This is Coates’s first novel and tells the story of Hiram Walker, a “tasked man” on a Virginia plantation who has a mysterious gift from a lost mother that allows him to survive in dangerous moments. He realizes that his slightly elevated status as son of his master can not save, and so he plans for his escape.
Halfway through the novel, I was still trying to piece together what I thought it was doing, and whether one thing it was doing, worked or not. This is a novel that tries a lot of different things. There’s a kind of wavelike rhythm to the narrative, moving in and out of time here and there, while always moving ostensibly forward. But we know from various places throughout the narration that we are seeing the past and that there is in fact a future.
That’s part of it. In addition, there’s a kind of magical realism and supernatural element that provides some important figurative elements to the story. But in trying to determine how real the realism parts are, I often found myself wondering whether or not they would ever pay off. It asks the question, would this novel work without them (yes, I think so), and if so, then what does that tell you about their essentialness?
Ultimately, this feels like a novel that is drenched in influences. There’s a lot of Ralph Ellison here, some James Baldwin, a lot of Richard Wright, and plenty of Ann Petry. There’s obviously plenty of Toni Morrison as well. The language is sometimes confused between dreamy and stilted, and sometimes this feels purposeful, and sometimes it feels accidental, and therefore unfortunate.
(Photo: https://www.amazon.com/Water-Dancer-Novel-Ta-Nehisi-Coates/dp/0399590595/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+water+dancer&qid=1570467133&sr=8-1)
