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"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
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.
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!).
Coates writes a spell-binding novel about slavery and the
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.
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. (
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.
Coates writes wonderfully, as expected, and much of the story is full of beautiful language and painful descriptions. Some of it is
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.
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.
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.
Ta-Nehisi Coates turns to the horror of slavery for his first novel and this
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
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.
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.
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.
This is a unique magical book that takes you on a journey. It is
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.
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.
This is a vividly portrayed and imaginative slave narrative. It takes place mostly in Virginia at
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.
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.”
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.
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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