Washington Black
COMING SOON AS A HULU ORIGINAL SERIES • MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • “A gripping historical narrative exploring both the bounds of slavery and what it means to be truly free.” —Vanity Fair
Eleven-year-old George Washington Black—or Wash—a field slave on a Barbados sugar plantation, is initially terrified when he is chosen as the manservant of his master’s brother. To his surprise, however, the eccentric Christopher Wilde turns out to be a naturalist, explorer, inventor, and abolitionist. Soon Wash is initiated into a world where a flying machine can carry a man across the sky, where even a boy born in chains may embrace a life of dignity and meaning, and where two people, separated by an impossible divide, can begin to see each other as human.
But when a man is killed and a bounty is placed on Wash’s head, they must abandon everything and flee together. Over the course of their travels, what brings Wash and Christopher together will tear them apart, propelling Wash ever farther across the globe in search of his true self. Spanning the Caribbean to the frozen Far North, London to Morocco, Washington Black is a story of self-invention and betrayal, of love and redemption, and of a world destroyed and made whole again.
Eleven-year-old George Washington Black—or Wash—a field slave on a Barbados sugar plantation, is initially terrified when he is chosen as the manservant of his master’s brother. To his surprise, however, the eccentric Christopher Wilde turns out to be a naturalist, explorer, inventor, and abolitionist. Soon Wash is initiated into a world where a flying machine can carry a man across the sky, where even a boy born in chains may embrace a life of dignity and meaning, and where two people, separated by an impossible divide, can begin to see each other as human.
But when a man is killed and a bounty is placed on Wash’s head, they must abandon everything and flee together. Over the course of their travels, what brings Wash and Christopher together will tear them apart, propelling Wash ever farther across the globe in search of his true self. Spanning the Caribbean to the frozen Far North, London to Morocco, Washington Black is a story of self-invention and betrayal, of love and redemption, and of a world destroyed and made whole again.
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Community Reviews
thenextgoodbook.com
What’s it about?
Washington Black is an eleven year-old field slave living on a sugar plantation in Barbados when he is summoned to help serve guests for dinner at the big house. He is subsequently loaned out to the master's brother to help with a science experiment he is undertaking. Washington Black and Christopher Wilde's paths become intertwined and this relationship changes Washington Black's life.
What did it make me think about?
Is the good we do about ourselves more than about those we choose to help?
Should I read it?
This book was so beautifully written. Edugyan managed to write this novel in a style that evoked the time and place she was writing of. So the novel is beautifully written, the characters are interesting, and the plot is part historical fiction and part adventure novel. So Why didn't I love it? The first half was so promising, and then it just kind of never fulfilled that promise for me. It was a good book- but not one I would label as a great book...
Quote-
"It had happened so gradually, but these months with Titch had schooled me to believe I could leave all misery behind, I could cast off all violence, outrun a vicious death. I had even begun thinking I'd been born with a higher purpose, to draw the earth's bounty, and to invent; I had imagined my existence a true and rightful part of the natural order. How wrong-headed it had all been. I was a black boy, only- I had no future before me, and little grace or mercy behind me. I was nothing, I would die nothing, hunted hastily down and slaughtered."
If you liked this try-
Land of Love and Drowning by Tiphanie Yanique
Exit West by Moshin Hamid
LaRose by Louise Erdrich
To Keep the Sun Alive by Rabeah Ghaffari
What’s it about?
Washington Black is an eleven year-old field slave living on a sugar plantation in Barbados when he is summoned to help serve guests for dinner at the big house. He is subsequently loaned out to the master's brother to help with a science experiment he is undertaking. Washington Black and Christopher Wilde's paths become intertwined and this relationship changes Washington Black's life.
What did it make me think about?
Is the good we do about ourselves more than about those we choose to help?
Should I read it?
This book was so beautifully written. Edugyan managed to write this novel in a style that evoked the time and place she was writing of. So the novel is beautifully written, the characters are interesting, and the plot is part historical fiction and part adventure novel. So Why didn't I love it? The first half was so promising, and then it just kind of never fulfilled that promise for me. It was a good book- but not one I would label as a great book...
Quote-
"It had happened so gradually, but these months with Titch had schooled me to believe I could leave all misery behind, I could cast off all violence, outrun a vicious death. I had even begun thinking I'd been born with a higher purpose, to draw the earth's bounty, and to invent; I had imagined my existence a true and rightful part of the natural order. How wrong-headed it had all been. I was a black boy, only- I had no future before me, and little grace or mercy behind me. I was nothing, I would die nothing, hunted hastily down and slaughtered."
If you liked this try-
Land of Love and Drowning by Tiphanie Yanique
Exit West by Moshin Hamid
LaRose by Louise Erdrich
To Keep the Sun Alive by Rabeah Ghaffari
How is this a Mann Booker contender? its an interesting concept but quickly becomes a young adult adventure story. He escapes slavery in Barbados in a hot-air balloon, crashes onto a mystery ship, then in Virginia he runs into an early abolitionist on the underground railroad, then skips off to the Arctic. Its a slog after the first chapters and very superficial. I just didn't care about the two-dimensional characters and their unrealistic "adventures." Hard pass.
Parts of it were really really good, but other parts went on and on. It didn’t feel very cohesive. Still worth a read though. Several profound thoughts on slavery included quotes like this: “you were more concerned that slavery should be a moral stain upon white men than by the actual damage it wreaks on black men”.
This adventure story begins in the harsh slave climate of 19th century Barbados and takes us to the Arctic and Virginia, England, Amsterdam and Morocco, all in the service of telling the story of a young slave with no family who imagined himself with found family in the person of his owner’s abolitionist brother. Along the way we are introduced to scientific innovation and cultural differences. This is like a window on the past.
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