“The masters could not bring water to boil, harness a horse, nor strap their own drawers without us. We were better than them—we had to be.’’

Tanehisi Coates uses the book “The Water Dancer” to dive headfirst into the world of slavery and poetically weaves in a love story to a dark and depressing time. This book follows the life of a young slave named Hiram as he struggles with identity while trying to free himself and the ones he loves. Hiram is graced with gifts hailing back to West Africa that unite him and his people on the path to attain true freedom. Along the way, he learns that freedom comes in many forms beyond that of the oppression of his southern masters. People can still be bound to tasks even if there is no direct physical force. To create this journey for Hi, Coates uses what some may see as science fiction to describe legends and realities that many people (Black people) in this country are familiar with. At times the connection to the past is powerful and beautiful. At the same time, it feels like Coates is pulling punches to describe the true harshness of slavery. Often, he has the characters allude to the grim reality of slavery as being the reason behind the actions, but he shies away from describing it in detail at times. This even goes down to the vocabulary used through the book to describe slavery and the masters. This is all being said after having read Kindred, Middle Passage, and other graphic books about slavery. However, there might be a purpose in not being descriptive about the horrors of slavery. Perhaps he wanted to focus on the overarching story rather than the trauma. Additionally, he may have felt that describing the trauma would trigger a visceral response in some of the readers that this book can have the most important impact on. It is my preference to be more graphic so I can have a greater sense of reality for the characters in the book. The majority of the book I was left feeling like I could be more connected to the characters and story. Much of this thought stems from Kindred, by Octavia Butler. All of this being said, the last 50 pages of the book are truly beautiful as Coates ties everything together. It flows together and cinches the story in an almost redeeming fashion.