Review: Washington Black

George Washington Black is an 11-year-old slave on a Barbados plantation. His life changes drastically when his new master's brother takes him under his wing as an assistant for his scientific endeavors. Instead of working in the fields, Wash now spends his days seeing the world through Titch's eyes, as well as learning to read and develop his talent for drawing. But he never feels entirely comfortable; the relationship between the two is certainly unconventional and destined to fall apart sooner or later. That day comes when a man is killed and Wash is blamed. Titch and Wash flee in Titch's hot air balloon and set off on an adventure that will take them around the world to London, Antarctica, and Morocco.

There were parts of this book that reminded me of Elizabeth Gilbert's The Signature of All Things because both books follow a person who was not expected to pursue science in their time. Wash learns about weather and creatures all over the world and later uses his knowledge to sketch and paint the wildlife and even collaborates with making the first aquariums. But there is always that feeling of uncertainty--even in places that are supposedly friendly to free black people, one wrong word or careless moment could mean the end of Wash's life. His relationship with Titch is the thing that took him away from the horrors of slavery, but it also haunts Wash as he wonders if it is possible for his mentor and father figure to think of him as anything other than a worthy cause.

Washington Black is a sprawling adventure that takes readers around the world. Edugyan renders time and place with beautiful specificity and the reader feels as if they could journey up the hill to Titch's balloon and watch the plantation below or see the endless expanse of Arctic snow for the first time. But the thread that runs throughout the entire story is that there is no safe place to be a black person in the 19th century--you can never truly be seen as just a neighbor, a friend, a lover, a scientist, or an artist because of the color of your skin.


Also by Esi Edugyan: Half Blood Blues 


Washington Black
By Esi Edugyan
Knopf Publishing Group September 2018
339 pages
From the library
Man Booker Award Finalist

Review: Half Blood Blues

Half Blood Blues

By Esi Edugyan

Picador February 2012 

319 pages
Finalist for the Man Booker Prize/Longlisted for the Orange Prize

From the library 

Sid Griffiths, an elderly bass player, is invited to attend a festival in honor of former band mate Hieronymus Falk. The documentary shown there reveals a secret that Sid has kept for many years. He stood by and watched as Hiero was arrested by the Nazis. Everyone believes that the great trumpeter died shortly after the war, a casualty of racism and Sid’s refusal to intervene. At the festival, Sid’s friend and former band mate Chip reveals that Hiero is not dead after all. In fact, Chip and Hiero have been corresponding and now Chip thinks they should go visit him. This revelation takes Sid back to Berlin and Paris in 1939, the scenes of some of his greatest failures.

In Paris, they meet up with Louis Armstrong and start to work on a track that will be lost and then discovered after the war. This song will forever change the face of jazz music. “Of course, the recording’s cult status had to do with the illusion of it all. I mean, not just of the kid but all of us, all the Hot-Time Swingers. Think about it. A bunch of German and American kids meeting up in Berlin and Paris between the wars to make all this wild, joyful music before the Nazis kick it to pieces? And the legend survives when a lone tin box if dug out of a damn wall in a flat once belonged to a Nazi? Man. If that ain’t a ghost story, I never heard one.”

Ms. Edugyan does an excellent job of transporting the reader to Berlin and Paris on the verge of war. You feel the tension as they go from safe, familiar places to war zones. The dialect is very unique and specific to both the time period and the circles which Sid and his friends frequent. For a novel that revolves around music, it is still very accessible to someone who knows nothing about jazz.

The characters are well-written, but none of them really find their way into your head or your heart. The novel switches between past and present, and our narrator Sid is more interesting as the old man with regrets than as the jealous young musician. The other characters feel underdeveloped, especially Hiero. Although it may have been a conscious decision to make the object of Sid’s admiration and jealousy an enigma, it makes it difficult for the reader to feel anything for him. The other musicians don’t get a lot of page time, which is a loss because the little that we do get is interesting. Even Delilah, the beautiful songstress who captures Sid’s heart, remains mostly unknown to the men and to the reader.

I liked this book. I enjoyed reading about a niche group and the unique issues that the musicians faced because are black. While this is a good read, it’s not a book I feel compelled to extol to every person I encounter. With all of the buzz that this book and its author are receiving, it will be interesting to see what Esi Edugyan does next.