He can also "conduct." But neither he, nor we the reader, know what exactly that means or how he does it. He does, however, know who his father is: The white man who owns the plantation, and hence, owns Hiram himself.īut his preternatural gift for memory isn't his only power. And despite his otherwise photographic memory, he can't remember anything about her. Our narrator - a slave named Hiram on a failing Virginia tobacco plantation - has been separated from his mother since he was a child. The novel is about the horrors of slavery, including possibly its greatest horror: The arbitrary separation of families. This is a novel people will be talking about for a long time. It's one of those novels I feel like I appreciated for its genius more than enjoyed as a pleasurable reading experience. The Water Dancer is a stunning novel - probably the smartest, best-written novel I've read this year. When an intellectual giant like Ta-Nehisi Coates makes a first foray into fiction, you read it.
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