Nicole D.'s Reviews > The Water Dancer

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The Water Dancer
by

Ta-Nehisi Coates

Nicole D.'s review

Oct 26, 2019

liked it

bookshelves: 2019, mookse, arc, slavery, race, race-relations, virginia, magical-realism, american-history

I empathize with people who feel their history so strongly and partially because of that, and partially because I love Coates, I so wanted to love this book.

It is another tale of the underground railroad with a magical realism component. (I didn't love the Whitehead either.) It's sort of heartbreaking that to get through they had nowhere to look but magic?

Sadly, the book wasn't magical. I found it leaden, and hard to get through. Coates is a fantastic writer, and the writing was good. There was perhaps just too much of it.

I certainly didn't hate it, but didn't love it either. It will be interesting to see if it pops up next award season.

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