Horse by Geraldine Brooks

Geraldine Brooks is a master storyteller and literary crafts-person. Her novels, heavily and meticulously researched, give the reader an insight into time, place, and events of an historical nature. Horse is no exception. On the surface, it seems to be the saga of Lexington, the most exceptional horse in American history. Lexington was not acclaimed as a race horse, but the greatest stud whose progeny have ruled the race tracks since the late 1800s. 

In what seems to be the latest literary vogue, Brooks uses a combination of time periods to tell her story. As the novel opens, the reader meets Theo, a black graduate student in Washington, D.C. who discovers a painting of Lexington in the trash that a neighbor has discarded. He is taken by the photo and begins to research its provenance. On this journey he meets Jess, a white osteologist who is working on articulating the bones of a horse at the Smithsonian, soon to be identified as Lexington.

Flashback to 1850 and the readers is introduced to enslaved Jarrett who assumes the last name of his master throughout the book. Jarrett is present at the birth of Darly (Lexington's original name) and stays with him throughout the novel. Theo's father has bought his own freedom, but could not afford Theo's. It is that goal to which the young lad works. Although Theo, Jess, and Jarrett are all fictional characters who move the story along, Brooks' research also introduces Richard Ten Broeck and artists Thomas J. Scott, and Jackson Pollock, all historical figures. 

The book is a not so veiled treatise on racism from early on when Brooks quotes Frederick Douglass' argument about white artists have never been able to capture a true portrait of Africans. It recounts Jarrett's struggles and the relationship attitudes of Jess and Theo, culminating in a tragic turn of events. 

Horse is a complex novel and one that begs to be read. The only fault that I would find in it is the ending where it seems that she was ticking all the boxes for her publisher to create a treatise on current events. Any book of hers should be put on personal reading lists.  
 

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. 
 

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

One of the featured books from the Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures series for 2020-2011, The Water Dancer proved an interesting, albeit at times difficult read. In some respects it is reminiscent of Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad, but so different at the same time. 

Set in Virginia in pre-Civil War days, Coates tells the story of Hiram Walker, son of the white owner of the Lockless Plantation. Hiram is one of the "Tasked" (euphemistically the slaves) to the "Quality," the white privileged owners. Gifted with the force of "Conduction," the protagonist of the novel uses it to also aid other Tasked as he becomes a conductor on the Underground Railroad. The first episode of this mysterious gift, which transports a person across a body of water finds him saving himself from drowning in a carriage accident, which also happens to kill his half biological brother,  Maynard Walker. 

Hiram decides that it is time to escape the bonds of the Tasked and so, with Sophia, for whom he has deep feelings, he devises a plan. They will leave the warrens and Thena, a surrogate mother to Hiram, and find their way to freedom. Although it was a brave attempt, he is thwarted by George, a man whom he trusted and they are captured and imprisoned by slave catchers. The scenes of his imprisonment show the harsh reality of slavery and convey one of the main themes of the book - abuse and cruelty. Thanks to Corrine Quinn, another wealthy plantation owner and operative on the Underground Railroad, Hiram is freed and brought into the fold to help people. He has an aptitude of being able to produce papers for those traveling on the railroad, which is developed by Isaiah Fields (Micajah Bland) who becomes his tutor. In time Hiram arrives in Philadelphia and becomes an operative there to help slaves to freedom.  

It is there that he meets Moses, a leader to guide people from slavery. Her real name is Harriet and Coates, not too subtly suggests that she is Harriet Tubman and the two conduct many successful rescues. Among others whom he meets are Raymond and Otha White, operatives in Philadelphia.  He then  learns that Bland has taken on a mission to rescue Otha's wife and children in Alabama. In that mission he is brutally murdered, which touches Hiram deeply.  Concurrently, Hiram's conduction experiences elucidate his past, his relationship with his mother and grandmother and spur him to return to Virginia to rescue Sophia and Thena.

The Water Dancer brings the brutality of slavery to a horrific light through a myriad of characters. Each has a special connection to Hiram and his past and future. As in his interview in the virtual lecture, Coates cannot stress enough the fact that slavery is vile and immoral. He contends that in today's world, not much has changed with the brutality that the dismissal of the value of human life still is rampant. Equally important in the novel is the theme of memory and how it plays into the formation of one's identity and is enhanced by the conduction. 

Coates has a command of prose and at times can almost be lyrical. For me, the magic realism so dominant in the novel was problematic. It is my problem, not the author's as I struggle with most books in which it is a device. It was an interesting book and one that I am glad I was spurred to read. More importantly, I am glad that I was given the opportunity to hear the author speak about it.

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

The underground railroad was an incredible attempt in our nation's history to help those, who were oppressed and subjugated to horrendous persecution, by providing a secret route of safe homes to freedom. It has been a fascinating subject to me since my elementary school days and then to my college years when historic markers seemed to abound with the sites associated with abolition of slavery. It was even rumored that the Rocky Spring Church,  in which graveyard Sarah Wilson was buried, was a station on the railroad.

Fast forward a couple of hundred years and Colson Whitehead has taken the The Underground Railroad to a new dimension. With homage paid to Gulliver's Travels and 100 Years of Solitude, Whitehead creates a system of tracks, trains, and tunnels that transport slaves to freedom. The reader must suspend the historical notion for the magic realism that details the coming and going of locomotives and trains that can be accessed through trap doors.


Cora lives on the Randall plantation in Georgia. Her mother was a runaway slave and abandoned her when she was young. As a witness to and victim of the owner's brutality, she agrees to an escape plan with Caesar, a young man who gains her trust. The ensuing journey north takes her to diverse stations and states. From a surrealistic environment of "freedom" in South Carolina to hiding in an attic, ala Anne Frank, in North Carolina, the reader routes for her to make it to the north and real freedom. All the while she is chased by the wicked slave catcher, Ridgeway whose intensity in pursuit rivals that of Javret from Les Miserables.

Throughout the novel Whitehead moves beyond the narrative to the unstated comparison of man's journey for freedom and the savage cruelty experienced on the way- the Nazis and the police brutality that the world has witnessed in the last years.  It is a shocking and complacency shaking work that begs to be reread for the sheer poetry of Whitehead's words. On 24 October 2016, it was, indeed, a thrill to hear Colson Whitehead read from and discuss this book and his inspiration for writing it.

The House Girl by Tara Conklin

In her debut novel, Tara Conklin weaves the story of a slave, Josephine,  in pre-Civil War times with that of an aspiring young lawyer, (Caro)Lina Sparrow, in 2004. The House Girl alternates chapters between each of the protagonists. The reader first meets Josephine as she is plotting to run away from her life as the house girl for a mistress who has been a painter and is now very ill and her abusive husband. Lina has just been given an assignment for which she must find a plaintiff who is the descendant of a slave in order to further a reparation case that is being staged. 

The story of Josephine and her mistress, Lu Anne Bell is an interesting one. Lu Anne. Lu Anne was an artist whose works have been acclaimed into the 21st century. She was at times a lenient mistress who even taught Josephine how to read. She and her tobacco grower husband had no children as Lu Anne suffered numerous miscarriages. But freedom was important to Josephine and she was determined to make her way through the underground railroad north.

Lina is a bright young woman who lives with Oscar Sparrow, her father and renowned artist. Her mother is dead and she feels somewhat compelled to remain in the family home as a help and support for her father. When the opportunity presents itself at work to contribute to the law suit that will bring millions to the firm, she jumps at the chance and digs into the research. Her path leads her to the story of Lu Anne and Josephine and the possibility of a descendant who would fit the profile for which she is looking. Her treatment by her boss and colleague at the firm is abhorrent and misogynistic.

The novel was an easy read, but it was not without some issues. First, the idea of a law firm taking on a case for reparations is a bit far-fetched. I am not sure that is could ever happen or be successful. Second, Lina must do some genealogical research to prover her point. For anyone who has dealt with this type of research, you know that it just doesn't fall into your lap, isn't always readily available on the Internet, or can be done over a weekend. The people that Lina meets to help her also seem a bit contrived and put into the novel to make a story "come out well." Although I wanted to like her, Lina's character  just wasn't that endearing. I found Josephine's story much more engaging and appealing although it was painful to read. 

It does seem like Conklin is another lawyer hoping to make it in the publishing world. For me, the jury is still out with my reaction to the book being very lukewarm. The Gables Book Club was divided on this one.

Killing Lincoln by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard

As one whose reputation can polarize an audience, Bill O'Reilly has tried to transcend that position by writing a treatise on the last days of our 16th president. Killing Lincoln was a very readable account of the end of the Civil War with the description of the end strategies of the North, the spiraling descent of John Wilkes both into an obsession of assassinating Lincoln, and the tragic end of Lincoln's life.

The narrative alternates between Booth's movements, the ending battle plans of the Civil War and the actions of Lincoln. It is an interesting way of combining the events into a singular story and shows how the interactions influence each other. Booth's original plan and the one under which he conscripted his co-conspirators was to kidnap Lincoln. But as the plan was being put into motion, Booth's obsession escalated to assassination of Lincoln, Vice-President Johnson, and William Seward. Killing Lincoln concludes with the capture of Booth and the flurry of trials and executions of those who were ultimately connected with the plot. 

O'Reilly has been criticised for a number of errors in the book and his political motivation for painting a picture of Lincoln that exalts him with reverence. The errors do not seem as egregious to me as they did to Rae Emerson, deputy superintendent of Ford's Theater who banned the book from the shop at the historical venue. They are troubling for an erudite scholar of American history, to be sure. But one cannot help but think the reviews and banning are politically motivated. O'Reilly has since responded and changed the mistakes in subsequent publications of the book.

The book is fast-paced, an easy, fascinating, and interesting read. There are hints that Booth was part of a larger conspiracy that involved Edward Stanton. These theories have been passed around for decades and leads the reader to further investigation of the real history and there is nothing wrong with that. Combined with two recent movies, Lincoln and The Conspirator, Killing Lincoln, adds to the unending cache of materials surrounding a most disturbing time in the history of our country. There just isn't enough time to digest it all.