A review by lewismillholland
Washington Black, by Esi Edugyan
1.0
It was a little scary to run the Secret Santa program because its first true test, by definition, had to be on production. I took the names and emails of all four of us — Chloe, Claudia, Jason and me — and the program scrambled who was assigned to whom (without creating two mutually exclusive pairs) and sent an email to each Secret Santa with their assignee. Thankfully, it worked.
Jason got me. He got me "Washington Black" by Esi Edugyan and in usual fashion all he said was "it's good shit." The accolades page was interesting because amid the awards and shortlists and such it had, in the biggest font, "One of Barack Obama's favorite books of the year." Haven't seen that before. At least, I haven't seen and registered that before.
The plot was a little too adventure-y for me and while the 2019-esque wokeness to the white savior's focus on slavery as a moral stain rather than on the slaves as individuals it was a bit too explicit and unresolved for me.
That being said, the ending was strong. I mean the very ending, the last line, with Washington stepping out into the blurry Moroccan sunrise with Tanna calling his name behind him. It was satisfying. It deepened the relationship between Washington and Titch because of how much Washington's last moment in the book echoed Titch's voluntary disappearance into the Arctic snow. Very father-like-son without stating it explicitly, and much as Titch abandoned Washington (and possibly only used him as a proxy for a greater evil), Washington abandons Tanna in these final moments.
Much of the book, however, lacked this subtlety, which is my perennial complaint (read: personal preference). Throughout the novel all the characters' emotions are listed explicitly and, if there's any dissonance, you're instantly told what it's between and why it is. Little is left to the subtext.
My second complaint is one I carried since I started the book. It's that Erasmus is archetypically evil and Titch is archetypically good. Erasmus gets no intriguing spot of redemption although admittedly Titch gets some blots on his perfect record at the end of the book, namely his childhood cruelty to Philip and his confusion between the immorality of slavery as a system versus the suffering of slaves as individuals. There's also his abandonment of Washington in the Arctic, but if I'm being honest I still don't understand why he did that or what happened because of it other than a bridge to the next act.
Even if I didn't love it this was a fun ride and I'd recommend it to someone going on a beach trip or who isn't 2019 woke on race.
Jason got me. He got me "Washington Black" by Esi Edugyan and in usual fashion all he said was "it's good shit." The accolades page was interesting because amid the awards and shortlists and such it had, in the biggest font, "One of Barack Obama's favorite books of the year." Haven't seen that before. At least, I haven't seen and registered that before.
The plot was a little too adventure-y for me and while the 2019-esque wokeness to the white savior's focus on slavery as a moral stain rather than on the slaves as individuals it was a bit too explicit and unresolved for me.
That being said, the ending was strong. I mean the very ending, the last line, with Washington stepping out into the blurry Moroccan sunrise with Tanna calling his name behind him. It was satisfying. It deepened the relationship between Washington and Titch because of how much Washington's last moment in the book echoed Titch's voluntary disappearance into the Arctic snow. Very father-like-son without stating it explicitly, and much as Titch abandoned Washington (and possibly only used him as a proxy for a greater evil), Washington abandons Tanna in these final moments.
Much of the book, however, lacked this subtlety, which is my perennial complaint (read: personal preference). Throughout the novel all the characters' emotions are listed explicitly and, if there's any dissonance, you're instantly told what it's between and why it is. Little is left to the subtext.
My second complaint is one I carried since I started the book. It's that Erasmus is archetypically evil and Titch is archetypically good. Erasmus gets no intriguing spot of redemption although admittedly Titch gets some blots on his perfect record at the end of the book, namely his childhood cruelty to Philip and his confusion between the immorality of slavery as a system versus the suffering of slaves as individuals. There's also his abandonment of Washington in the Arctic, but if I'm being honest I still don't understand why he did that or what happened because of it other than a bridge to the next act.
Even if I didn't love it this was a fun ride and I'd recommend it to someone going on a beach trip or who isn't 2019 woke on race.