George and Isabelle’s son Caleb is alive and returns home. He joins his father, Landry, and Prentiss, in farming the land. When the townspeople hear that two black men and two white men are working side by side, they are enraged. They feel the Walkers have betrayed the existing social order. Though initially, the townspeople show perfunctory politeness toward the Walkers, there is smoldering resentment.
Like our current times, the people of Old Ox cling to the social hierarchy that puts white men at the top and treats Blacks, gays, women, and other minorities cruelly and unjustly. When a crime is committed that involves the Walkers, the white community doubles down on their racist rhetoric and actions. They believe a price should be paid for white folks who treat Blacks as equals.
Other themes pulse through the story: Caleb’s homosexual relationship with his best friend, the intimacies and distance in the Walker marriage, and the dignity of the freed brothers who have endured so much suffering. Though fewer characters would have made the story a bit crisper, Harris’ writing is quiet, and effective.
The horrid injustices experienced by Black Americans persist 150 years after the Civil War. And though progress has been made, calls for an official apology have been met with hostility. A movement exists to erase the mention of slavery and racism from our history. As Harris states, “The present thunders on while the past is a wound untended, unstitched, felt but never healed.” His book can inspire us to acknowledge the past in order to move toward a better future. 4/5
Falling to Earth by Kate Southwood
I read Kate Southwood’s ‘Falling To Earth’ over a year ago, and this novel's power has stayed with me. I am in awe of Southwood’s beautiful writing and the cadence of this mesmerizing story. This dramatic story is like reading a tragedy from Shakespeare. Heartbreak awaits you, but you keep reading because Shakespeare’s writing and observations will penetrate your being.
The tragedy Southwood writes about in ‘Falling to Earth’ is twofold. On March 18, 1925, an actual tornado whipped through Illinois, Indiana and Missouri. It was one of the worst tornados in our country’s history and is now called the Tri-State Tornado. This day is the starting point from where Southwood begins her fiction, in a small town called Marah, Illinois. The tornado destroys buildings and people, including a schoolhouse full of children. With so much destruction and loss, the townspeople are overwrought and bereft.
Paul Graves and his wife Mae live in March with their three children and Paul’s mother Lavinia. By some miracle, the Graves family escapes the tornado’s devastation. Their house is untouched, and their children are unharmed. They have done nothing wrong but survive. The story's second tragedy is the community’s reaction to Paul and Mae’s good fortune. Though Paul and Mae work hard to help their neighbors clean up and rebuild, the townspeople with whom they have been friendly, slowly turn against them. A collective but uncoordinated desire for Paul Graves's family to suffer takes hold. This small, tormented town of 1925 becomes snarled in superstitions and small-mindedness. With silent shunning and petty cruelties, they blame the Graves family for escaping the catastrophe. At some level, these former neighbors and friends come to believe that if the Graves family suffers, their grief will be soothed.
This book is a wise meditation on grief. Southwood’s depiction of this dreadful dynamic is well depicted. The novel’s pacing is slow, which makes the action more suspenseful. The story encompasses the rawness of human emotions.
Southwood’s writing is precise with poetic flourishes that pack an emotional punch. More importantly, Southwood’s psychological insight into human emotions and behavior is subtly and superbly delivered. ‘Falling to Earth’ teaches how grief can ricochet, even striking undeserving victims. 5/5
Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro
Dani Shapiro’s newest book ‘Signal Fires’ has burrowed deep inside of me. The novel is thoughtful, spiritual, ethereal, psychological and even transcendent. Its power is not in the specific story line, but the existential questions Shapiro explores. She tackles the circular nature of time, the many selves inside each of us, the psychological impact of not processing trauma, the magic of serendipity and the enduring presence of all people (dead or alive) in our universe. Like time itself, this novel moves from the present to the past with hints of the future, providing richness and depth to the story.
The book begins in 1985. Teenage siblings Sarah and Theo Wilf are driving their friend Misty Zimmerman home. They have been drinking. When the car crashes near the Wilf house, their father, Ben Wilf, who is a doctor, runs outside. His children are uninjured, but Misty is dead. That night, an unspoken agreement is made between Ben, his wife Mimi and their two teens. They will never speak about what happened or how they feel, a pact that persists for decades. “Sarah sometimes wonders whether talking would have been better. Silence didn’t make it go away but instead drove the events of that night more deeply into each of them.”
Shapiro allows us to enter the emotional lives of these characters in the aftermath of their trauma. And though the characters reflect privately on the horror of that night, they mostly move forward weighted down by their guilt. Consciously and unconsciously they make decisions that alter the trajectories of their lives. “There is no straight line. Memory, history - things that happened fifteen years ago or fifty are as alive now as if they had just happened or are about to happen.”
After Sarah and Theo are grown and moved away, a young couple moves across the street. One evening, Ben hears the husband calling out. His wife is in labor and the ambulance has not arrived. Ben races to the house and delivers the infant who the couple names Waldo. Over time, Ben and Waldo become close. The novel shows how random connections can affect our lives in profound ways. Waldo becomes an astrophysicist and shares commentary about the stars and space, adding another dimension to the story. But the novel’s primary focus is on the repercussions of trauma. Every person responds differently to tragedy . But holding onto painful secrets can have dire consequences. “Unexpressed, they will wind their way through and around each of them like vines choking a strand of untended trees.”
The story is a meditation of love and loss, grief and trauma and eventually about healing and hope. I applaud Shapiro’s ambitious exploration of these themes. Though the story is heavy, its intensity is offset by moments of illumination and insight. ‘Signal Fires’ is a novel is infused with humanity and spirituality. I highly recommend. 5/5
