The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris

Our January selection for the Gables Book Club provided one of the best reads in the last few years. It was an Oprah Book Club read as well as appearing on President Obama's Summer List. Set in Old Ox, Georgia at the end of the Civil War, the novel seems timeless in its discourse on racial, social, and familial relationships. It is a remarkable piece of writing from a young (30 years) writer, who seems to have a firm grasp of what is involved in all those relationships.

The novel opens as George Walker learns that his son, Caleb, was killed during the Civil War. He struggles with that fact as well as how he can possibly tell his wife, Isabelle the news. Walker is a landowner with some degree of wealth, who has decided to use his land to grow peanuts. While surveying the land he meets two black men who have recently been freed from slavery of a neighbor, Ted Morton. Prentiss speaks for his brother, Landry, who is mute and show evidence of a broken jaw. Walker offers them a job working for him and the three become connected as they clear land and ready the acreage for peanut planting. 

In a surprise for all, Caleb appears, belying the report of his death. He recounts his travels back home from the war and relates that August Webler has also returned. Caleb also alludes to the relationship that he and August had before the war. This relationship continues and provokes an insidious act of violence when their sexual tryst is observed and further the abrupt escape of Prentiss and Caleb from the town. 

Nathan Harris' character development in this novel is remarkable in that they reflect the societal history of the time and place. George and Isabelle are a hard-working couple whose values transcend the typical southern aristocratic snobbery and prejudice, not only against the Negroes, but also the white people in the town. Neighbors Morton, Webler, and Sheriff Hackstedde are those prejudicial men who cannot accept that the slaves have been freed and are able to decide for themselves how to live their lives out of slavery. Prentiss and Landry want to further their station in life and to get to that time when they are self-sufficient and can maybe at some time be reunited with their mother. Caleb struggles with his sexuality, but acts morally when that relationship is put to the test. Two minor characters, Mildred, Isabelle's friend, and Clementine, a prostitute, provide a mirror into the main characters via their interactions with them.

There is so much to absorb and reflect upon in this novel. At times it is haunting, but at those same times so disturbing to think that many of the actions and reactions in that time period are not much different than what we are experiencing in 2022, over 150 years later. Definitely a must read and even re-read.