Reviews

• 奴隷の歴史小説を超えて幻想的な世界を作り出したブッカー賞最終候補作

  黒人少年ジョージ・ワシントン・ブラックは、19世紀前半バルバトスのサトウキビ・プランテーションで奴隷として生まれた。親の記憶などはない。5歳のころまで住んでいた小屋から別の小屋に移され、そこで出会ったビッグキット(Big Kit）という黒人女性から守られて育った。男性より大柄でアフリカからの魔法を操ると信じられているビッグキットに逆らう者はいなかったが、ワシントンはビッグキットを愛すると同時に恐れてもいた。 ワシントンが11歳のころ、年老いたプランテーションのオーナーが死に、イギリス人の甥エラスマス・ワイルドが相続した。新しいオーナーのエラスマスは残酷な男で、ほんの小さな失敗や病気で奴隷たちに暴力を振るい、惨殺する。その現状をビッグキットは暗い満足感で捉える。「死は扉だ 。彼女は僕にそう理解してもらいたいのだ」と11歳のワシントンは考える。 そのワシントンに、科学にしか興味がないオーナーの弟ティッチ(Titch）が関心を持ち、アシスタントの仕事を与える。彼が作っている飛行船の「重し」としてちょうどいいサイズだというのだ。 ティッチのおかげでワシントンは読み書きを習い、スケッチの優れた才能があることもわかる。だが、オーナーの弟から特別扱いされたことでワシントンはビッグキットから見放され、オーナーやオーナーの従弟からの暴力のターゲットになる。 大怪我をし、次には死が待ち構えていることがわかったとき、ティッチはワシントンを連れて飛行船でバルバトスを脱出する……。 カナダ人作家Esi EdugyanのWashington Blackは、奴隷に関する歴史小説かと思ったらそうでもなく、飛行船のあたりで「マジックリアリズムの作品か？」と思ったら、やはりそうでもない。だが、既存のカテゴリに収まらない自由さがあり、そこが魅力だ。そして、何よりも文章が良い。じっくり味わいながら読み直したい本だ。

• Absolutely better than the movie.

• I am a reader. And this is a book to be read. Flawless characters, who develop with the reader and then entrance the reader to go where the author demands that we go. Touching, fierce, tough, heartbreaking, imaginative, lovely. Talented author; understatement. Worth your time - can there be a higher rating?

• What a great story, easily in my top 5 of all time. Esi Edugyan got me the first time with Half Blood Blues, another excellent read, but I would say Washington Black is even better. Can't praise it enough.

• I started this book with high hopes, after reading some other reviews, but I really struggled to get through it. The first part held my attention more, with its depiction of a slave's life on a plantation, and it seemed to promise enthralling adventures. However, the narrative never took off and the tale seemed to meander aimlessly without ever capturing my interest. A series of characters were introduced that served no particular purpose and the main characters never came alive for me. Some gruesome episodes just added to a sense of unease and detachment from the story and I only finished the book because I kept hoping that it would all seem worthwhile at the end. It wasn't.

• Novelist Esi Edugyan has proven once again, in “Washington Black,” to be fully in control of our five senses. As in her previous novel, “Half-Blood Blues,” her ability to invoke sensory reaction to her writing is strongly reflected in this tribute to the urge to be free and accepted. Washington Black, a young boy slave on a Barbados sugar plantation, is chosen to be his master’s brother’s manservant. The eccentric Christopher Wilde, a naturalist, explorer, scientist, and abolitionist takes the boy on a wild journey that starts with a flying machine and continues by Underground Railroad and ship until, eventually, the pair finds themselves in the frozen expanse of the Arctic where Wilde disappears. It’s a sort of “Around the World in Eighty Days” with much darker implications. It’s a brilliant story of revelation, invention, and determination by a boy who, though frightened by events that challenge his young imagination, finds a life of evasion that evolves into love, as he seeks autonomy from his racial bonds and the severe disfigurement from burns suffered during his early association with his mentor. Although he eventually becomes a free man, he never really recovers from the trauma suffered during his early days of slavery. Edugyan gathers the threads of existence in blistering hot Barbados, the frozen expanse of the Arctic, the stuffy dampness of London, and the simmering deserts of Morocco and weaves a tapestry of feelings that the reader can actually sense. Her lyrical word play is magnificent. It’s a display of talent that is worthy of greatness. Her parents emigrated from Ghana, settled in Canada, and Edugyan now lives in Victoria, British Columbia. She admits to suffering a bit of horror as she lived through slavery’s dire existence while researching her novel, but feels it was important to the authenticity of her writing. The book was a finalist for the 2018 Man Booker Prize and well deserving of the honor. Schuyler T Wallace Author of TIN LIZARD TALES

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