The Land

Another prequel -- novel-length, this time! Yay! -- centering on Cassie's paternal grandfather who, as attentive readers may remember, had a white daddy. (I had forgotten, which meant that the punchline of the opening scene -- a scene which had been bothering me as "I've gotten something mixed up

Show More

here" -- landed with a wham.) Taylor's oft-repeated theme that you can't have true friendships between folks with different levels of social power is supercharged in The Land. It's one thing to be standoffish to Jeremy Simms in Roll of Thunder, but Paul-Edward's half-brothers consider themselves to be Paul-Edward's no-hyphen brothers, with all the loyalty against outsiders that the word is expected to imply. And Paul-Edward considers them to be the same.

I'll just stop right there on that topic, because as you might expect, Taylor has a lot to say about that, and further discussion is likely to be spoilerific. Except to say, I think she nails the complexity of loyalty and betrayal in families: loyalty through betrayal, betrayal through loyalty, and whether or not it's possible to completely discount either betrayals or loyalty in the context of the other. When friends treat you like this, you pack up and move on, never looking back; when family treats you like this, though... Well, you can pack up and move on, but it's much harder to never look back. And, for that matter, it's not altogether clear that you should.

There's a lot of marvelous back-story here. We get to see Big Ma as a young woman -- oh, but she reminds me of Cassie! -- Tom Bee and John Wallace before The Friendship, and both Harlan Granger and Wade Jamison as boys. (I hate to say how tense I got when Wade showed up -- it was in the context of "I don't care how nice he seems, he's white, and thus by definition dangerous." My stomach sank when I read those lines; we know that such advice in a Taylor novel is usually right. Apparently, it's really important to me to be able to cling to Wade Jamison as a signifier of possibility.)

Speaking of Wade, while this book doesn't take up political issues as vigorously as Taylor's other novels--earlier ones had big subplots about the for-the-benefit-of-whites justice system, voter disenfranchisement, and using race as a wedge issue in union busting--but it does lay out, snapshot clear, the early resistance to reparations among whites who otherwise believed in treating folks of color with respect. Unfunnily enough, it doesn't sound much different than the resistance to it now.

Show Less

Absorbing story of a mixed-race boy growing to manhood in the south. Treated equally as his white siblings by his white Daddy while growing up, about age 15 he became aware that he would never be treated as a white man. Paul-Edward Logan would set out running with his best friend Mitchell Thomas,

Show More

after disobeying his father about a horse race. They would find themselves in Mississippi. He never tried to 'pass' for white except once when he felt he & Mitchell (who was black) were in danger. What he wanted more than anything else was land. He had loved the land he grew up on and he wanted something similar that he could call his own. He never wavered in this dream. At whatever he set out to do to earn a living such as working in the rough logging camps or building made-to-order beautiful pieces of furniture, he did it well. His courage was unfailing, he asked over & over for a loan to buy land and over & over he was told 'no'. But he never gave up. At the end you find that the story is based on the author's own family. I am reminded again and again that to have been a slave or to have come from a slave (such as Paul-Edward) took great courage. What I sometimes fail to see is the even greater courage it took for a black man (or woman) to have a dream in a white man's world and never give up on it. This story is remarkable in sharing that.

Show Less

This is by far the best book written by Mildred Taylor as it relates to the Logan family. Although it captures the family's story from its beginning, it was the last book I read (and I believe Taylor's last book written about the family) that is part of the series. I absolutely loved it. The

Show More

character and plot developments in the novel are phenomenal. It deals beautifully and realistically with how the love of family can elevate one to levels unimaginable.

Show Less

Set in the latter half of the nineteenth century, we follow from childhood to maturity Paul-Edward, the son of a Southern white landowner and a black former slave girl. Edward Logan had three sons with by his legal wife along with Paul and his sister by the slave girl, but treated all as equal and

Show More

taught all his children to respect one another. But while they grew up together as equals it was gradually made clear that as they grew older and went out into the world things would be different for Paul and his sister, and even though Paul looked to be white he would always be regarded as a man of colour, and could not expect equal treatment.

Paul loved his father's land and initially imagined one day it would be his, after all of all his father's children he was the only one with any affinity with the soil, and he was a natural with animals able to pacify and ride the wildest of horses. But as he grew it became apparent that he would never come into possession of this land and so he longed to have land of his own.

Living on his father's land were other freed black slaves. Mitchell, the son of one of these and about Paul's age was a constant tormentor of Paul in his childhood, taunting him and often hitting him. But as they grew older their relationship slowly changed, first to a grudging respect and then to friendship. Paul knew the only way he would get to own land of his own was to leave his father, and this happened sooner than expected and under less than ideal circumstances when both he and Mitchell found themselves on the run. So began their adventures together, and while Paul was always looking to the time he could achieve his goal, Mitchell was happy to go along with him content with whatever each day would bring. During this time they leaned trust and even rely upon each other as their friendship grew and they came to regard themselves as brother.

Much was yet to happen before Paul stood any hope, if ever, of owning land; good fortune interspersed with disaster and tragedy; long ours of labouring for unfair bosses; success racing horses; dealings with dishonest businessmen who thought nothing of cheating a man of colour. But there were also those who recognised Paul and Mitchell's good qualities and would help them. Paul-Edward gives his own account of these early years of his life, and concludes with a brief summary of the years that followed.

Mildred D Taylor writes with honesty and with no apology, highlighting the dreadful inequalities suffered by blacks following the abolition of slavery, thankfully and quite rightly giving no quarter to political correctness. Having based much of The Land on stories told to her by family members about her own family's history it has an air of authenticity and provides an insight on a past way of life. But it is above all a story about friendship, love and loyalty; and a compelling read. My one regret is that it somehow glossed over the details of then transition in the relationship between Paul and Mitchell and their bonding.

Show Less

Beginning in the late 1800s, Paul-Edward Logan is the white looking son of a white southern land owner and his black mistress. His father has raised Paul and his full sister along-side of three half brothers, sons of their father and his white wife. As a child, Paul thinks of himself simply as his

Show More

father's son, but as he grows older he realizes that he will always be considered a second class "man of color" even if he does look white. He decides what he wants out of life if some good land of his own, and the bulk of the book is about his efforts working towards that goal. He is helped much along the way by his black friend, Mitchell, who leaves his father's farm at the same time Paul does.
The best books are often described as "hard to put down." Well, "The Land" was very easy to put down. The story was interesting enough, but there was far too much detail in describing business transactions, or specifics of how much money Paul would make for this, and this, and this etc. Paul is the first person narrator, and once past young childhood, his narration is so reserved and aloof, that I never felt that I knew him all that well. He keeps his emotions always in check, not only from the people he knows, but from we readers as well. So in the end, I didn't care deeply what happened to him. That's why I found it easy to put down.

Show Less

I have a hard time imagining this type of mentality existed. I hurt for Paul but so glad he achived his goal but at such a price.