Helpful Score: 4
The writing is superb & this is flat out one of the best books I've ever read.
Helpful Score: 2
I am an avid historical fiction reader and found this book fascinating. The author's descriptions of events are candidly brutal. This story was unfortunately a part of this country's history and every American should be aware of the horrid conditons Africans were forced to endure on slaveships.
Helpful Score: 1
This book merges the shame of slavery with a thrilling classic sea saga. Teens and adults alike will enjoy this book.
Books like this are why I love to read literary fiction. To say that Charles Johnson has a "command of the English language" is a bit of an understatement, really. The man is a master of metaphor and allusion and this book is wildly entertaining, challenging and clever. Highly recommended.
1990 National Book Award winner, this novel of the passage of a New Orleans slave ship is just stunning.
I found it difficult - but it got great reviews.
The years is 1830. Rutherford Calhoun-freed slave, ardent womanizer, and self-confessed lair and thief--must flee New Orleans because of bad debts and an ill-starred romance. His poorly chosen means of escape is to stow away aboard the slave ship Republic, en route to pick up human cargo in Africa. Thus begins one of the most extraordinary voyages in literature--and one of hte most revelatory illuminations of the black American experience.
Publisher remainder. The cover was cut and "not for resale" stamp was applied.
