Book set in Bridgetown, Barbados. Reviewed on 2019/11: https://www.instagram.com/p/B5Fz4CqAEMW/
#washingtonblack by #esiedugyan is not perfect, but I still think it has a powerful message which can resonate with all of us. As my therapist has advised me several times, I’m going to concentrate on things I liked in the story instead of expecting everything to be perfect. Despite the seemingly disparate parts, I felt that #edugyan was aiming to describe the impossible yet inevitable expectations we all place on the idea of #freedom . We strive for freedom. We do everything we can to achieve it, and we even help others in their struggles towards freedom. However, we do fail to realize that freedom is chaotic, 2 steps forward and 5 backwards, labor-intensive, and to some extent an unattainable mirage. If I read this book with this angle, Edugyan made me think of Vassily Grossman and what I call his hopeful pessimism. Whether he wants it or not, #georgewashingtonblack is moving forward. He’s propelled forward by the twists of the story, which I found at times difficult to connect. However, the idea of this utopia and fantasy which we call freedom comes at different parts of this book as problematic and ever-challenging as it can be. We never fully learn how to be free. We certainly do not want others to even dare to dream to be free. We have distorted images and expectations of what being free or the path to freedom might look like. Had Edugyan made these premises more clear in the book, instead of the #adventure twists, we could have been facing quite the story in the realm of #tonimorrison or #paulbeatty . #recommended#barbados #arctic #novascotia#vintage #vintagebooks#emancipation #london #morocco#adrift #canlit #gillerprize#canadianliterature
hebdo_readings 