Kay C. (roomwithbooks) reviewed on + 6 more book reviews
Charles Johnson, winner of a 1990 National Book Award, offers the comic philosophical adventures of Andrew Hawkins, a mulatto slave born in the antebellum South. In a desparate flight to freedom, Andrew seeks to escape a bondage that is not only physical, but also spiratual, not only racial, but also sexual, and along the way he encounters an amazing cast of characters: Reb, the coffinmaker, an all-wise African magician who befriends Andrew and follows him north; and Horace Bannon, the soulcatcher, who captures a runaway slave not with dogs or guns, but with his soul--and he's hot on Andrew's trail.