The darkness of slavery and all of its shackles to the brightness of conduction and all of its light. An unusual story. with exquisite writing but was a slow read especially in the second half.

I really struggled to get into this book and found myself constantly distracted where I usually wouldn’t be. I was really hoping to love this one but I felt like it was a chore to keep picking it up.  I have dnf’d for the time being. I may return to it at a later date.

Ta-Nehisi Coates' name has been on my radar for a while, but this is the first of his books that I've read.  I've heard he's an incredibly powerful non-fiction writer, and having read this (his debut fiction novel) I will definitely be looking out for his other work.

I've realised over the past few years that the blending of historical fiction with magical realism is a form that does something funny to my insides - I absolutely love it.  I'm also really interested in Black history, and so the premise of this book jumped out at me.  Hiram Walker is a slave on a tobacco plantation in Virginia.  His mother was sold off when he was a young child, and he has lived a life between the other slaves on The Street and serving closely the family of slave owners up at the big house.  An accident that sees him nearly drown unlocks a mystical power within him, and he finds himself joining the Underground Railroad - the network of former slaves and white abolitionists working in secret to free other enslaved people.  This work takes him to the North, where slavery is illegal and freedom can become a reality. But the draw of his found family back in Virginia is stronger than he can fight.

I know we're only in February, but I really do feel that this book will be on my favourites of 2021.  I was utterly captivated by the writing, the characters and the plot of this book.  There was enough of a balance between lyrical descriptions and the action of slave rescues to really captivate me but also keep the book pushing forward.  I felt female characters in this book were all very distinct and had their own story arcs and agendas, and Hiram himself was full of his own flaws and realisations to make him seem like a complete person.  

Set against a time in history that even today has a strong presence in how society is shaped, this was also an incredibly informative read.  The treatment of Black people as commodities whose lives were seen only in terms of their monetary value, stripped of their basic human qualities in the eyes of the rich so that families could be torn apart for profit, was shocking.  But Coates doesn't use gratuitous violence to make his point.  Instead, it is the contrast between the Quality and the Tasked that illustrates this so well, particularly combined with the differences between north and south.  This is a very intelligently told story.

I thought this book was a beautiful ode to the human beings who were kept enslaved.

This book unfortunately just wasn’t for me. I’m sorry to say this because I was so excited for it! I’m sure it’s excellently done so don’t take my word for it. I’m going to keep an eye out for future publications by the author and I hope I have more luck.

Thank you to NetGalley for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I nearly DNF’d The Water Dancer very early on, and I am infinitely glad I didn’t. This is not an easy read; the pages are ruminative and demand the reader to pore, make note, read back, read again. The literary lover in me was enamoured with the imagery and wording used to describe and convey thematic messages regarding slavery, family, change, freedom, humanity, and so many other complex subtexts within those. My nine pages of notes are an ode to how much can be taken from Coates’ writings and I have no doubt that a second read would warrant nine pages more.

All this praise being said, the novel definitely has a couple issues in terms of character and general narrative - from what I gather, Coates is typically a non-fiction writer so these discrepancies from what I typically expect in terms of plot make a lot of sense. The transitions from the magical realism to the hard and gritty passages on slavery and abolitionist movements were not always seamless and this did affect my reading at times, but if it wasn’t already clear I took a lot away from this read and my rating definitely reflects that. Infinitely appreciative and will definitely be looking out for more of Coates’ work, fiction or not.

'Between the World and Me' was my first foray into Ta-Nehisi Coates, and it blew me away with it's poignancy, eloquence and humanity. I wish that I could have connected with 'The Water Dancer' to the same degree - the concept is compelling, and we absolutely should be uplifting and reading these sorts of narratives from enslaved characters.

The pacing is where this novel fell short for me – I found it hard to get into, and it failed to sustain my interest - it felt at times that the detail was weighing it down, despite helping to build a rich tapestry. It is intensely lyrical and meticulously well-researched and developed, but I struggled to truly engage with Hiram's narrative.

I received a copy of this book to review from Netgalley. Thank you for the opportunity.
A fascinating and novel idea for the story. It read like being told a story around a fireplace. The writing was very well done. The characters are well developed and the story well explored. 
However, at times the writing became very complex and difficult to follow.
A good read.

Unfortunately I bailed on this book at about 25% through, but I do feel that it is a case of 'It's not you, it's me'.
 I struggle with magical realism at the best of times and, currently, when I need books to be an escape from the real world, this was also a bit too dark for me.  I found that I didn't really know what was going on and was really pushing on to read the book, but if we're just not engaging with the storyline then what else can we do?

I had heard nothing but good things about this book so was very excited to receive a review copy, also on Oprah’s book list- would recommend!

The Water Dancer is a well written novel, but one that I struggled to fully engage with for some reason.  It felt like hard work to read and I kept feeling I’d missed information and had to go back.  

There were definitely some interesting images and themes, I was keen to discover why Hiram couldn’t remember his mother although he had perfect recall in other areas.  I was also fascinated by the mysterious  “conduction” and how it could possibly work.

This is a book that many readers will love, but unfortunately it just missed the mark for me.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing a review copy in exchange for honest feedback.

The book tells a the story of young Hiram Walker, who was "born into bondage" and had forgotten all of his memories of his mother after she was sold. Yet along with this terrible loss, Hiram also gained an unusual gift -  .a gift that will later help to save his life. And so we are introduced into Hiram's life as a slave and his constant battle from the plantations to the wars to save his family.
There is a strong element of magic realism to the novel and while intriguing this does not take from the utter brutal cruelty of the slave world that surrounds Hiram. The language is richly descriptive and Ta-Nehisi Coates does not shy away at any point from the reality of the past. The story is utterly heartbreaking but none the less has a huge impact and it is an important tale to tell.

This book sucked me in and didn't let go until the very last page. A truly incredible story with an unusual magical realism twist. 

Hiram Walker is a slave on a Virginian plantation in the mid-1800s. He remembers very little of his mother, who was sold when he was young, and he sadly lives under the thumb of his father, the owner of the plantation. Following a near-fatal event, Hiram discovers that he possesses a power that will end up changing his life entirely. 

This took me a while to read, but I feel that it is a book best read slowly. The writing was beautiful and the complexity of the story amazed me, as it was such a novel way to tell Hiram's tale. At first, I struggled with the magical realism elements but I did eventually warm up to it and thought it really set the book apart. Slavery will never be an easy topic to read about, and it shouldn't ever be. I felt that this book managed to capture all of the horrors in such a poignant manner and emotion just spilled off the page. 
Hiram was a fantastic character to follow and he was written well too. My main complaint was that a romantic relationship was introduced but without any real substance to it. I like romances to have a solid basis and at least some background, but I didn't quite get that in this instance. 

An unusual take on such a powerful and emotive topic, but I really enjoyed it. I am now looking forward to exploring other works by Coates!!

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Finally getting round to reading Coates' novel and I'm kicking myself for waiting so long. Coates' writing is powerful, urgent and beautiful and this is a book that everyone should read. While it touches on many issues, the main theme is freedom - how it is achieved, what it means and who gets to decide. The magical realism element of conduction is reminiscent of the literal nature of Colson Whitehead's novel, which implies that the Underground Railroad was such a magical thing in itself that it has to exist within this realm of alternate reality. The characters jump off the page and you can identify with every single one. Required reading.

This is a beautifully written book, the writing is almost lyrical and prose like, it’s a joy to read Ta-Nehisi’s books, even when they are hard, thought provoking and uncomfortable to read, they so beautifully crafted. The Water Dancer is an absolutely  stunning read, full of multi-faceted and compelling characters, heartbreaking to read but no less enchanting because of it, thoroughly recommended read.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

3.5★
“Perhaps my mother would be there, and then, at the speed of thought, I saw her flittering, before my eyes, water dancing in the ring.”

I was so frustrated while reading this book that I quit several times but kept thinking there were some valuable insights and strong images and I wanted to see where they led.

Hiram Walker is a boy, a slave who doesn’t remember his mother. He tells his story about growing up and learning more about who he is and what he can expect in life.

“And more, I was just then beginning to understand the great valley separating the Quality and the Tasked—that the Tasked, hunched low in the fields, carrying the tobacco from hillock to hogshead, led backbreaking lives and that the Quality who lived in the house high above, the seat of Lockless, did not.”

He has also begun to experience strange episodes of other-worldliness. Not out-of-body experiences so much as visions. He’s not sure what they are or why the occur, but sometimes they have helped him escape a dangerous situation.

Coates has used history, oral tales, and science fiction to create a world where Hiram meets Harriet Tubman, the famous escaped slave who was nicknamed “Moses”, because she led so many slaves north to freedom on the “underground railroad”.

Harriet was badly injured as a child and suffered spells of unconsciousness and had visions all her life, which she attributed to religious messages. Coates gives her truly magic powers. He is a science fiction fan himself, so I imagine he enjoyed writing these parts.

“And at that Harriet stopped in her tracks. There was a light growing now, out of the darkness. At first I thought Harriet had lit a lantern, for the light was low and faint. And then I saw that the light was not yellow but a pale spectral green, and I saw that this light was not in Harriet’s hand, but was in Harriet herself.

She turned to me, with eyes of the same green fire that had grown up out of the night.

‘To remember, friend,’ she said. ‘For memory is the chariot, and memory is the way, and memory is bridge from the curse of slavery to the boon of freedom.’”

The language seems uneven, sometimes poetic and cultured, sometimes broken and rustic. In some places, Hiram’s thoughts and words are quite sophisticated while in others they are rough and unschooled. Some of the internal monologues sound far too adult and philosphical for a young boy.

“The masters could not bring water to boil, harness a horse, nor strap their own drawers without us. We were better than them—we had to be. Sloth was literal death for us, while for them it was the whole ambition of their lives.”

The option of a life of sloth for the Quality was gradually disappearing. Tobacco crops were failing. The Tasked were becoming the only commodity for some.

“But the land was not what it had been, and the Quality took up a new trade, and the trade was us, and each week when we counted we saw hands fading away.
. . .
The tree of our family was parted—branches here, roots there—parted for their lumber.
. . .
And as they dragged her off, I heard her holler, almost in rhythm and melody, like the old work songs, ‘Murderer, say I! Auctioneer of all my lost boys! Ryland’s Hounds, Ryland’s Hounds! May a righteous God rend you to worms’ meat! May black fire scorch you down to your vile and crooked bones.’”

The other growing business was capturing escaped slaves or kidnapping freed blacks from the north and selling them in the South. The hunters and their hounds were mostly the "low whites".

“We feared them and hated them, perhaps more than we feared and hated the Quality who held us, for all of us were low, we were all Tasked, and we should be in union and arrayed against the Quality, if only the low whites would wager their crumbs for a slice of the whole cake.”

This is a hard one for me, because there is a good story in here with a talented writer to tell it. I’ve liked what I’ve read of his articles. For some reason, I didn’t connect with Hiram. I wish I had. It’s an important part of history, and its legacy in the US is dreadful. Plus, around the world, people are still being stolen and sold like livestock.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin for the review copy from which I’ve quoted.

This is a beautifully written story about terrible events, with a wonderful magical realism twist. I was so enthralled by the gorgeous, poetic writing that I kind of lost the actual plot on occasion, but that's just me.   This is a truly fantastic read, sad in parts but also full of hope and love. Recommended.

This is a beautifully written book about slavery, power and corruption, families and memories and one man's quest for freedom for his people.

Set in Virginia in the time before the civil war, Hiram Walker is the son of a slave and the white owner of the plantation. His mother was sold by his father when he was nine and although he has a photographic memory he is distraught that he can't remember her. An intelligent and delightful child, he is taken into the big house by his father to be a companion for his older white half brother, Maynard, a dull, spoilt and dissolute boy. His father hopes he will be a good influence on Maynard, the heir to the estate. Hiram may be spared the back breaking work of the slaves who work in the tobacco fields under a cruel master, but he is still a slave and treated as such by those with all the power who live in luxury and want for nothing. The soils of Virginia are worn out and slaves are gradually being sold or sent to plantations further south as crops decline. As the estate starts to decline further, Hiram can see the writing on the wall and longs to run to freedom.

The lovely poetic and richly descriptive writing in this book really drew me in and kept me engrossed for the first half of the book. After that it seemed to move rather sluggishly and took a while to get to where it was going. Hiram has a special power inherited from his mother which adds a touch of magical realism to the novel, but did not feel central to it, in that although it added another dimension to Hiram and forms the climax of the novel, the narrative could have worked just as well without it. I also felt that Hiram's character needed more fleshing out as although he is the narrator, we don't get much feel for him as an individual. The love story also felt a little underdone and somewhat passionless. Despite these few gripes, the novel is well worth reading, not just for the lovely prose, but for the richly depicted historical perspective of slavery and those who profited from it or reveled in cruelty to their fellow man and those who bravely fought against it.

The Water Dancer is the story of Hiram, a slave with a complicated status. He is the son of one of the “Tasked”, the slave Rose, and the master of a tobacco plantation, Howell, belonging to the “Quality”. Hiram narrates his journey as he escapes slavery and travels to the north with the help of the Underground. 

The book is suffused with magical realism as Hi explores his powers of “conduction” and investigates his life story in order to unlock the one missing memory of his life: the fate of his mother, who was sold off by Howell in anger and thus separated from her son — like so many others who came before and after her. 

This book has been such a literary sensation and it certainly is so very important, dealing with the horrific reality of slavery and all the horrors this entailed. I’m feeling slightly conflicted as the writing is beautiful and, like I said, the story and its telling, even in fictionalised form, so paramount. But I just didn’t love it as much as I hoped and even expected. I’m still giving it four stars but have to admit that that is in part motivated by the subject matter and not entirely by my love for the tale and its telling.

Great social commentators don’t necessarily make great novelists, no matter how powerful their writing and insight. Ta-Nehisi Coates is an accomplished writer and an important contemporary voice, but this is very much a debut novel - albeit a promising one.      
 
It’s probably been said elsewhere, but Coates picks up where Toni Morrison left off. The emotional / psychological / spiritual ruin of slavery; the deep never-healing inner personal and familial wounds; the burden of loss, grief, hatred; the trauma of children, parents, partners ripped away to be sold off, never to be seen again. Morrison’s themes are his themes, and her raw material is his too.  

Set on a failing tobacco plantation in pre-civil war Virginia, 'The water dancer' presents a fictionalised narrative that incorporates real events and individuals, namely the Underground Railroad, the secret network that enabled people to escape out of slavery to the free north. The story is built around the development of Hiram, the narrator, from traumatised motherless child, to silent dutiful house-slave, to daring outlaw, to… um, supernatural liberator. 

The early chapters of Hiram’s childhood and youth are excellent and really moving - the writing is gorgeous, it’s emotionally resonant, and the decaying setting and hubristic tragedy of the land and human lives laid waste by avarice are drawn beautifully. This would have worked perfectly well as a straight tale of self-discovery, epiphany and escape, the hero emerging through trials to triumph over the odds. It’s a well-worn narrative but it’s stood the test of time for a reason.

But no. The author steers the novel wildly off course with an ill-advised plunge into magic realism. Rather than making a gruelling journey from south to north involving immense danger and hardship, escapees can be teleported to freedom via a mysterious psychic miasma. You wade into a river in Virginia, a spooky blue fog descends, spectral figures of ancestors and loved ones appear, and hey presto, you emerge a free man in Philadelphia. Hiram is an unexceptional character but he does have a photographic memory, and somehow (don’t ask me how) he discovers that this also allows him to conjure this wonderful phenomenon at will - which he learns from none other than Harriet Tubman. (And at this point I totally lost faith in the novel.) 

I have two problems with this. In narrative terms it’s really weak. It’s like Pam Ewing’s dream in ‘Dallas’. Secondly, it seems somehow disrespectful to the real-life unknown unsung heroes of the Underground Railroad, who risked and indeed sacrificed their lives helping slaves escape. To me, Harriet Tubman simply magicking slaves to safety in the north is a baffling take. I don’t know. The author has obviously a far far deeper historical and personal understanding of the whole subject than me, so he must have had his reasons - but they’re a mystery to me. Either it should have been a pure magic realism novel, with all the colourful teleportations and mental super-powers the hero could muster, or straight historical fiction. I’d have voted for the latter, personally.

Ta-Nehisi Coates has built a strong reputation for his non-fiction work, particularly his award-winning “Between The World And Me” from 2015 which was written as a letter to his son encompassing feelings regarding being a black man in the United States, a twenty-first century slant on James Baldwin’s important “The Fire Next Time” (1963). This is his debut novel, a historical work, set in Virginia in the nineteenth century.

Hiram Walker is a slave.. Acknowledged by his master as his son he is spared work in the tobacco fields and used as a servant for his white half-brother Maynard.. Whilst returning the no-good heir from the racetrack Hiram has a vision which leads to a catastrophic accident which puts his future in doubt..

Events lead him to become linked to the Underground Railroad, a group of agents who worked to free slaves and bring them north. He meets and is inspired by Harriet Tubman, the real-life woman who rescued around 70 slaves on 13 dangerous missions. Coates here employs a little magic to explain Tubman’s success, magic which Hiram himself discovers he has the potential to utilise, the ability to jaunt through space..

I wasn’t sure about this - feeling it undermined the true life heroine’s contribution but looking at the life of Harriet Tubman afterwards she did seem to experience visions probably caused by an overseer throwing a heavy weight at her head when a child so Coates is using an imaginative next step in using these visions to assist her with her rescues. Also, despite any misgivings the section where Hiram accompanies her on a mission was one of my favourite parts of the novel.  What also is done very well is emphasising the importance of story and their history for the black characters (both aspects often present in the very best Black American literature) and also conveying the sense of loss in their lives here at a time when the good times are drawing to a close for the white plantation owners meaning the slaves are no longer the asset for them they once were, which brings its own particular set of problems. .

Comparisons do have to be made, however, to the multi-award winning 2016 best-selling novel by Colson Whitehead “The Underground Railroad” which similarly uses imagination to provide a creative slant on this rescue network.  That is one of my favourite novels in recent years and whereas I was very impressed by Coates’ debut the Whitehead novel has the edge.

The Water Dancer was published in hardback in the UK by Hamish Hamilton in February 2020. The Penguin paperback is due on 19th November. Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the review copy.