Washington Black by Esi Edugyan **** (of 4)

As a young boy Washington Black was enslaved in Barbados. Faith Plantation treated its slaves like the machines that they were: fueling, watering, greasing, beating, and running until their parts failed and their bodies were disposed of to be replaced by new purchases. One of the sons of the plantation owners, Titch, is something of an early British explorer, however, who constructs a "cloud-cutter," a helium-filled balloon that happens to need ballast of just Washington's size. For enslaved Africans, the gift of flight, like the gift of death, was one means to dream of escape. Check out this video from The New Yorker (March 6, 2019) called Dreaming Gave us Wings.

Cane-cutters in Jamaica, post slavery. 

By the time Titch and Washington Black launch their balloon, this novel has also taken off into new territory. Washington Black, even as a young teen, is the most erudite British gentleman I have ever met in literature; he is also an accomplished artist and scientist. Once airborne, the novel takes on the aura of nineteenth century British adventure tale with adventures in Nova Scotia, the Arctic, Amsterdam, and Morocco. While being pursued by bounty hunters anxious to regain Faith Plantation's lost property, Washington Black is on a quest of his own.

Black is hunting for his roots, not back in Africa, but for his own sense of self. While it is true that any slave is torn from his people and his country, there is more to Washington Black's journey than trying to find his parents. Black's inquiry is akin to the wonder and fear we all encounter as we emerge from adolescence forced to make our way in the world as adults.

Beyond having the opportunity to meet a man of Washington Black's intelligence, Edugyan's novel is likely to  be a personal experience for everyone that reads it. Reviewers in The Washington Post, The Guardian, The New York Times, and The New Yorker all burst with praise, but it was as if each reader had picked up a different novel.