A gripping saga of slavery’s viciousness and one man’s dogged resistance to it.
Warren depicts the barbarism of slavery and the chaos of war in this historical epic.
William, an enslaved man, lives with his wife, Harriet, and children, Hector and Margaret, on the South Carolina plantation of John Higgins in the late 1850s. Higgins is a cruel man who considers it his right to rape an enslaved teenaged girl and brutalize others—especially William, within whom he senses a freedom-loving spirit. William’s mild backtalk provokes Higgins to flog him nearly to death and sell him off, after which Higgins moves his household down to Florida in search of better land. William embarks on a series of adventures before and during the Civil War: He’s rescued from slavery by members of the Underground Railroad and helps free other slaves, he’s captured and re-enslaved, and he joins a regiment of Black soldiers in the Union Army. Alternating chapters follow William’s and Higgins’ families in Florida. The war’s end brings freedom to Blacks but also new forms of racial oppression—and it brings William to Florida, looking for his family and for revenge on Higgins. Warren paints a rich, nuanced portrait of plantation life and the demented psychology of slavery; enslavers fear that any display of humanity or respect will undermine their power and the enslaved endure constant fear, arbitrary violence, and heartbreaking separation from loved ones, burying their rage beneath masks of passive servility. The author conveys all of this in searing, muscular prose: “‘Don’t you ever defy me! Don’t you ever walk towards me like you are my equal.’ Harriet’s body shuddered each time the whip cut into William’s back. Margaret, her face buried in her mother’s dress, covered her ears in a futile attempt to shut out the mutilation of her father.”) The result is a harrowing depiction of bondage that’s both chilling and hopeful.
A gripping saga of slavery’s viciousness and one man’s dogged resistance to it.Pub Date: July 31, 2024
ISBN: 9798218364410
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Oct. 8, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A frank and open-minded account from Flemish journalist Joris of her venture into Zaire, formerly called the Congo, the infamous inspiration for Conrad's Heart of Darkness. As a child, Joris heard the tales told by her uncle, a Belgian missionary serving in the Congo. His visits were family milestones and the curios and gifts he sent back to Belgium became treasured heirlooms. But Joris the adult journalist wanted not only to follow in her uncle's footsteps but to see for herself what contemporary Zaire was like. A subtext here is a retrospective look at Belgian colonialism, notorious for its tragic failure to prepare the Congolese for independence, which, when it occurred, resulted in immediate chaos that led to the subsequent rise of Mobutu Sese Seko (president since 1965) and the ``Barons,'' who have brazenly used the country's great mineral wealth to enrich themselves. Joris first visits her uncle's old mission postings, where she meets his now-aging colleagues and learns that the Church is still one of the few ways out of poverty for bright young men, though many local churches and schools are closed down for lack of money. This poverty is a common theme of Congolese life, Joris learns, as she balances encounters with white expatriates with an excursion on the aging steamer that plies the Congo River from Kinshasa to Kisangani; a visit to Gbadolite, Mobutu's own Versailles; a trip to the southern mining province of Shaba, which in 1977 rebelled against Mobutu; and, on the lighter side but no less instructive, evenings in Maton, the famous entertainment district of Kinshasa. A deliberately impressionistic rather than definitive account, with Joris's perceptive insights and palpable sympathies for a long-suffering people making it more than just another travel book.
Pub Date: Oct. 13, 1992
ISBN: 0-689-12164-4
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1992
BOOK REVIEW
The rigors of Irish monasticism in the medieval period, well told by travel writer Moorhouse (On the Other Side, 1991; Hell's Foundations, 1992; etc.). The first half of the book is an imaginative reconstruction of life in an Irish monastery on the secluded rock-island of Skellig Michael from its founding in 588 to its dissolution in 1222. Moorhouse uses fictional vignettes to enliven the text. Each chapter is a well-chosen window onto a significant figure or event in the monastery's history—an 824 attack by Viking raiders, for example. In these fictional glimpses, we see the larger picture of Irish monasticism's evolution from a rigorously austere island faith to a less zealous, Romanized religion. Skellig Michael, perilously located on a sheer cliff rising from the ocean, began as one of the most ascetic of the Irish monasteries. Gradually, however, the population of monks began to dwindle, and the last fictionalized chapter shows the abbot and his aging disciples rowing their way back to the security of the mainland. The first half of the book is so intriguing and beautifully written that the second, a more traditional historical treatment of Irish monasticism, arranged topically, pales by comparison. Some of the discussions are absorbing, though; in one instance, Moorhouse explores the theme of syncretism, arguing that early Irish Catholicism, rather than eradicating pagan Celtic rituals, incorporated them into monastic life. This eclectic borrowing was able to continue for centuries because of Ireland's geographical remoteness from the centralizing forces of Rome. Due to accommodation with a Celtic spring ritual, Easter was dated differently than in Rome, a discrepancy that continued until Rome demanded conformity in the early 8th century. An uneven work, then, more fascinating in its first, fictionalized half than in the rigorous explications of the second, and one that might have worked better presented purely as a novel. (illustrations, not seen)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-15-100277-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1997
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