18 Dec / Washington Black by Esi Edugyan [in Booklist]
*STARRED REVIEW
The deeply empathetic, decisively chameleonic Dion Graham proves himself to be an ideal aural collaborator for Esi Edugyan’s (Half-Blood Blues, 2012) stupendous novel, shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and Man Booker Prize. George Washington Black, called “Wash,” is a young slave on Faith Plantation in 1830s Barbados. He is first owned by one brother, then stolen by another. Recognizing Wash’s intellectual and artistic gifts, rebel scientist Titch makes Wash his assistant, and the two escape the island via hot-air balloon (a literary first?), setting in motion a worldwide odyssey through North America, the Arctic, Europe, and Morocco.
Graham embodies Wash in all his incarnations, from a frightened boy who grows into an accomplished young man, forced to struggle, suffer, and fight; who learns to trust, to love, and to surrender to compassion and even forgiveness. Most memorable is the moment in which Wash has just learned the identity of his mother and realizes too well how tragically brutal her life – and death – must have been. Wash’s tears are interrupted by the official he’s come to meet at London’s Abolitionist Society, but that moment of profound, mournful illumination lingers, as narrator Graham’s own intense reaction becomes evident with a loud sniffle before he can continue. An extraordinary and symbiotic presentation.
Review: “Media,” Booklist, December 15, 2018
Readers: Adult
Published: 2018