The Water Dancer

Synopsis: Hiram Walker is born a slave on a Virginia plantation. His mother Rose was sold into the Deep South when he was a young boy, and his father? Well that would be the master of the plantation, Howell Walker. Hiram ends up being raised by Thena, an old woman who also has suffered from the horrible practice of separating slave families. Hiram is gifted with intelligence, a keen memory, and other powers to be discovered. He is tasked with caring for his half brother Maynard, the heir to the plantation. His journey to escape from the world of bondage requires confronting his lost memories of childhood, and self discovery.

Nicholette’s Review: There’s so much to like about this novel, and I want to give it a rave review, but it’s more of a mixed review from me. Ta-Nehisi Coates as a superb writer, and his extraordinary gift with words is pleasure enough. I know I will be more than ready to read more of his work in the future.  The first part of the book was for me the most interesting and enjoyable, detailing Hiram’s transition from young child, through his growing awareness of his legacy and the unspeakable injustice of his world. As the story progresses, he becomes aware of a special gift of “conduction” that will lead him to the Underground Railroad, freedom, but ultimately a return to Lockless, the Virginia plantation of his birth. The “magical realism” of the story was not necessarily an issue for me, but it felt half way done.   I felt like it didn’t quite embrace the fairy tale quality of the story, so that element never seemed to fit well.  I would have preferred for Coates to either fully lean in to the magical part of it, or leave it out altogether.  I thought the characters were nuanced and complex and I appreciated that.  The abolitionists were almost as extreme as the slaveholders, hating the institution of slavery, but not always caring that much about the actual slaves.  In the end, for all the things I really admired about this debut novel, it came up a little short for me.   Rating: 3/5

Corey’s Review: This is a really hard review for me to write and I know probably goes against the popular opinion, but I could not get into this book. I have to agree with my mom, the first part of the book was the best for me. As soon as the book started dabbling with “magic” I got lost. The book covers such important and tragic events in our history I thought the magic portion was off putting. The author certainly has a way with words. Sometimes I felt like I was reading poetry rather than a novel and maybe that’s the point. This was my first book by this author and had such high expectations. Unfortunately, it was a miss for me. Rating: 3/5

Menu: A classic Virginia dish is peanut pie, very similar to pecan pie but with peanuts of course!

Ingredients:

1 pie crust

1 1/2 cup roughly chopped salted peanuts

3 large eggs

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 1/3 cup light corn syrup

1 tablespoon melted butter

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2) Lightly beat eggs, whisk in sugar and flour

3) Add corn syrup and peanuts, then add butter

4). Pour into pie crust

5) Bake for 50-60 minutes, until the edges of the pie are a rich golden brown and the filling is still a little loose in the center

6). cool, serve with whipped cream