BOOK REVIEW: "The Water Dancer" A Novel by Ta-Nehisi Coates
According to my Goodreads, I have been reading The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates for 5 months. In these 5 months, I have begun and completed a series of novels – novels from a wide array of genres and topics, both fiction and non-fiction. But, somehow, every time I picked up this novel, I could not concentrate for more than a few pages. I believe that books are meant to be consumed at the right time, so I tried not to force myself to indulge in this text until I felt compelled to. Which was frustrating, because I had pre-ordered this novel as soon as it was available. Ever since reading Between the World and Me, a gift from an ex, I have had somewhat of an obsession with Coates’ writing. From his articles in The Atlantic to his tweets, I held onto every word. I have myself tweeted on multiple occasions that he has the right words for everything. But in those months of having his newest work in my possession I could not read what he had to say. And I could not even blame it on the heaviness of indulging in an even fictionalized tale of our enslaved ancestors – I had breezed through Barracoon and Beloved during this time.
However, the present day COVID-19 quarantine brought me back to this novel. Starting where I left off, page 98, I dove in and was unable to stop moving – ironic, right? Horrendous metaphor aside this, this novel presents a story of a “magical gift, a devastating loss, and an underground war for freedom” according to its Amazon description.
Readers follow Hiram Walker, the son of a slave (and slave master) who has a somewhat photographic memory. But the only thing that he is unable to recall is his mother’s face.
As Hiram is driving a carriage, carrying his half-brother, across a bridge he is attacked with a vision of his mother dancing. This incident results in the death of his brother, but Hiram is somehow saved.
Dealing with the aftereffects of his brother’s death and conflicting feelings about his father and life in Lockless, Hiram decides to run.
He learns of an organization called The Underground, comes face-to-face with Moses (my girl Harriet T.), and is compelled to free those who he loves the most. But to do this, he must remember.
Ta-Nehisi Coates does a wonderful job of blending history with the fantastic. A story that is fictional to the wider audience, holds the history of our ancestors – who were forced on to ships and carried across the Atlantic, working entire lifetimes toiling in fields, only finding pieces of joy in the songs and dances they had carried with them and eventually passed on to their children, and those children’s children.
Something about holding this book in my hands and reading about conduction brought me back to the folk story “All God’s Chillen Had Wings” – a story of Black people with the power to fly. According to this tale, these enslaved people held the power to escape from bondage when the time was right. Like this, Hiram desperately wanted to go back to save those he loved, but he not yet acquired what was necessary for him to unlock the power of conduction.
I hate to repeat what so many others have probably already said, but The Water Dancer reminds me of the work of Toni Morrison. The focus on the mundane aspects of black life, reminds me of Zora Neale Hurston. Sophia reminds me of Janie Mae Starks, in her search for her own horizon. I could go on and on, analyzing this book and its parallels to other works in the black literary canon, but I won’t for now.
In the present day we have those that say they could live without hearing, watching, reading another tale of slavery, but The Water Dancer is not just another tale. The novel is not another gruesome retelling of our past. Some will find the pace of the novel to be slow. Some will feel that the romance is contrived, and predictable. And some will feel that Coates is entering into a lane that he does not belong in. But upon closing this book, I let go of a breath that I had been holding in for 403 pages. Ta-Nehisi Coates had not let me down.
