Valerie Martin’s Property delivers an eerily mesmerizing inquiry into slavery’s venomous effects on the owner and the owned. The year is 1828, the setting a Louisiana sugar plantation where Manon Gaudet, pretty, bitterly intelligent, and monstrously self-absorbed, seethes under the dominion of her boorish husband. In particular his relationship with her slave Sarah, who is both his victim and his … victim and his mistress.
Exploring the permutations of Manon’s own obsession with Sarah against the backdrop of an impending slave rebellion, Property unfolds with the speed and menace of heat lightning, casting a startling light from the past upon the assumptions we still make about the powerful and powerful.
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A book from a woman’s point of view in the Antebellum South.
Excellent read! I totally enjoyed reading this book.
Shaken, I feel shaken. The story is fact and those facts are sad. How did we have such a shaded past? Read it and you can feel the emotion those effected by the way of life.
Should be a must read! Powerful insight into the mindset of slave owners. Tragic!
Eye opening book
It never grabbed me and pulled me forward, but it is well-written.
Sadly disturbing
It was really good, but I wasn’t expecting it to end the way it did.
This is a fascinating story of antebellum slavery in Louisiana. It has an original point of view and skillfully portrays the effects of slavery on both slaves and masters.
Always like period pieces on slavery -a good read
Very interesting book written from an interesting perspective. Thoroughly enjoyed.