by Nathan Harris
Overall: Lyrical and introspective, The Sweetness of Water tells the story of two families in the immediate aftermath of the American Civil War. Prentiss and Landry are brothers, formerly enslaved Black men, who have decided to leave Georgia but don’t yet know where they’re going or how they’ll get there. Meanwhile, George and Isabelle Walker, a pair of eccentric white landowners, have received the terrible news that their son has died in the war. When George meets Prentiss and Landry in the woods, he impulsively invites the brothers to stay on his land and work, for their first time in their lives, for wages as free men. But the community of Old Ox remains stuck in its antebellum ways, despite the presence of Union soldiers, and one unexpected encounter sets off a chain of violence that leaves both families permanently altered.
Likes: The writing in this book is absolutely stellar. The cadence of the sentences, the word choices, and the way the narrative is structured beautifully evoke the nineteenth century. It’s rare to find a work of historical fiction that so convincingly wears the guise of a contemporary work of a much earlier era, but The Sweetness of Water does just that. The characters are complex, each grieving increasing losses in his or her own way. And the book beautifully shows how our actions – generous or vindictive, motivated by love or by hate – have far-reaching and often unexpected consequences.
Dislikes: Really nothing. But if you need a fast pace, or you like to keep your characters’ emotional lives at arm’s length, this isn’t the book for you.
FYI: slavery, violence, murder, sexual violence, war, loss of a parent, loss of a child, loss of a spouse, loss of a sibling.
Liz Helfrich 