One of the New York Times Book Review TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR Eleven-year-old George Washington Black—or Wash—a field slave on a Barbados sugar plantation, is initially terrified when he is chosen as the manservant of his master’s brother. To his surprise, however, the eccentric Christopher Wilde turns out to be a naturalist, explorer, inventor, and abolitionist. Soon Wash is initiated into a … abolitionist. Soon Wash is initiated into a world where a flying machine can carry a man across the sky, where even a boy born in chains may embrace a life of dignity and meaning, and where two people, separated by an impossible divide, can begin to see each other as human.
But when a man is killed and a bounty is placed on Wash’s head, they must abandon everything and flee together. Over the course of their travels, what brings Wash and Christopher together will tear them apart, propelling Wash ever farther across the globe in search of his true self. Spanning the Caribbean to the frozen Far North, London to Morocco, Washington Black is a story of self-invention and betrayal, of love and redemption, and of a world destroyed and made whole again.
One of the Best Books of the Year
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Washington Black is nothing short of a masterpiece. Esi Edugyan has a rare talent for turning over little known stones of history and giving her reader a new lens on the world, a new way of understanding subject matter we arrogantly think we know everything about. This book is an epic adventure and a heartfelt tale about love and morality and their many contradictions. I loved it.
This book was thoroughly original—somehow a cross between Colson Whitehead’s “The Underground Railroad” and “The Wizard of Oz.” The story of George Washington Black’s journey from a childhood of brutal slavery to freedom, love, travels, and self-expression was never predictable and was beautifully written. Esi Edugyan is a consummate story-teller. Her characters and settings were multi-dimensional and finely drawn. “Washington Black” was a most-welcome page-turner.
This is historical fiction and so much more. George Washington Black, a slave on an 1830s Barbados sugar plantation who is owned by a man of careless and deep cruelty, narrates the novel from the point of view of his eighteen-year-old self. The story opens with his earliest memories. The depiction of the brutality of the master is very difficult to read, and the brief relief of tenderness from “Big Kit” an older woman slave who tries to protect him, is poignant. Wash, as he is called, is taken as an assistant by the scientist brother of the owner, Christopher (Titch), who is kind to him, apparently an abolitionist (not that unschooled Wash was aware of such a stance) and who comes to recognize Wash’s fine mind and artistic talent. When Wash becomes an unwitting witness to an event that would cause him to be blamed, terribly punished and likely executed, Titch enables his escape by the hot air balloon Wash–and many slaves borrowed from his brother–has helped him construct as an experiment, and the novel becomes much like a 19th century picaresque adventure story as together they make their way from country to country, hunted men, a price on Wash’s head. Ultimately,Wash becomes an accomplished scientist, but is greatly troubled by Titch’s later perceived abandonment of him. The novel at its heart is about the heart–and about the longing for a home, psychological and physical, and about loyalty, the friendship between men of the non-romantic sort, and the need to be seen as opposed to being used. The observations and diction is precise even as the metaphors often soar with beauty and eloquence. Not for nothing was this work on many 2018 Best of the Year lists. It absolutely deserved to be. What an achievement.
This magnificent story takes us from a sugar plantation in the Caribbean to the Arctic Circle to England and finally, North Africa. As Washington Black grows to understand that it is he who is the hero of his own life story, the reader bears witness to this brilliant young man’s search for love and understanding. Every page is breathtaking and will take hold of you and never let you go. Fantastic!
Washington Black is a mesmerizing story. The main voice is that of George Washington Black, born a slave on a sugar plantation in Barbados in the 1830’s. From the outset, I was immersed in the mind of that very young boy, understanding the fear of being singled out and punished, the drive for survival, the choice between obedience and death that marks the life of a slave under a brutal master. I lived through Wash’s movement into a different life, one that involves reading and writing, drawing, and the growth of self-respect and calm.
But is there ever calm in the life of a black man of that (or any) time? This is one of the questions I believe the author was asking. She gave Washington Black a disfiguring facial burn, which only accentuated his visibility as he moved off the plantation into a wider world that is, itself, cruel to blacks.
Honestly? I’m startled reading comments from the Washington Post (“ … rip-roaring hybrid of 19th Century adventure and contemporary subtlety ..”), The New Yorker (“ … exhilarating dialogue reminiscent of Jules Verne …”) and The Boston Globe (“ … a rousing adventure story stretching to the ends of the earth). Adventure isn’t what comes to my mind when I think of Washington Black. For me, it was about the search of one man for a place where he can finally be accepted and loved. In that, it was very poignant.
Fascinating story of a young slave rescued from Barbados and how he came to terms with his past, present and future during difficult and dangerous times. Very inspirational, highly recommend!
Another of my top 10 faves in the first half of 2019: Esi Edugyan’s Washington Black. The horrific story of an enslaved boy, disfigured emotionally and physically, taking unexpected, even thrilling turns, including Arctic exploration, underwater discoveries and the mysteries of flight. White savior syndrome plays out here in all its complexity and degradation, but this is also a novel of science and the painful yearning to be recognized for one’s work and ideas. An unusual & necessary read. Writers: a great book to study for handling of time and multiple extreme settings, political themes of race and equality, obsession, and character yearning.
This book is so well written, even with the difficult material, it was easy to sink into the first POV adventure and feel right along with the character.
When contests like The Booker Prize announce their short lists, I like to plow through them and pick my favorite and then root for them to win. For the 2018 Booker Prize, I’m rooting for Washington Black, by Esi Edugyan hands down.
We meet George Washington Black when he’s an 11-year-old slave on a brutal sugar plantation in Barbados. His vicious master sees nothing but property when he looks at the people toiling in his fields, most of them maimed and scarred in some way by his violent discipline or whim. When the master’s younger brother shows up, and requests to borrow George Washington Black, what follows is an unlikely friendship, epic adventures to the far reaches of the world, all written in such a vivid and masterful way, you will not want the story to end.
This is one of those books that makes it difficult to find something to read next because you know nothing can stand up to it.
Washington Black is an intimate portrait of slavery at its most genocidal and of the limitations of kindness in an unjust system. The book’s hero is a gifted scientist and artist fighting to live a fully human life in a world that insists on seeing him either as livestock or as an object of pity. Along the way, there are balloon rides through storms at sea, vignettes of frontier life in nineteenth century Canada, scenes of polar exploration, and the establishment of the world’s first aquarium. Washington Black is a brilliantly absorbing picaresque; a book that combines the unflinching depiction of violence with a lyrical, hallucinatory beauty.
I loved this book! So original and beautifully written. Best novel I’ve read in years!
I know this is highly regarded but it struggled to hold my attention. Too many coincidences, the narrative was too fantastical. In a blinding rain storm, accidentally landing a falling balloon on a small fishing vessel? I couldn’t finish it.
The first 100 pages or so are vivid, touching, and as surprising as life. Then it gets slapdash and loses steam and gets boring.
I couldn’t stop ’till I finished the book. If you have some great stories like this one, you can publish it on NōvelStar,
The eponymous hero of Canadian novelist Esi Edugyan’s Booker Prize shortlisted novel recalls Charles Dickens’ Pip in his pluck, intelligence and wild reversals of fortune. But Wash is an even more unlikely recipient of great expectations than Dickens’ urchin. Wash is born a field slave in 1830 on a Barbados sugar plantation. His master’s brother, known as Titch, comes for a visit and requests 11-year-old Wash as his assistant. Wash is drawn into Titch’s world of experiments and observations and discovers he’s a crack scientific illustrator. In contrast to his brother, Titch is an abolitionist, and after a series of violent events leave Wash in jeopardy, Titch contrives to free him.
Their escape to America sparks more adventures, as Wash travels from Virginia to the Arctic to Nova Scotia to London to Morocco, remaking himself as a free man and a scientific visionary along the way, even with a slave catcher always at his heels. Born in bondage, Wash struggles to feel unbound from any master, but his art finally frees him: “At the easel I was a man in full, his hours his own, his preoccupations his own.”
Edugyan conveys with startling immediacy the horrors slavery visits on the body, as well as the shackles it places upon the mind. She invites the reader to consider how many scientists’ contributions may have been written out of the record. As Wash thinks, “I had long seen science as the great equalizer. No matter one’s race, or sex, or faith — there were facts in the world waiting to be discovered. How little thought I’d given to the ways in which it might be corrupted.” (Knopf, $26.95)
-Dallas Morning News, October 23
A fascinating exploration of the fraught relationship between a slave boy and the rich white man who rescued him from a Barbados plantation. I came away from this story with more questions than answers, and I think that’s okay. There was always mystery surrounding the motives of the “rich white man,” Titch, for saving the slave boy, Wash, and the effect of that unexpected freedom on him. There was a mixture of gratitude and confusion for Wash, who just wanted to be seen as Titch’s equal, which was impossible given their dynamic as the boy who was saved and the one who did the saving. Wash finds such relationships throughout the story, of being given an opportunity by a white person. I found it tragic that his brilliance and talent weren’t enough, because his skin color kept him from obtaining that opportunity himself. I ended the book feeling like I got some insight into a complicated issue, but still ambivalent, since you can never live inside someone else’s skin and understand the contexts and experiences that form them and the way they see the world and interact with others. Thought-provoking, richly detailed and vibrant. The historical settings came brilliantly alive.
Washington Black is a serious read, a contemplation on slavery and history. If you are looking for a fun book, this is not it. However, if you are looking for a well-written, well-researched novel that ultimately is about relationships, flawed characters, and overcoming adversity, it’s a good choice for you. The book begins on a sugar plantation in Barbados and is written through the viewpoint and voice of a ten-year-old boy over the course of six years. I wasn’t excited about the book, but my book club chose this. The more we discussed it, the more I realized how well the author wrote it, some of the subtleties I missed that strengthened it. The book is in a classic four-act structure and is a classic hero’s journey style.
Luminous writing. An unforgettable main character, born enslaved. The message: what does it mean to be free?
Closer to 4.5 stars. Washington Black is the remarkable story of a young black slave’s improbable hot air ballon escape from a Barbados plantation, his subsequent Arctic expedition and incredible work as a marine biologist, illustrator and inventor. Each step of Washington’s journey would have been extremely unlikely for a young man in his position. And yet, rather than coming off as a wild and unbelievable flight of fancy, author Esi Edugyan manages to balance the horrors of Washington’s escaped past and his efforts to mold a new identity as a fugitive in hostile white societies.
The result is a blend of riveting adventure, coming-of-age story and unique reflection on the legacy of slavery. The narrative does lag slightly as Washington emerges from his more rigorous escapades and struggles with his newfound lack of guidance in the latter third of the novel. However, this minor concern does not overshadow an otherwise original and inspiring story.
Everyone should read this fascinating story of a young black slave, His desperation and strange experiences in 1840’s are imaginative and gripping.