|
The Water Dancer
Rating:
|
Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage. When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of all memory of her—but was gifted with a mysterious power. Years later, when Hiram almost drowns in a river, that same power saves his life. This brush with death births an urgency in Hiram and a daring scheme: to escape from the only home he’s ever known. So begins an unexpected journey 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 idealistic movements in the North. Even as he’s enlisted in the underground war between slavers and the enslaved, Hiram’s resolve to rescue the family he left behind endures. This is the dramatic story of an atrocity inflicted on generations of women, men, and children—the violent and capricious separation of families—and the war they waged to simply make lives with the people they loved. Written by one of today’s most exciting thinkers and writers, The Water Dancer is a propulsive, transcendent work that restores the humanity of those from whom everything was stolen.
Buy the Book
We may earn a small commission if you make a purchase using the retail links provided. Affiliate Disclosure
|
The writing style is so beautifully crafted that I soaked this up fairly quickly considering it’s 400+ pages long. “The Water Dancer” is a magical realism/historical fiction hybrid that I found both intriguing and unique. Hiram’s journey as a slave was captivating, heartbreaking and inspiring – and yet it felt like it was missing something that might have made this book even better.
It’s definitely worthy of being read by the masses, but I think the magical realism/paranormal aspects of it threw it’s soaring 5 stars off kilter a little bit. Throughout the story, Hiram is learning to tap into his powers, but unlike the rest of the book – these moments (although described beautifully) felt short and vague to me. Since magical realism is quite prominent in the book it ultimately hindered the ability to fully connect with the characters as well.
I think the author should have either dived deeper into the magical aspects of it all, or instilled more emotional connections with the characters in order to really gain the book’s intended effect. The two genres don’t clash per se’, but they don’t quite feel entirely woven together either. Despite it though, this truly is a fabulous book and one I thoroughly enjoyed reading.
| Detailed Rating Report | |
|---|---|
| Plot | |
| Characters | |
| Writing Style | |
| Pace | |
| Overall: | |
About Ta-Nehisi Coates
Ta-Nehisi Coates is an award-winning author and journalist. He is the author of the bestselling books The Beautiful Struggle, We Were Eight Years in Power, The Water Dancer, and Between The World And Me, which won the National Book Award in 2015. His first novel, The Water Dancer, was released in September 2019. He was a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship that same year.
Ta-Nehisi also enjoyed a successful run writing Marvel’s Black Panther (2016-2021) and Captain America (2018-2021) comics series.
