I think the author of this critique missed something. My takeaway from the novel is that it repeatedly demonstrated- in a way that is relevant today with the separation of families at our border- the pain inflicted on enslaved people by forced family separation,
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Perhaps Coates’ first novel could be compared to a lighter version of Kerouac, whose prose was swiftly moving but also deeply evocative of his surroundings and inner dialog?
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I love the title, "The Water Dancer," which refers to the magic of memories, stories and rivers -- what Toni Morrison called rememory. Langston Hughes wrote about the power of rivers, stories and memory. I wrote short stories called, "Water Dancing." Coates' novel helps us remember people we don't know as human. Now we remember.
https://www.amazon.com/Water-Dancing-Pearl-P-R-D-Duncan/dp/1560020261
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a novel of ideas that also is a novel of people that crosses and blends genres -- new fiction, new structures, new magic
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Respectfully, it's an odd thing to say that Coates's debut is essentially long and shallow, but compare him to some of the most masterful storytellers in the canon. I understand it's challenging in this day in age to just say one or the other for fear of being cancelled, but you don't need to bring in Octavia Butler or Toni Morrison in order to do so. None of the sentences highlighted here suggest the tonality of any of the writers you've compared his debut to, either, except for Stephen King -- even then, the most comparable thing seems to be pace and plot, not the shape or substance of the novel.
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