The Water Dancer (Oprah's Book Club): A Novel

by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Hardcover, 2019

Status

Available

Call number

813.6

Genres

Collection

Your library

Publication

One World (2019), Edition: First Edition, 416 pages

Description

"Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage--and lost his mother and all memory of her when he was a child--but he is also gifted with a mysterious power. Hiram almost drowns when he crashes a carriage into a river, but is saved from the depths by a force he doesn't understand, a blue light that lifts him up and lands him a mile away. This strange brush with death forces a new urgency on Hiram's private rebellion. Spurred on by his improvised plantation family, Thena, his chosen mother, a woman of few words and many secrets, and Sophia, a young woman fighting her own war even as she and Hiram fall in love, he becomes determined to escape the only home he's ever known. So begins an unexpected journey into the covert war on slavery that takes Hiram from the corrupt grandeur of Virginia's proud plantations to desperate guerrilla cells in the wilderness, from the coffin of the deep South to dangerously utopic movements in the North. Even as he's enlisted in the underground war between slavers and the enslaved, all Hiram wants is to return to the Walker Plantation to free the family he left behind--but to do so, he must first master his magical gift and reconstruct the story of his greatest loss. This is a bracingly original vision of the world of slavery, written with the narrative force of a great adventure. Driven by the author's bold imagination and striking ability to bring readers deep into the interior lives of his brilliantly rendered characters, The Water Dancer is the story of America's oldest struggle--the struggle to tell the truth--from one of our most exciting thinkers and beautiful writers"--… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Narshkite

Sigh. I wanted to like this. It is objectively good. This is a theoretically emotionally resonant story that is both personal and of universal import and it felt very feminist as well, which is rare for books written by men that are not specifically about feminism. The prose is sharp and clear. The

historical detail is rich and accurate. And maybe its me but I don't feel enriched by the read. I learned nothing new about the period, or my country or myself. I think it echoed stories beautifully covered by other writers (Colson Whitehead and Toni Morrison most obviously.) I am not by any means saying that lots more writing about slavery or the underground railroad cannot be done. There are piles of books I love that are about repressed WASPs, neurotic Jews, Asians crushed under the heel of community and family expectations and unyielding norms, Russians/Soviets done in by by oppression, and soldiers forever damaged by the invisible toll of war. What I am saying is if you are going to write about something that has already been written about, and written about well, you need to say something new, something surprising, or you need to provide the reader with a lens she has not had access to before. This just did not do that. If Coates had let us to know Hiram outside of his sense of duty and his unique intellect and forbearance, to know his heart (before the final few pages) this review would likely have been different. Also,, Coates presents things very objectively, I never felt like I was seeing things as Hiram saw them, just as they were, without impact or perspective. I also don't think the magical realism was deployed well. I cop to not being a fan of the device in general, but having said that there are books where I have loved it -- The Underground Railroad, Swamplandia, The Master and Margarita, and others are favorites of mine. Maybe because Coates did not commit fully to making it work, maybe because it wasn't necessary, maybe because it diminished the real courage and hard work of Harriet Tubman and others who risked all to bring people out of bondage, for whatever reason it felt less like a narrative device, and more like a cop out for explaining things that didn't work in the story. I dunno, for me it was a slog, though I am not sure why, and I understand why others like it. For now though, I think I have to count myself as one who far prefers Coates' nonfiction to his fiction.

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LibraryThing member jmchshannon

There is no way I am going to be able to do justice to The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates. It not only is a gorgeous story of survival, family, and love but also a story that forces you to rethink everything you knew about slavery. With prose that makes you wish you had his skill with a pen, The

Water Dancer haunts you long after you finish.

Some people might catalog The Water Dancer into a Magical Realism category simply because of Hiram’s special powers, and you can make a good argument for it. However, given the origins of that power and the history behind it, to me, his power is one more element of his character and a reminder of the traditions of all the enslaved, something that most novels all-too-easily forget.

Another striking aspect of The Water Dancer is the verbiage used to describe the enslaved. Mr. Coates does use the term slaves every once in a while, but mostly when describing the relationship as it pertains to white people. When discussing himself or his family, Hiram mostly uses the word Tasked rather than slaves or the enslaved and The Task in lieu of slavery. It is a simple change but one that has huge ramifications for the way you see Hiram and his family. The usage of that one word forces you to recognize their family bonds as well as their humanity. It makes you recognize all of the Tasked as individual people on a level that is easy to ignore when someone uses the word slave. This is my first time experiencing such a profound shift in thinking about this time period and truly looking at it for what it was.

The Water Dancer is the perfect novel to usher you into a growing awareness of the insidiousness of white supremacy for anyone wanting to educate themselves and work towards becoming anti-racist. Mr. Coates’ lessons are palatable, made even more so by his storytelling and the vibrancy of his characters. More than that, The Water Dancer is a damn good story about the Underground Railroad and the risks all participants faced as well as one that puts a personal spin on the trauma that comes with the separation of families that was the everyday life of the Tasked. The Water Dancer is one of the most human novels I have read in a very long time.

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LibraryThing member g33kgrrl

Oh Ta-Nehisi Coates. How happy I am that you're writing. I was a fan of your blog before you moved to the Atlantic, and you said you almost gave up on being a writer. We would all be poorer for it. I've been faithfully following your blogging and your long-form fiction, and it's informed how I view

so many things and how I think about history, the current day, and even my city of Chicago. I am thrilled to read your novel. It's due to your influence I've read more about the Civil War and I can see the influence of primary sources in your account. I know what research went into this book, and appreciate it very much. I love the story itself, but it was just so enriched by the details of the era.

I enjoyed getting to know Hiram, Thena, Sophia, and everyone else in this story. I really appreciated Hiram's journey to understanding Sophia. I love how the touch of magical realism was folded into the realistic story and the historical figures.

Thank you to the publisher, from whom I received a free electronic ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review (although I also preordered a physical copy - but I love being able to read easily on my kindle as well!).

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LibraryThing member Beth.Clarke

“The masters could not bring water to boil, harness to horse or strap their own drawers without us. We were better than them. We had to be. Sloth was literal death for us, while for them it was the whole ambition of their lives.”

Coates writes a spell-binding novel about slavery and the

underground railroad. He is able to take a tale told many times and add a splash of magic realism that makes it fresh and a whole different experience for readers. When Moses, Harriet Tubman, comes into the story, it's charming.

After finishing the novel, a friend pointed out the historical inaccuracies, however, being unaware of these while reading didn't alter my enjoyment. I enjoy Coates' writing and will happily pick up more of his work.

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LibraryThing member DidIReallyReadThat

I really wanted to like this book but I admit I have a difficult relationship with magical realism. Sometimes it works for me but many times it doesn't. In this book, the magical realism did not work; I really could not see the point of it and how it moved the plot forward. It seemed like it was

thrown in with really no connection to the main plot.

The story of the main character was interesting. The language, at times, was quite beautiful and did a good job of reflecting the way people thought and talked. One of my pet peeves with some writing; I dislike oblique references that make me try to guess what exactly just happened. This happened a few times in the book where I was left wondering what the significance of certain passages were. ( I did not understand that Ms. Quinn was running the Underground until a few pages after the revelation.)

Nonetheless, it was interesting to see black slavery from a different point of view and some of the characters were quite memorable. An average book.

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LibraryThing member lisally

The Water Dancer is two things: first, it is a story of the horrors of slavery and how racist institutions harm all of society; second, it is a superhero origin story.

Coates writes wonderfully, as expected, and much of the story is full of beautiful language and painful descriptions. Some of it is

a bit heavy handed at times, but the writing more than makes up for it.

The biggest issue is with the fantasy elements; while intriguing, they just aren't woven into the story very well. As mentioned earlier, Hiram's story falls somewhat into the superhero archetype: protagonist comes into power, faces villainy, has desire to protect loved ones, eventually embraces power and saves the day.

Hiram's power is that of Conduction, the ability to use water and memory to essentially teleport. There's some fascinating ideas here, but these seemed lost in a rather traditional narrative about the ills of slavery and the underground railroad. One example of wasted potential comes in the idea of memory and objects. Hiram notably has an eidetic memory, but can't remember anything of his mother. When this memory is restored it feels like this should be a revelation, but there weren't enough hints to this woven into the rest of the story.

I also wasn't a fan of how Coates handled Hiram's mentor in Conduction, in this case none other than Harriet Tubman. I'm generally not a fan of making historical figures into fictional characters, although the portrayal here is fairly respectful. I'm just not sure if giving "Moses" superpowers diminishes her at all-Harriet Tubman was already a badass.

Perhaps I as a reader was hoping for the fantasy aspect to play a bigger role. I was hoping the story would build to Harriet and Hiram going full alternate history superhero on the evils of slavery. Coates, to his credit, is not so reductive in his depictions, but the story felt anticlimactic in this regard.

I'm still glad I read this though, and I look forward to Ta-Nehisi Coates' next foray into fiction.

A review copy was provided by the publisher.

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LibraryThing member Cariola

Coates is well known for his essays and two non-fiction works about race in America; this is his first novel. It takes place in the 1840s in Virginia. Young Hiram Walker, a slave, has a photographic memory, but can't remember his mother, who was sold off to a Natchez plantation. Traumatized, he is

taken in by a reclusive slave woman whose family was also sold into "the coffin" of the Deep South. Hi's owner, who also happens to be his father, eventually assigns moves him to the main house and initially believes that he will be treated as a son when he joins his half-brother, Maynard, for lessons. But eventually he is pulled from the classroom and assigned to guard Maynard and keep him out of trouble. One night, as he is driving a trap with his brother and a "lady friend" over a bridge, Hi believes he sees the spirit of his mother doing the water dance, and they are all thrown into the speeding river. Miraculously, Hi escapes, and stories start to spread that he has supernatural powers. This draws the attention of members of the Underground Railroad who conscript him into their cause and help him to escape to Philadelphia where he learns, under the tutelage of Harriet Tubman, to control his gift for "Conduction,"a mystical process whereby he can transport slaves from one place to another. Even though he has escaped to the North, Hi is determined to return to Virginia and conduct his adoptive mother and the woman he loves to safety.

I found the story interesting, but I am not a big fan of magical realism, and I think it took something away from the struggle against slavery. As another reader mentioned, it seemed to diminish all that Tubman accomplished by making it reliant on magic. I would much rather have read about what really happened. Guess I will have to go see the new movie, "Harriet," to find out.

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LibraryThing member ozzer

This is an excellent portrayal of the lives of slaves prior to the Civil War. The physical abuse and demeaning conditions have been extensively documented by others. However, the strength of this novel is its depiction of the psychological pain that derived from a system that saw humans as property

to be bought and sold without regard to familial bonds. With Hiram's internal monologue, Coates is able to express feelings that were kept hidden and suppressed by most slaves.

Coates was inspired by the many stories of escape to the North. This part of the narrative is particularly effective, however, a more realistic (less mystical) handling of the underground railroad may have made for a more satisfying read. Undoubtedly, a mythology existed around prominent conductors like Harriet Tubman. Yet escape certainly was much more arduous, gritty, and dangerous than the walking on water, blue light in the fog, magical transportation that Coates depicts.

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LibraryThing member quondame

Slavery and the underground railway are handled with a distanced, non-sequential and party magical take in the tale of Hiram Walker as a young man growing as the tobacco plantation owned by his father falters and the other slaves are sold away and everything changes when the dissolute and

unacceptably crude brother to whom he has been in service drowns in an accident for which he may be responsible. I'm not sure how to feel about Harriet Tubman's accomplishments being ascribed somewhat to supernatural abilities.

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LibraryThing member msf59

“Time would come when gold would outweigh blood. But this was still Virginia of old, where a dubious God held that those who would offer a man for sale were somehow more honorable than those who effected that sale.”

Ta-Nehisi Coates turns to the horror of slavery for his first novel and this

should not be surprising, since his nonfiction, deals mainly with race issues, in many of it's forms. This is a gritty mix of violence and magic-realism, focusing on a young slave named Hiram Walker, who is also gifted with a mysterious power. The writing is strong and beautiful. It was heading toward a 5 star rating, from me, but about halfway, it began to bog down with it's own language, continuing to grind down the narrative with verbal passages, that would have fit better in an essay piece. I think Coates should take a lesson out of Colson Whitehead's playbook and keep the story tighter and closer to the bone. That said, this is still an admirable effort and one, I will recommend.

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LibraryThing member BooksForDinner

A fantastic debut novel by Coates. Loved the portrayal of Hiram's relationship with his father and brother, so wonderfully done. Such strong female characters throughout. This is one of the best book I've read in quite some time.

LibraryThing member booklove2

'Between the World and Me' is an essential book so I was eagerly waiting to see what the genius Mr. Coates would do with fiction, stepping away from the real. There is plenty of his unique perspective in 'The Water Dancer'. For example, separating Americans in the time of slavery as the Quality,

the Low and the Tasked and the way the horrible system feeds on itself is explained brilliantly by Mr. Coates. But I expected more of this kind of clear, visionary writing that Mr. Coates puts so well to paper, better than any other writer, as he does in 'Between the World and Me'. I certainly did not expect so much magical realism, or waiting for the magical realism to occur. I remembered a line from 'Between the World and Me': "But some time ago I rejected magic in all its forms." So including so much magic in his novel is unexpected to me. I think the histories of the people in 'The Water Dancer' are much more important than waiting for some magic to save them. I'm usually no fan of magical realism, especially as the book is filled with quite a number of people that actually existed in the past. However much Mr. Coates almost pulls the magic naturally from the history (that I won't explain here), like the genius yet obvious way Colson Whitehead makes 'The Underground Railroad' a real form of transportation. But that was making a metaphor of underground tunnels real for a novel: not magic. Despite the historical metaphors that seem ripe for a novel, much like Whitehead's 'The Underground Railroad', I think Coates is a strong enough writer that I would have liked a straightforward book without the magic much better, without so much hinging on it. But this might just be a personal issue I have with magical realism when it's used with history. Mr. Coates is a better writer of the Real and I don't think the magic is entirely necessary and certainly doesn't need to hinge so much on it. Even the characters that step on to the stage for a few pages have memorable necessary histories. The minor characters are one of the strengths to the book and much more important than the magic. There is nothing magical about slavery, so it's hard for me to understand the concept. Take the magic out of 'The Water Dancer' and everything here is FANTASTIC on it's own. The magic to the book could almost step in for that haunting reoccurring dream that the main character has of his incompetent half-brother as a baby holding a chain of slaves. The magic is the incompetent half-brother and the characters here are all chained to it.

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LibraryThing member managedbybooks

I went in to this knowing the topics were ones that would be difficult to read. I've read many of Coates' previous work in The Atlantic and he has always been able to write about such topics in a way that you are able to understand the deep emotions involved with out being too overwhelmed. He's

done it again with The Water Dancer. This book was masterfully written and really allows you to learn about the psychological implications and affects slavery had and continues to have on the black community. I don't have any personal experience with this and I don't know nearly enough about the topic, only what was taught in school, so this book was an eye-opener in a lot of ways.

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LibraryThing member villemezbrown

I really wanted to like this book, but like Coates' comic books, it was just wordy and dull. I need to stick to his nonfiction I guess.

The first 100 pages were particularly slow and just circle around on themselves in the story. I considered stopping, but plowed on as the middle section started to

pick up a bit. The ending though killed what little momentum the book had managed to build as it just sort of petered out.

My biggest problem with the book is it featured one of my pet peeves: selective amnesia. For most of the book we are told over and over again how the main character has photographic memory of everything in his life except of how he lost his mother. There was really no way the payoff of the reveal could offset my annoyance with the trope.

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LibraryThing member Doondeck

The realism of slavery and the mysticism of Hiram and Moses blend into a masterful tale of the Tasked and the Quality. What a great book.

LibraryThing member maryreinert

Set in Virginia in the 1800's a number of years before the Civil War, this novel tells not just the brutality of slavery but also the affect slavery had on the minds and emotions of all involved. There are three classes of people: the Quality, the Tasked, and the Low Whites who carry out the

details of slavery. Hiram is the son of the white plantation owner whose mother is gone but is raised by a slave woman named Thena; Hiram has an amazing ability to remember everything but has little memory of his mother. He becomes a kind of keeper to Maynard, the white son of the owner. Maynard and Hiram have an accident where Maynard is drowned but Hiram is miraculously saved by some unknown force.

Hiram and another slave, Sophia, attempt to escape believing to be helped by another slave but in reality are led into further brutality. Hiram is recaptured by a white woman, Corrine Quinn who was once engaged to Maynard and who is leading a double life: one as a proper southern lady and secondly as a shrewd and fanatical member of the Underground Railroad.

Eventually Hiram becomes a part of the Underground but it is questionable if this has led to freedom or another type of slavery. The character of Corrine Quinn is especially interesting as is the relationship between those enslaved and those who are working against it.

I was immediately pulled into this book and loved almost every bit of it. However, there were parts when a type of magical realism take over and I'm just not sure what is happening. The writing is beautiful, the relationship between the races, the goals of the Underground all add to the interest of this book. So many things happen, the results are not always what they appear to be. A really good writer.

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LibraryThing member haymaai

Like many who read the reviews of ‘The Water Dancer,’ awarding this novel superlative ratings, I was anxious to get my hands on a copy. But for me, the reality of reading this expansive novel with a huge cast of characters, was more difficult than I presumed it would be. On several occasions,

the plot seemed to dawdle along, so much so that I lapsed into boredom and actually had to take a break from it. But while this story about Hiram Walker, born of a slave mother and a White father who was the plantation owner of Lockless (Could ‘Lockless be a play on words?), Hiram discovers that he has a magical power of Conduction where he is able to transport himself to another place as a result of experiencing deep feelings.
To me, this novel depicts two factions of the Underground: 1) the faction led by Corrine Quinn, a wealthy White woman, who bears almost fanatical opposition to slavery, but is a brethern of the Quality Whites, and 2) the faction led by Moses or Harriet Tubman, consisting of Raymond White (Is this another play on words?) and his family, as well as assisted by Micajah Bland, or Mr. Fields as he is also called, Hiram’s white tutor. Corrine, as the power-wielding, egocentric abolitionist, works actively from a moral platform to destroy the chains binding all slaves, without realizing that she is really enslaving others through her lack of personal human empathy and her desire to control. While Bland is also White, he is courageous and altruistic, so much so, that he gives his life to try to save Otha’s wife Lydia and her two children.
While I was not an avid reader throughout the novel, this book was a worthy read, as it presented some thought-provoking ideas about slavery and man’s efforts to escape being enslaved. For that reason, I would probably give this work 3 ½ stars, and 3 stars on Goodreads.

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LibraryThing member PinkPurlandProse

Many thanks to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group and Ta-Nehisi Coates for an ARC in exchange for an honest book review of The Water Dancer. My opinions and thoughts are 100% my own and independent of receiving an advance copy.

This is a unique magical book that takes you on a journey. It is

going to be hard for me to describe it or at least do it justice. It was really an experience reading it. There is a concrete story and mixed in is magical realism. I am looking forward to hearing the discussions around this book. Oprah has named it her first pick for her new book club on the Apple platform. This isn’t something I normally join, but there is so much to unpack with this story, I would appreciate other people’s perspective, more than just reading people’s reviews.

Coates is a very talented writer, as proven in all of his writings. This is his first fiction novel and I certainly hope it isn’t his last. His writing is powerful. At first, I had a hard time understanding what was happening. There were words I didn’t understand, phrases I couldn’t comprehend. I have read lots of novels depicting the slave experience but nothing like this. He uses terms like “The Quality” for slave masters and “The Tasked” for slaves. He talks about how the tasked go “The Natchez way”. It took some getting used to but eventually, things came together. I think one of the reasons it is so powerful is the beauty of the prose juxtaposed with the horrors of slavery.

This is the type of book that stays with you. It is hard to shake. You keep coming back to it, reflecting on it. I didn’t want to rush through, I wanted to be present. For those skeptical of the magical realism, don’t be. It doesn’t make the book “woo-woo” or take the seriousness away from the subject matter. I have heard some call it science fiction, it isn’t. I highly recommend this book. This is a special one.

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LibraryThing member SignoraEdie

Best book i read in 2019. Slavery, The Underground, Conduction, Harriet Tubman...but mostly it conveyed the true meaning of freedom, the freedom to make and live by your own choices, even if it meant remaining where you are, as long as it your choice. Powerful and compelling writing!

LibraryThing member rdwhitenack

Really wanted to love this, but fell short. Story focuses on the Underground railroad, after a long walk to get there, and it just didn’t fit together for me. Felt like it was several ideas jammed into one—At some point I thought it was largely going to be historical fiction life of Harriet

Tubman. Started well enough, but then was sputtering through stop and goes. Considered abandoning it about halfway through, but stuck through the end.

All that said, the story might fail, yet Coates was able to produce a fine book about the pains of slavery. My notion that more Americans need this imagined visualization I personally would recommend Collision Whitehead’s “Underground Railroad” over this.

Listened to as audiobook. Loved the performance of the narrator.

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LibraryThing member Beamis12

If you've read his non fiction than you know what a powerfully this author writes. I was so curious about his first first foray into fiction. Would it be as good, as powerful? For me the answer is yes.

This is a vividly portrayed and imaginative slave narrative. It takes place mostly in Virginia at

a plantation called Lockless. Hiram is our narrator, he remembers little of his mother and he is the black son of the plantation owner. He also possesses a remarkable memory, and another unusual talent, which I will not explain in this review. The life and brutality of the slave life is powerfully portrayed, the daily losses, the death of self.

The slaves are called the tasked, and they yearn for connection, for freedom. Freedom takes an unusual turn here, and a little magical realism or substitution is employed. The characters, so many, even some of the quality are involved in the intense struggle for freedom. He also doesn't forget to mention all the disenfranchised, those yearning for a freedom not willing not given to them.

A truly remarkable first novel, wonderful characters, steady pacing and s little something different that sets it apart.

ARC from Netgalley.

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LibraryThing member novelcommentary

Ta-Nehisi Coates' first novel, called The Water Dancer, is a lyrical adventure of a terrible time in our country's history. Mid 19th century slavery is depicted in the first person narrative of Hiram Walker, who lives on a plantation in Virginia, one owned by his white father and going to be left

to Maynard, his half brother. In a twinge of genetics though, it is Hiram, whose mother was raped and sold down the Natchez, who has the intelligence and the amazing ability to memorize everything. This ability was first used to amuse the guests at the elaborate dinner parties during the prosperous times before they used up the rich red soil with continuos tobacco farming. But his skill was then noticed by Maynard's tutor, Mr Field, and this relationship becomes an important aspect of Hiram's future education- that of working for the Underground. Some great characters are drawn in the narrative, especially that of Hiram's caregiver, Thena ("Even when she swung her broom at us, I sensed the depth of that loss, her pain, a rage that she, unlike the rest of us, refused to secret away, and I found that rage to be true and correct. She was not the meanest woman at Lockless, but the most honest.") the other character of note is Sophia another slave who he is drawn to: "I was young and love to me was a fuse that was lit, not a garden that was grown." His relationship with Sophia is challenged by the fact that he is the one who must drive her to meet "Uncle Nathaniel" for their special arrangements.
In addition to his intelligence, Hiram also possess the ability of conduction where through the power of memory he is able to transport to another place. The power of memory plays an important role in the novel and Hiram must confront his own memory of his mother before he can complete his full purpose in life.
I thought the novel got better as it moved along, depicting Philadelphia in its heyday of free blacks interacting with the myriad of business on the docks of the schuykill I also enjoyed the development of his relation with Sophia as he comes to realize that loving someone is not another form of ownership. I found the interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air to be a nice follow up to some of the rationale for the author's choice of magical realism. I would recommend a listen to better understand the development of this powerful narrative.

Some lines:

I was just then beginning to understand the great valley separating the Quality and the Tasked—that the Tasked, hunched low in the fields, carrying the tobacco from hillock to hogshead, led backbreaking lives and that the Quality who lived in the house high above, the seat of Lockless, did not.

I now knew the truth—that Maynard’s folly, though more profane, was unoriginal. The masters could not bring water to boil, harness a horse, nor strap their own drawers without us. We were better than them—we had to be. Sloth was literal death for us, while for them it was the whole ambition of their lives.

And once they do it, they got you. They catch you with the babies, tie you to the place by your own blood and all, until you got too much to let go of to go.

“The jump is done by the power of the story. It pulls from our particular histories, from all of our loves and all of our losses. All of that feeling is called up, and on the strength of our remembrances, we are moved. Sometimes it take more than other times, and on those former times, well, you seen what happened. I have made this jump so many times before, though. No idea why this one socked me so.”

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LibraryThing member kayanelson

2020 TOB--The Water Dancer has gotten many good reviews but this book wasn't for me. I felt like there were similarities to other books I've read in recent years including The Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad had the magical trains and The Water Dancer had the magical conduction. The

Water Dancer focused more on the plight of the slaves and it's hard to read about this very sad part of American History.

I also feel it's important to read and remember about this shameful time in history. But for whatever reason I slogged through this book and couldn't wait for it to be over.

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LibraryThing member rglossne

Young Hiram Walker is born a slave. His mother was sold away, but his father is the plantation owner. He was raised by an older slave woman but as a young teen is brought up to the big house to help take care of his half brother, the heir to the plantation. Hiram's story moves from Virginia to the

Underground, to Philadelphia, and back. He has a mysterious power that makes him important to those who are fighting to help people in bondage escape.

The best novel I read this year. Coates' use of a bit of magical realism does not distract from his powerful story of love, loss, freedom, and bondage.

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LibraryThing member bblum

More realism than magical about Virginian quality folks and Taskers (slaves). I liked it better than the horrifying stories of the Underground Railroad by Colan Whitehead. Well developed characters- Sophia, Thena and Corrine the white abolitionist. Conduction is like dancing on water

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