Couldn’t get on with this one at all, although it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what I found so unengaging. The focal point of the novel is a lynching in Marvel, Indiana (based on a real-life lynching and the inspiration for the song Strange Fruit) and the journey to the lynching of a white woman who sees it all as mere entertainment, and a black woman, who seems to just accept it as part of daily life. Strong stuff, but Hunt doesn’t convince somehow. I was bored by the road trip these two women make and the often bizarre adventures they have with a motley cast of characters en route, and most of all I was irritated by Hunt’s use of cornflowers for the black people and cornsilks for the white. Is the story meant to be a fable of some kind? Why these made up (as far as I can find out) terms? I stuck with the book for a while and then skipped to the end. It just didn’t hold my attention.

This is a lyrical and fascinating account of the repercussions of a lynching in the small town of Marvel, Indiana on 7 August, 1920. It tells the story of two women; Ottie Lee Henshaw and Calla Destry, one white, one black and the different paths that find them both on the road to Marvel on this particular night. The prose is beautiful. I was instantly swept up into the voice of Ottie Lee, a strong and witty woman and followed her story with compulsion. Calla is equally as feisty and the intersections of the women's lives are wonderfully woven and skillfully maintained throughout the narrative. The author has a great eye for detail and introduces things that seem to bear little relevance only to have them swoop into focus at some later stage. It is a really evocative exploration of race in the USA in the early part of the 20th century and I fear, is still reminiscent of many lives in the US now. A thought-provoking and important novel that should be widely read and widely talked about.

A never-ending Road.

Ottie Lee Henshaw a beautiful white woman and Calla Destry a young black woman are both on their way to a lynching at Marvel in the 1930s.

This book did not hold my interest at all. For a start, I had no idea who or what a ‘Cornsilk’ is. They never get to the lynching and every character they meet on the way is weird. I think the author has tried to emulate Harper Lee but does not manage to come anywhere close.

To be honest I don’t have anything nice to say about this book, so I will leave it there.

Helen

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of this book to Review.