20 Dec / The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates [in Booklist]
*STARRED REVIEW
Ta-Nehisi Coates (Between the World and Me) is one of – potentially the – most sought-after contemporary voice on the politics of race, and his debut fiction could not have been more laudably anticipated. Now sporting Oprah’s seal of approval as her latest Book Club pick, The Water Dancer has already achieved mega-bestselling status. That justified adulation for the print version is only further enhanced by award-winning stage/film/television actor Joe Morton’s mesmerizing performance, his lone voice effortlessly ciphering through Coates’ vast cast of characters.
The epic enslavement-to-freedom narrative of Hiram Walker was 10 years in the making, combining historical figures, the Underground Railroad, the “real-life saga of William and Peter Still” – revealed in Coates’ ending author’s note to be the inspiration of the novel’s white family – and, surprisingly but affectingly, magical realism that gives multi-layered new meaning to “Conduction.”
From boyhood to manhood, Morton consistently bestows Hiram with a full spectrum of resonating emotions, from yearning to disdain, desperation to determination, fear to (super)humanity. Morton’s diligent aural precision never wavers between major and minor characters, proving indelibly memorable as Hiram’s entitled white brother, their agonizingly conflicted father, glorious (and glorified) Harriet Tubman, and heart-twisting mother-figure Thena. Format notwithstanding, Coates unquestionably cements his canonic status across multiple genres.
Review: “Media,” Booklist, December 1, 2019
Readers: Adult
Published: 2019