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Lädt ... Yondervon Jabari Asim
Keine Lädt ...
Melde dich bei LibraryThing an um herauszufinden, ob du dieses Buch mögen würdest. Keine aktuelle Diskussion zu diesem Buch. This novel gives strong personalities to the enslaved people living with the pain of a harsh task master, an indifferent owner, loved ones sent away without warning, little knowledge of the surrounding country yet trusting in the rumors of a better place to live. Escaping was not as easy as just walking off. ( ) This narrative of the utter horror of plantation life for enslaved people - the endless work, punishment, rape, selling off of family, is so painful that the only relief, for those in the system before the Civil War, is dreaming of escape and then attempting it. The small group who runs - they are the Stolen, oppressed by the Thieves - are led by a preacher, Ransom, who by his occupation is permitted to travel throughout the South and whisper into the ears of those who dare to listen. The tale is monumentally memorable and enhanced by the joyous cover illustration by Jacob Lawrence from his Harriet Tubman series, representing little Zander, the youngest escapee and the one who hears and follows the Ancestors who tell him to fly. Jabari Asim's Yonder is the story of five Stolen escaping from the plantation of the Thief who claims to own them. Putting it in language we hear more often, it's the story of a group of runaway slaves fleeing their master. See what difference the language makes? The story Yonder relates, narrated by multiple Stolen, is deeply engaging. What I want to focus on, however, is the power of language that runs throughout the novel. It's not just the Stolen/Thief labels. Cannonball Greene, owner of the plantation, has convinced himself he is engaged in a scientific study of the soulless beings his god has seen fit to bless him with, coining new terms for their various forms of inferiority. The Stolen, each given seven words at birth from seven different Stolen, recite those words at the beginning and end of each day and at times of crisis. They don't tell themselves they come from Africa—in their wording they come from Strength. And when—if—they reach Yonder (Canada) they will rename themselves. Changing the language with which a story is told, as Asim does, can make that story new, can make that story truer, can flip the perspective through which that story is experienced by readers. I'm still searching for my own language to discuss Yonder, but this is the point I'm currently at. When I find better words, I'll come back to revise. I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own. Zeige 3 von 3 keine Rezensionen | Rezension hinzufügen
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"The Water Dancer meets The Prophets in this spare, gripping, and beautifully rendered novel exploring love and friendship among a group of enslaved Black strivers in the mid-nineteenth century"--
They call themselves the Stolen. Their owners call them captives. They are taught their captors' tongues and their beliefs but they have a language and rituals all their own. In a world that would be allegorical if it weren't saturated in harsh truths, Cato and William meet at Placid Hall, a plantation in an unspecified part of the American South. Subject to the whims of their tyrannical and eccentric captor, Cannonball Greene, they never know what harm may befall them: inhumane physical toil in the plantation's quarry by day, a beating by night, or the sale of a loved one at any moment. It's that cruel practice--the wanton destruction of love, the belief that Black people aren't even capable of loving--that hurts the most. It hurts the reserved and stubborn William, who finds himself falling for Margaret, a small but mighty woman with self-possession beyond her years. And it hurts Cato, whose first love, Iris, was sold off with no forewarning. He now finds solace in his hearty band of friends, including William, who is like a brother; Margaret; Little Zander; and Milton, a gifted artist. There is also Pandora, with thick braids and long limbs, whose beauty calls to him. Their relationships begin to fray when a visiting minister with a mysterious past starts to fill their heads with ideas about independence. He tells them that with freedom comes the right to choose the small things--when to dine, when to begin and end work--as well as the big things, such as whom and how to love. Do they follow the preacher and pursue the unknown? Confined in a landscape marked by deceit and uncertainty, who can they trust? In an elegant work of monumental imagination that will reorient how we think of the legacy of America's shameful past, Jabari Asim presents a beautiful, powerful, and elegiac novel that examines intimacy and longing in the quarters while asking a vital question: What would happen if an enslaved person risked everything for love? Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
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Google Books — Lädt ... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyKlassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt:
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