Written by Esi Edugyan⭐ ⭐
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The blurb:
When two English brothers take the helm of a Barbados sugar plantation, Washington Black - an eleven-year-old field slave - finds himself selected as personal servant to one of them.
The eccentric Christopher 'Titch' Wilde is a naturalist, explorer, scientist, inventor and abolitionist, whose single-minded pursuit of the perfect aerial machine mystifies all around him.
Titch's idealistic plans are soon shattered and Washington finds himself in mortal danger. They escape together, but then Titch disappears and Washington must make his way alone, following the promise of freedom further than he ever dreamed possible.
Inspired by a true story, Washington Black is an extraordinary tale of a world destroyed and made whole again.
Historical Fiction
Literary Fiction
My thoughts:
Washington Black was the book chosen for our Book Club review this month. It was a Booker Prize nominee in 2018, and has won or been been nominated for various other literary prizes. I bought a paperback but later wished I'd opted for a digital copy as I found the print too small for my reading comfort.This is the first time I have read anything by Ms Edugyan, and I wasn't sure what to expect. I don't think I would have chosen this for myself, despite finding the cover and blurb rather intriguing.
The story is narrated by George Washington Black, who, when we meet him first he is a ten or eleven year old boy, a slave, living and working on the Faith Plantation on Barbados in 1830.
George Washington Black, or 'Wash' as he is called throughout, tells his story as he knows it. He does not know his birth date, nor his parents names. He has been given different stories about who his mother is - one version suggests she died giving birth to him on board a slave ship heading for Barbados. Another version has him born into slavery on the plantation. It matters not. He is alone, apart from Big Kit, a field slave who keeps an eye on the youngster.
Wash is chosen to work for Christopher Wilde, known as 'Titch', and his life takes a dramatic turn. No longer is he toiling in the fields from dawn till dusk, living in squalid conditions. Titch treats him kindly, and teaches Wash how to read.
The pair are engaged in building Titch's Cloud Cutter - an areostat or hot air balloon. Before it is tested, a tragedy occurs, and to protect Wash, Titch and Wash escape the island in the airship.
I thought it had a very strong beginning, and I was hooked early on. Wash makes a sympathetic main character, and I was expecting him to have an exciting, fantastical adventure aboard the airship. I did, however, think that Wash's voice was that of a much older man telling his story, rather than that of the 18-year-old we know him to be by the end of the book.
On reaching Part Two, however, my enthusiasm began to diminish. I kept checking my progress and wondered whether I would finish it - I did, but for me, it was a long, hard struggle to read. Some of this is due to the size of the text - I couldn't read for more than half an hour at a time - most was due to the storytelling which in the second and third sections I was finding tedious and implausible.
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