Amity

★★★★★★★★★☆ 9/10

288 pages

What’s it about?

This novel begins at the end of the Civil War.  It starts in Louisiana, where June and her younger brother Coleman are still serving the Harper family as the Union Army closes in.  When Mr. Harper decides to go to Mexico to chase his fortune, he decides to take his former slave, June, with him.  This leaves Coleman behind with Mrs. Harper and her daughter, Florence.  Within the year, Mr. Harper will send for Coleman.  Mrs. Harper and Florence decide to go as well. Their trip Westward is memorable.

What did it make me think about?

How few choices some people have.

Should I read it?

I have not read much about Mexico after the Civil War, but I knew that some Confederates had relocated with their slaves there. I always wondered how they convinced their newly freed slaves to go with them. This was an interesting take on how that might have happened and what the conditions might have been. This book alternates between June's voice and Coleman's narrative, and that keeps the story moving right along. I was engaged in this story almost from the beginning.  Every character is complex and fully drawn. And you really do want to know what will happen to each one.  Nathan Harris has written an excellent western novel, and at the same time, enlightened us all about a bit of history.

A passage I marked

"The reason I long for her, I believe, above all others, is that she listened to me.  That I felt that I was seen.  She is the only individual, I believe, that treated me as a real person. Above all else that is the hallmark of a life well-lived.  To be acknowledged.  To be heard, and listened to.  To have that again.  What I would do."