It is said that the best novels are never about events, but about the people events happen to. The event in Youmans's latest (after Catherwood) is the Civil War, and the people it happens to are Robin, a young Confederate soldier, and Agate, a mulatto slave girl. In this lush, poetic and heavily symbolic double tale, each of the characters suffers untold miseries. Robin's are endured in the heat of battle and the horrors of prison camp, while Agate must bear the indignities of slavery. Literature is a source of comfort and hope for both: Agate, who has secretly been taught to read and write, is a voracious reader and writer of essays, and Robin is haunted and heartened by a story in a book he picks up at an abandoned plantation, about two mysterious green children found in a wolf pit. Learning, however, is a double-edged sword, as Agate discovers when her owner cruelly mutilates her, fearing the power that comes with knowledge. What differentiates this from the standard Civil War novel is the startling sense of language: "Wolves. He hadn't seen one in several years, had forgotten the way they could trickle away between trees like silvery water." There is a sensuous, page-long description of Agate's first encounter with an orange, as she discovers this small miracle of sight, sound, taste, touch and smell. The novel's many dramatic and traumatic events will keep the reader breathless, while the haunting, lyrical language and the fierce intelligence behind it reminds us we are reading a writer and storyteller of the first order. (Sept.)
Forecast:The authenticity of this novel will appeal to Civil War buffs, while its emotion and language will be appreciated by readers of quality fiction. Youmans is one of the best current Southern writers, and this latest effort should garner her more readers.
