A masterpiece that moves at smacking pace
WHEN a black slave was born on a particularly vicious Barbados plantation in 1818, it seemed obvious that his life would be short, brutal and obscure.
Yet surprisingly, this was not the fate of George Washington Black. He would, by a series of life-altering incidents, travel the world and discover his own fine talents as a youth and young man, while discovering too that some answers to life’s questions are unfathomable.
This remarkably pacey novel, written with beautifully tuned language and insight, is the third book by the black Canadian author Esi Edugyan, whose former Half Blood Blues was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize, as was this novel last year. She is a young talent who has already achieved greatness.
The beautiful cream-and-gold cover shows what appears to be a fantastical object, a type of hot air balloon. It’s creator, the plantation owner’s brother Titch, insists on naming it a “cloud-cutter”, under which is strung a bizarre “water craft”, complete with oars. It is the element of the possible as well as the improbable that gives this tale its edge, and presents to us a story that is supple and unlikely, but utterly captivating.
“Wash” has, until the age of 11, seen only brutality on the Faith Plantation, which uses slaves as one might misuse an old piece of machinery; the chilling methods used of enforcing discipline are difficult to read. There were no laws to stop the owners from doing exactly as they pleased to the poor souls who arrived in chains, and who were assumed to be “sub-human”.
When Erasmus Wilde inherits the estate from his uncle, a shudder goes through the roomy, bold body of Big Kit, Wash’s protector and a long-time slave, for in his pale face and empty eyes she foresees a cruel future, from a man who must “feed on blood” to warm himself.
His younger brother, Titch, is another matter entirely. He is an inventor, explorer and abolitionist, and he enlists young Wash to help him create a device in which he can fly. Their escape from the Faith Plantation is necessitated by the death of a very odd cousin, Philip, who blows his brains out on the estate while Wash is present, and they both know that Wash will be blamed and killed for this event, despite his innocence.
After their daring flight off the island, the book takes us to the frigid Arctic where Titch’s elderly father is conducting scientific experiments, and where Titch disappears into the icy wastes. Wash must make his way alone in the world, a potentially dangerous place, for many would try to recapture him as an “escaped” slave.
But Wash has a great gift, of drawing and observation. He is self-taught and talented, and joins up with a famed marine scientist and his young daughter, Tanna, in collecting and recording sea specimens. He designs the first aquatic tank in Britain to contain foreign marine exhibits.
Yet he cannot let go of his seeming abandonment by Titch, and his journey continues, to Amsterdam and finally to Morocco, accompanied by Tanna, to see if he can find the answers he has been searching for.
This is a powerfully written novel that moves at a smacking pace; there is never a dull moment, and yet Edugyan’s prose is peerless. It is no less than a masterpiece, a must-read. Seldom have I found a Booker-shortlisted novel so enthralling.