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Song Yet Sung By James McBride ( Riverhead Hardcover )
Release Date: 2008-02-05
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List Price: $25.95
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Product Description
From the New York Times-bestselling author of The Color of Water comes a powerful page-turner about a runaway slave and a determined slave catcher.
Nowhere has the drama of American slavery played itself out with more tension than in the dripping swamps of Maryland's eastern shore, where abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, born less than thirty miles apart, faced off against nefarious slave traders in a catch-me-if-you-can game that fueled fear and brought economic hardship to both white and black families. Trapped in the middle were the watermen, a group of America's most original and colorful pioneers, poor oystermen who often found themselves caught between the needs of rich plantation owners and the roaring Chesapeake, which often claimed their lives.
The powerful web of relationships in a small Chesapeake Bay town collapses as two souls face off in a gripping page-turner. Liz Spocott, a young runaway who has odd dreams about the future of the colored race, mistakenly inspires a breakout from the prison attic of a notorious slave thief named Patty Cannon. As Cannon stokes revenge, Liz flees into the nefarious world of the underground railroad with its double meanings and unspoken clues to freedom known to the slaves of Dorchester County as "The Code." Denwood Long, a troubled slave catcher and eastern shore waterman, is coaxed out of retirement to break "The Code" and track down Liz.
Filled with rich history-much of the story is drawn from historical events-and told in McBride's signature lyrical storytelling style, Song Yet Sung brings into full view a world long misunderstood in American fiction: how slavery worked, and the haunting, moral choices that lived beneath the surface, pressing both whites and blacks to search for relief in a world where both seemed to lose their moral compass. This is a story of tragic triumph, violent decisions, and unexpected kindness.
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 Important and beautiful, but occasionally over the top ( loopyliverchunks )
Song Yet Sung is beautifully-written. It does an amazing job of bringing to life slavery, the quest for freedom, and the effect of both on people involved. This is, in a way, the defining story of American culture, and I look forward to the day when we've work out enough of our racism issues so that it's more fully explored in American literature.
I guess my only complaint about the story is that it was so wound up in current racial issues that it distracted from the story. I mean, seriously, we're following all these awesome characters chasing each other through swamplands, and all of a sudden we have to hear about how modern rap lyrics are too angry.
Hopefully we'll get to a place as a culture where we can have stories and movies about runaway slaves that are just high adventure, making every kid dream of planning an escape with her friends.
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excellent ( shaheedbooks )
This story was extroadinary, my first time reading a book by mcbridge...not the last the chracters seem to come alive...great story
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More please ( barbarac@mediacity.com )
Great book! Could not put it down. I'm off to find more that this author has written....
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A beautiful prophetic black slave who escapes only to evade an unusually dangerous pose of men ( mwbookrevw )
Entertainer Leslie Uggams, who started in network TV at age 6, has decades of experience on TV and Broadway. Uggams' voice translates well to audio, enlivening the story of a pre-Civil War slave breakout and a beautiful prophetic black slave who escapes only to evade an unusually dangerous pose of men. Historical events blend with a passionate tale of change and courage in an audio highly recommended for any general-interest listening collection.
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Well Done ( sintari )
First book I read on my Kindle and what a delight. This well written story flows well. Great character development. Excellent editing. Couldn't put it down.
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Addiction
