I’m pretty poor at math, so you might want to double-check my equation here:

Ta-Nehisi Coates + magical realism = oh my god???

Yeah, you say, that works out correctly? I thought so. Not to brag, but it’s true: I can do simple addition with a calculator.

The Water Dancer is a great fictional debut for Coates, and I enjoyed it, but I didn’t quite fall in love. The prose is beautiful and the story moved at a great pace, even if I think parts of the story may flow better if told in a different order. The magical realism aspect never quite marries the historical plot here, but the magic was truly moving and ended up being my favorite part of the book.

My main criticism is that almost all of the characters are interchangeable. Aside from one or two characters, there are no discernible personalities among a fairly large cast. There’s some dissection of toxic masculinity from Coates’s main character, which is nice in theory, but I wish it had been more heavily explored. As it is, it feels a little shoehorned into the story.

There’s still a lot to appreciate here, especially Coates’s focus on the emotional trauma of slavery and separation. It’s powerful work.

i received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Heartbreaking yet hopeful novel about slavery and its impacts on a family and community. I especially love the powerful ending..

This historical fiction/magical realism story will pierce your soul. My heart felt wrung out the deeper I read. As a white woman, I can't begin to imagine the Black experience, but I can open my eyes and do my best to ask questions, read, and learn. I cannot get Hiram's story out of my head. The horrifying details of the enslaved people's lives felt all too real. This book brought back to me Colton Whitehead's Underground Railroad. I've already started spreading the word about this important upcoming addition to the publishing world.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Extraordinary. One of those rare books you can't quite bring yourself to finish. I can't wait to share this stunningly beautiful novel with my readers.

THE WATER DANCER was a beautifully written book! Definitely not a quick read for me - it took me awhile to get into it and then, feeling like I could only read a little at a time, I began reading it each morning with my coffee. I really enjoyed seeing how Coates approached memory, family, and black masculinity (all commonly addressed in fiction regarding American chattel slavery) in slightly new ways. I could see some hearkening back to Morrison's Beloved, which I appreciated, as well as nuanced discussions of the relationships between men and women. ⁣
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There were times when I found Hiram a difficult protagonist. Because he often comes across as emotionally closed off and because I personally always prefer reading female protagonists I sometimes grew frustrated with him. However, his development arc is rooted in this particular aspect of his character and Coates does an excellent job with that trajectory. It's gratifying to see the growth in Hiram, but I felt primed for some bigger reveal at the end of the book that what was given.⁣
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I'm going to be a bit vague here, because I don't want to give anything away, but I do want to note Coates's handling of white underground agents was really fascinating. He does an excellent job of articulating how the fanatical interest of some white people in freeing slaves is still somewhat rooted in not seeing slaves as people so much as stand-ins for moral righteousness, which is still rooted in an unhealthy power dynamic and can potentially be a slippery slope. While this sort of zealousness can be harnessed for good, Coates seems to be underlining the necessity of interrogating the differences between how black and white people think about anti-racism and anti-racist activism. It could be the difference between seeing anti-racism as a philosophical moral pursuit and seeing it as a matter of life or death. I wouldn't say this message is thematically central in the book, but it feels really timely to me so I wanted to highlight it. ⁣
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ read for me & thanks to netgalley for the ARC.

The Water Dancer, by Ta-Nehesi Coates, is a marvel, the first full-length work of fiction by the author. The novel follows Hiram Walker, a child born into slavery and the child of the master of a plantation. Hi’s incredible memory sets him apart as a child, bringing him not just to the attention of his father, but also of other elements in the community tied to the Underground Railroad. As he grows, so does his need to escape the life he was born (and forced) into. So begins Hi’s journey North, South, and into the bounds of imagination and magic as Coates re-imagines what the Railroad could be.

One interesting aspect of Coates’ novel is the interweaving narratives of the respective bonded people throughout the book. Hi becomes a conduit not just for their magic, but also for their stories. Through him, we hear testimony of dozens– fathers, sons, mothers, children, all betrayed in one way by the institution of slavery, their masters, and even, sometimes, their own family.

Coates’ novel starts on familiar ground, but diverges greatly as the novel proceeds. As always, Coates’ prose is exacting and precise, unpretentious and unapologetic. His writing of the female characters in the novel is especially well-wrought. The relationships of mother/child are some of the most heartrending themes here.

This book isn’t for the faint of heart, nor is it for the heartless. Instead, Coates weaves magic into history.

You need to read this book.

I really enjoyed Coates's first novel. The characters were interesting, and the story was unique. Unfortunately, it got a bit bogged down in details so much that at times I had to will myself to keep reading. Hopefully the completed novel is more tightly edited.

Stunning writing, a beautiful story born from generations of pain. Dialogue was stilted in parts but I attribute that to a soaring power writer being new-ish at fiction (ish because I don't know if there have been other fiction writings)

Thanks to Netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I received a free ARC of The Water Dancer from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

The potency of Ta-Nehisi Coates's novel cannot be overstated. The Water Dancer is one of the the most powerful novels I have ever read about the lives of slaves in Virginia and the dedicated fervor of the Underground Railroad participants. This novel, fantastical at times but always emotionally torturous, reveals the ugliness of slavery through the theft of hope and personal control.

Coates refers to those born into slavery as "the tasked" which makes their very existence to be a life of burden. White landowners are referred to as "quality" which makes their moral corruption rather ironic. The Virginia of old, rich tobacco plantations has disappeared to be replaced with worn-out soil and rock hard souls. As the quality attempt to maintain their sheen of grandeur and gentility, the tasked are expendable and sold Natchez way, referring to the sale of human beings to the deep South, the coffin.

Hiram is a very intelligent young man, born to the task, who remembers just fragments of his mother while his father, the white landowner, is a constant in his life. He is tasked with being his brother's keeper - his white brother, Maynard, who is destined to inherit everything. Maynard is brash and careless, indicative of how the characters of the white landowners decline as the practice of owning other human beings becomes viewed as their right. Hiram's ability to "conduct," move through space and time, is fantastical and at times illusory yet it causes him to come into contact with the Underground Railroad and its dedicated participants.

The real power of this novel lies in its expression of what happens to the human soul when that soul has no power of self. Coates extends the horror of the tasked to other groups such as Native Americans and women where they too are restricted from determining their own fates.

This novel is an equal to Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad in its depiction of what it means to be human and the struggle to be viewed and treated as a person.

Hiram had no memory of his mother. Which was strange considering he could remember everything else: the stories of others, the songs sung in the field and the words written on paper. But of his mother he knew nothing. Gone Nachez way he believed. Like many of the other Tasked, she was taken from her family and sold further south. He had his father and his brother, but they were both of the Quality, as much master as blood and the love of the father to son didn’t exist. That is until Maynard, the heir apparent of the plantation Lockless, drowned. Now Master Walker had to rethink what the future of Lockless would contain. But Hiram had other ideas. He was ready to run. Ready to take Sophia, the woman he was falling for, with him. Find the Underground and find freedom. But the story of his grandmother Santi Bess, lingered in him. The story of the woman who walked into the river one night with forty others and disappeared, never to be seen again.

This is a beautiful novel. But is filled with loss and a lingering pain. It holds the pain of being a slave. The pain of having your family one moment and the next they are ripped from your hands and only their memory and the stories of them remains. The pain of knowing you aren’t free and that you are bidden to another and freedom could cost you your life. But this novel also holds a certain strength. The strength to prevail when all seems lost. The strength to fight over and over even though the losses are many. The strength to recognize people as they truly are, even when they’ve worked so hard to fool themselves. Then there’s love. The love you have for others and how distance can tear us apart but that love will remain. It’s amazing to me that Coates was able to so poignantly create this narrative of a slave who has a power within himself that he has yet to discover. How that power in many ways sets him free and gives him the ability to free others. This novel is Hiram’s journey but also the journey of many others and the themes align in such a way that it is reflective of the many slave narratives we know.

This is a novel I feel that only Coates could write. I’ve read his other books and the way his writing style was translated to a work of fiction is just masterful from the world building, to the characterizations, to the minute details, to the way the Tasked saw themselves and the way they observed the Quality. Hiram is very introspective and looks at his life and the life of the other Tasked with a critical eye. An eye that strips bare all of the mystery, all of the lies and lays the truth right in front of you. I loved him as the narrator. I loved seeing the world through his eyes, but like I mentioned earlier, I felt his pain. You can’t escape that pain of being Tasked and what that means. But he found a fire and that fire burned throughout the pages.

I’m walking away from this novel with a heavy heart. The brutality of slavery can never be forgotten and being trapped in that brutality for 300 pages is draining but this is a book I would have to recommend. Coates telling of this story is extremely intriguing while being settled in a painful truth. One that we don’t necessarily like to revisit but one that we must revisit. This is an incredible book that needs to be widely shared and discussed.

The Water Dancer is an incredible first step into the world of fiction for Ta-Nehisi Coates. Although it took me a few chapters to decipher what I was reading, once the storyline came together, I could not wait to see where the main character's journey would take him. I fell in love with Hiram immediately. His intellect and charm will win over any reader. This story follows Hiram on his journey to recover the memories of his mother, who was sold to another plantation and separated from him when he was a young boy. Along the way, he encounters a cast of incredible characters, one of whom was such a treat to read about. Coates does an excellent job taking a significant part of American History and adding a little sci-fi twist to bring a whole new perspective to the Underground Railroad. This book tells a story that will bring everyone closer to understanding the plantation life upon which our country was founded, and the tremendous pain that it caused, and still causes, generations of African Americans.

Haunting, beautiful book. I devoured his nonfiction, but I had a bit of trouble biting my teeth into his fiction prose. But once I was hooked, I was so glad for the journey.

A great story from Ta-Nehisi Coates. He puts a magical realism spin on the Underground Railroad and really brings the story to life with great characters and settings.

This book is centered around a slave Hiram Walker, the son of a plantation owner whose mother is sold off, leaving him to take his way through slavery and eventually into the Underground. The writing was beautiful and the characters seemed so real. The stories of the many slaves and families torn apart were heartbreaking--but that being said, I struggled to get through the book. It was really long and and the stretches in between the stories of the many characters Hiram meets seemed slow. Also, the magic realism elements didn't really work for me. Still, I do recommend this book some really powerful images and stories.

The essayist, cultural critic, and poet Ta-Nahesi Coates has had a profound influence on the national conversation about race in this country. Between the World and Me was written as a letter to his teenage son about being Black in America, and won the National Book Award for Nonfiction. We Were Eight Years in Power focused on the Obama presidency, its triumphs and its failures to do more to lift up the African American community. He is frequently sought out for his views on culture and politics.
He had not previously written a novel, so it was with some skepticism that I began The Water Dancer, his story about Hiram Walker, the son of a Virginia plantation owner and a slave woman, who grew up in bondage and goes on to join the Underground Railroad. Within a couple of pages, that skepticism was gone. Coates, it turns out, is a storyteller of great skill and imagination, and he interweaves his insights about American culture and race into the story seamlessly, offering a fresh perspective on the old slave/master dichotomy that is thought-provoking and, in my experience, true.
In The Water Dancer, Coates calls the slave owners the Quality, and the slaves, the Tasked. While there is certainly reference to the degradations suffered by the Tasked, there are few descriptive scenes of beatings, whippings, or the auction block. Instead, Coates gives us whole human beings, with relationships, dreams, grit, and cunning. There is a rich life in the Warrens, the underground tunnels where the Tasked are housed, and in the Street where they congregate. It is the Quality who suffer from a lack of purpose and a life demeaned by subjugating their fellow human beings to a life of bondage.
Here, the young Hiram reflects on the Quality class:
“The Quality, for instance, did not inquire on the inner workings of their “people.” They knew our names and they knew our parents. But they did not know us. They had no notion of our ultimate aims and desires. They were entranced by our songs, but they could never know the deeper meaning, because not knowing was essential to their power. …You cannot understand him as human. You cannot see yourself in him, lest your hand be stayed, and your hand must never be stayed, because the moment it is, the Tasked will see that you see them, and thus see yourself. In that moment of profound understanding, you are all done because you cannot rule as is needed.”
There are implications like that for our modern world throughout this masterful work, but at its core it is a fascinating, page-turner of a story, beautifully written, with heart and heat and hope. Ta-Nahesi Coates proves he is a literary lion.
Thank you One World and NetGalley for the DARC .

Thanks to #netgalley for this arc.

Hiram "Hi" Walker is one of the Tasked living in Virginia in the waning years of slavery in Virginia. After his mother is sold by his father--the plantation owner--he moves in with Thena, a lonely woman whose sorrows surpass his own. When Hi survives an accident that kills his biological white brother, he realizes he possesses some strange magic he does not understand. Soon he finds himself involved in the Underground, eventually meeting up with the legendary Moses herself.

This is a brilliant but uneven novel that grapples with the toughest of moral, emotional, and intellectual issues, none of which can ever really be separated from one another. I enjoyed the magical realism element of the book, and loved the emphasis on the importance of storytelling and memory. However, even though we saw so much of characters' inner lives, I was still not sold on the character development in the book. I think it may be that characters' thoughts and feelings often read like well-thought-out essays (which might be explained by Coates' career as an essayist). Yet, the language was beautiful, and the story was moving and also, of course, horrifying. With less violence in his book than one might expect given the subject matter, Coates cut open and exposed multiple layers of the grievous harm white slaveowners effected, even by those who considered themselves kind and generous. Well worth reading.

A powerful story of a terrible time in U.S. history. The historical aspect to this story was fabulous, the magical realism aspect just isn't for me.

The Water Dancer is part slavery history and part magical realism. This is the second book I’ve read from this author and both were only so-so to me. It’s not the stories themselves. The stories have been fascinating and very informative. But, I have difficulty with his writing style - at times it’s very hard for me to follow the narrative. Others may not find that so. If you like his writing style you will love the content of his books.

4.5 Stars

A beautifully shared story of the history of slavery, a world built by those purchased or born of those referred to as the Tasked under the watchful eyes of their owners, those of the Quality. While this time and place are difficult to read about, there’s a magical element to this that manages to create an atmosphere both hopeful and lovely, and helps to balance out the overall atmosphere.

”I am here, telling this story, and not from the grave, not yet, but from the here and now, peering back into another time, when we were slaves, and close to the earth, and close to a power that baffled the scholars and flummoxed the Quality, a power, like our music, like our dance, that they cannot grasp, because they cannot remember.”
(To hear Ta-Nehisi Coates read this quote: https://video.vanityfair.com/watch/ta... )

There is something about the writing that feels as though every word is so deliberately chosen to perfectly convey the emotions, actions and environments throughout this story, while creating this occasionally magical aura at the same time.

There are multiple topics woven inside this novel about slavery, the breaking up of families as family members were sold off, the effect on those taken, and those left behind. The trauma of these losses affecting memories, affecting lives. Painful memories that Ta-Nehisi Coates shares with a tender compassion over time, while not sugar-coating any of the evilness of the actions, and allowing these characters, particularly Hiram, Hi, to not only remember but move beyond the pain associated with those memories. Love is another topic, both familial and romantic, and the precariousness of love for the Tasked.

This has been compared to Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, since both have an “experimental” touch to them, but this was a much smoother read, for me. While Coates has written other non-fiction books, this is his debut novel, and I was impressed with how beautifully his passion shined through.


Pub Date: 24 Sep 2019


Many thanks for the ARC provided by Random House Publishing Group - Random House – One World

Ta-Nehisi Coates has outdone himself in this work. Unlike his essays, this book grabs the reader in a way where what he writes comes alive in my mind. I was so drawn into this book that it was hard to put it down. What I think I appreciate most about this book and why I think it is good for students to read is the account that he paints of this part of history has a humanity and depth of human spirit that we often don't get in history books. While this work is fiction, the book can certainly be used to complement a class discussion about slavery and the experiences of enslaved Africans in this country. I highly recommend this book. I hope that other readers will enjoy and love this book, as much as I did. I hope that Ta-Nehisi will continue in this vein. His writing is powerful, and he is a great storyteller.