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An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here and here. 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.
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The audiobook of this was such a treat! The voice actor was incredible - all the different accents and voices he did for each character, not to mention that he actually sang the songs that the characters did in the book!
Coates’ beautiful, raw, heart-wrenching language shines through here. Parts of this book feel like speeches or sermons they’re so powerful! I loved the magical realism of conduction and what it represents in this book. Conduction is simply the magical version of the very real power of memory and storytelling, especially for enslaved or marginalized groups who endure such intense trauma. Like Coates says towards the end of this book, to forget is to die. In the book, you can interpret this literally through the lens of conduction (without memory Hiram and his family wouldn’t be able to escape). But also to forget your own story, consciously or subconsciously, is to allow a part of yourself and your ancestors perish. And it allows those who have perpetuated such a traumas (Hiram’s father a great example) to be absolved of their wrongdoings. Though complete remembrance is agonizing, it is incredibly important and powerful. It reminds me of all the work done by activists to remember the names and stories of those who have been victims of police brutality.
So I loved the language and the themes of the book, but as an actual fiction story, I think it had a few minor struggles, perhaps since its Coates fiction debut! Like others mentioned, the pacing of story is a bit slow. The book feels a tad bloated in terms of actual exposition/description vs. action/plot events. I also think that some of the characters, Hiram in particular, don’t feel complete. It’s difficult for me to identify actual traits of his? Rather than cite his abilities, like conduction or memory. I think this can be attributed in part to the way the story is told - at times these events seem to be happening in real time, at times Hiram seems to be telling his story years after the events have passed. You’d think the diary like narration would lend itself to a very intimate few of the character, but I think there’s some distance there than makes the character seem less real.
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