User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
The Sweetness of Water is a contemporary classic about the Reconstruction period of the southern states after the Civil War.
George is a transplanted northerner in Georgia. Originally content to sell off his land to make ends meet, after the War, he looks to make his mark on his remaining acres. To do so, he hires two recently freed men. As would be expected, this doesn’t go over well with the plantation owners who have lost their slaves or the recently returned Confederate soldiers.
His own son, Caleb, was a confederate soldier, but unlike the others, he disgraced himself on the battlefield. He is also engaged in an illicit love affair which is a subplot of the story. It’s obvious none of these stories are going to end well and they don’t.
I can see why Oprah picked this for her book club. The characters are richly drawn, and I was drawn into George’s fight to do the right thing. But it’s not just George, everyone is so developed that I could see them standing before me. Parts of the story were so tense, I had to keep putting the book down.
There are multiple themes in the book - equality, prejudice, love in all its various guises. But above all, the book focuses on finding one’s courage regardless of the repercussions. Every single one of the main characters is put in that position.
I recommend this for fans of The Water Dancer - the same rich language, the same depth of sorrow. But this book does end on a small note of hope. Credit to Harris for writing such a profound book as a debut and at a fairly young age.
My thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown for an advance copy of this book.
Rating: really liked it
This is a heartbreaking but hopeful novel .. written so beautifully.. and this is one that I went into blind.. and enjoyed it so much, so I’m not going to say much about it.
I will say that this author did an outstanding job on character development.
I especially loved George and Isabelle Walker.. the white land owners who employ two brothers who are emancipated slaves to work their land.
This is set in a town in Georgia, just as the Civil War is ending and just after the Emancipation.
So many topics in this book… an emotionally distant marriage, race relations and tension, murder, a gay romance.
Just read this! 😊
Rating: really liked it
Audiobook….read by William DeMeritt,
who was outstanding!!!
… 12 hours and 8 minutes
Magnificent…. an instant classic!
Really extraordinary!
…Engrossing storytelling …
…Heartbreaking cruelty, loss, grief, racial and sexual bigotry….
yet also full of promise, courage, and humanity.
…Many underline themes - with surprise turns throughout.
…Incredible debut!
As the story deepens (after first hooking the reader from the start),
it becomes clear that the lives of the characters are caught in tumultuous swirls in very unexpected ways…
….truth emerges — and we wonder are secrets best staying hidden or not?
Very powerful!
Oprah got it right..picking this book for her ‘July’ read.
Huge congrats to Nathan Harris. Hard to believe the author of this complex sophisticated well written novel is only twenty-nine years old.
Rating: really liked it
This is a fabulous debut novel from Nathan Harris. With sparkling prose, Harris tells a compelling story set in the early days of Reconstruction in Georgia. The Walker family is front and center - a white family, descended from northerners, who are sympathetic to the newly freed slaves. Prentiss and Landry, brothers and freedmen, work with the Walkers after Emancipation. This is a story about good people doing their best in the face of a systemically racist and corrupt society - undoubtedly on point and relevant today.
Rating: really liked it
This is a slow burn of a story. It’s the end of the civil war and the slaves have been freed.
Two of them, Prentiss and Landry, make their way to a farm where they are hired by a white man, George Walker, to help him till his land. But, he is judged harshly by the town for hiring these men.
Then a murder happens and the family unravels.
This is a story of humanity, humility and the harsh reality during these times.
So many themes packed into this, one can see how it has quickly become a favourite.
Themes of homosexuality, discrimination, distance in a marriage, friendship, grief and family.
What an awesome debut!
4.5⭐️
Rating: really liked it
The Civil War is over. The blacks have been freed. What is freedom though when they have no money, no place to live, no place to work unless they decide to stay and work for their former owners. The war is over, just words, words that don't change beliefs, prejudices nor the will to give up what they had previously. Those confederates who have made it through alive are returning to this Georgia town and Union soldiers are there to try to keep things stable. Some of the blacks, like brothers Prentiss and Landry take to the woods, trying to trap food. This is where they meet George, a white man who hires them to farm his land. This is the situation, a situation that ignites a simmering town, and one with devastating consequences. A forbidden love between two confederate soldiers, a murder and a young man who lacked courage will find it in a meaningful way. It is a woman though who will find her strength and bring hope when least expected.
A stunning debut novel. Heartbreaking and heartfelt. Realistically illuminating the tensions at wars end, during reconstruction and with many wanting only to hold on to past beliefs. Memorable characters that I came to embrace. I felt so many emotions while I read this and drawing parallels to today, though circumstances are different, have we really come as far as we think we have? Possibly not, even all these years later.
ARC from Netgalley.
Rating: really liked it
“The Sweetness of Water” — the latest Oprah Book Club pick — unfolds in Georgia during the murky twilight of the Civil War. Union soldiers have marched through the state telling enslaved Black people they’re free, but that freedom exists in the ruins of a White society seething with resentment, determined to maintain its superiority.
That this powerful book is Nathan Harris’s debut novel is remarkable; that he’s only 29 is miraculous. His prose is burnished with an antique patina that evokes the mid-19th century. And he explores this liminal moment in our history with extraordinary sensitivity to the range of responses from Black and White Americans contending with a revolutionary ideal of personhood.
The story opens in a fugue of mourning. George Walker is wandering through his 200-acre wood. A Northerner brought to Georgia decades ago as a child, George never developed any sympathy for the Southern cause. But the end of the War Between the States brings him no joy. He’s just received word that his only son, who enlisted with the Confederacy, was killed in the final weeks of battle. He reportedly died in. . . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...
Rating: really liked it
Longlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize as well as an Oprah Book club pick – an impressive double for a debut novelist under 30.
The book opens, in my view, very impressively for the first 150 pages or so with a restrained and distinctive look at what initially seems like it is going to be a combination of say “Days Without End” and “Underground Railroad/Washington Black” and is marketed like that by its UK publishers.
For this is US civil war/slave era historical fiction – a period which unfortunately seems a rather unimaginative go to staple for UK literary prize juries (the 2017 Booker for example – one of the best longlists ever in terms of the literary reception and success of the books – had no fewer than three, including the outstanding winner “Lincoln in the Bardo”). Many of those books added an additional element to a familiar tale - be it spirituality, steampunk ("Washington Black"), science fiction ("Underground Railroad") or additional intersectionality ("Days Without End" and "The Prophets" which was heavily tipped for this year's list) with varied success. This one I feel is aiming to be distinctive more on the strength of the writing, and on the quiet message at its core, and that is a hard task to pull off.
The novel is set immediately after the end of the war in a small Georgian Town – Old Ox – coming to terms not just with its defeat but with the implications of the emancipation proclamation.
The book opens with a landowner – George Walker – walking his fields at night and stumbling across two black men – the garrulous Prentiss and his silent slack-jawed brother Landry. For a fleeting moment he thinks they are a legendary beast his farmer father (from whom he inherited the 200 acre land) told him about and which he saw as a youngster.
But rather than any immediate confrontation or violence all of them seem rather lost in themselves - and their meeting only pushes each of them further into their own thoughts (which is what I found refreshingly different about the beginning).
The brothers are freemen who have chosen to leave the neighbouring plantation – but have still to resolve on their future plans - Landry in particular reluctant to rush into moving away from a familiar area.
And George’s midnight walk is haunted both by news he has heard today from his son’s best friend (a well connected August Webler) that Caleb was killed in the war – news he still does not know how to break to his wife Isabelle.
George, who has never been a farmer, but largely survived by selling of properties and parcels of land, decides to channel his grief into starting a peanut farm, paying Prentiss and Landry fair wages to assist him.
When Caleb suddenly returns harbouring two secrets, of his own desertion and of his love for August, as well as the scars of some beatings at the hands of those who captured him – he finds that August is about to be married off by his rich father and is unwilling to acknowledge their relationship, and that rumours of his war actions are widespread.
George and Isabel always had something of a distanced albeit loving marriage – both largely keeping themselves to themselves, both believing that the other is holding their true selves back. Caleb’s return and George’s scheme to involve the two freemen only seems to exacerbate this sense of distancing.
He often had this same feeling in his own home, facing Isabelle: that the space, although shared, had been cordoned off, with invisible lines demarcating who belonged where. They spoke more than they had before, since the night she'd joined him at the table with Caleb and the brothers, but the cold front holding them apart was taking its time in dissipating, and meanwhile he walked around her like a child tiptoeing at night so as not to wake his mother.
George’s only real consolation is a whore Clementine that he pays to listen to the feelings that would he thinks make him appear weak if he shared with his wife. Isabel gains strong consolation in a close but non-sexual female relationship with a widow. Further both are considered something of outsiders – even Northerners – in the town and George’s decision to employ two blacks as fair-paid labourers when the town is full of out of work soldiers and other plantations (including his neighbours) are having to adjust to a sudden loss of their entire economic basis – only adds to this.
Caleb is haunted both by his own cowardice and by August’s apparent rejection.
We also learn more about Landry and Prentiss – their mother having been sold by the plantation slave owner, before that Landry inadvertently became for many years the literal whipping boy for all the others slaves misdemeanors, in a collective punishment devised after two of their number escape. Over time with the monthly beatings he retreated into silence – focused more on the natural world on the sound and sight of running water.
For this period the novel becomes very much one of interiors – with the character’s thoughts, their pasts and their inability to communicate, much more central to the novel than their actions, the present day developments around them and their dialogue.
And the book is all the better for it – and different both from what I had expected and more standard civil war/slavery novels but without relying on the need for a gimmick or an added intersectionality.
But then the outside world intrudes violently and disturbingly on their world – and I had something of an analogous feeling as a reader that the publisher and/or author’s need for a plot intruded on my own contemplation of the novel with a series of violent (but disappointingly cliched) acts and ideas: a brutal beating, a crooked sheriff, a bent judge, a horse theft, a jailbreak, a runaway black man and a pursuing posse, a sacrificial action, an arson attack and a friendship forged on the run.
While I would not go anywhere near as far as the back-page quote from Richard Russo that “The result is better than any debut novel has a right to be” – I did think there was a lot of writing promise shown here and I will be interested to follow the writer’s career.
I did also feel that this was a more measured and unusual debut than say “Real Life” by Brandon Taylor on last year’s Booker shortlist. That made the classic debut novel mistake of packing in too much of the author’s autobiographical essays and other writing ideas/exercises: this by contrast reads very much like a fully formed novel although one I wish had stuck to its initial understated intent rather than feeling the need to spiral into action.
The Booker Judges citation to me implies that it was more the first part of the novel that engaged them as they said how they were
incredibly impressed by the way it probes themes of trans-historical importance—about race, sexuality, violence, and grief—through meticulously-drawn characters and a patient examination of their relationshipsAnd on the characters I would say that those of George, Landry, Prentice, Caleb and particularly Isabelle are definitely meticulously drawn. The portrayal of Isabelle and George’s lengthy marriage and of Isabelle’s platonic female friendship with Mildred are (returning to Russo - much better than a 29 year old has the right to write).
But those of many others - mainly the bad characters (Austen’s father, the “Sheriff”, the nearby landowner) but some others (a somnolent hat wearing man who suddenly springs to life to save the town, a “tart with a heart”) are more like caricatures borrowed from Westerns or (like Austen himself) rough outline sketches.
The legendary beast storyline slightly strained my credulity but I did appreciate the way it was ultimately used with a jovial conversation revealing the truth but causing George to question what he has perhaps seen as the one true friendship of his life and had been looking possibly to reproduce in his relationship with Clementine (interestingly Prentiss too projects a fantasy relationship on to her).
I would agree on the trans-historical importance – because ultimately this is a book about how differences need to be set aside and replaced by empathy if a nation is to be healed of racial divides – something as true for America now.
I think this is an author to watch in a literary sense, particularly if he can dial down the need to add borrowed plot and characters (which may well have come from editor and publisher) and use the huge success this book will bring him (Oprah and Booker) to be able to forge his own path and write to his obvious great strengths.
Rating: really liked it
~This is why I read.~ During the first chapter of The Sweetness of Water I was reminded that this immersive storytelling is exactly why I read. Nathan Harris is a born storyteller, and The Sweetness of Water is a bold story that travels with ease in directions I never expected.
About the book: “In the spirit of The Known World and The Underground Railroad, a profound debut about the unlikely bond between two freedmen who are brothers and the Georgia farmer whose alliance will alter their lives, and his, forever.”
The story opens with George Walker and his wife being informed they have lost their only son in the Civil War. Just prior, the Emancipation Proclamation is issued, and George finds two of his neighbor’s former slaves resting on his property. Little does he know then that Prentiss and Landry would become his closest friends and allies.
I have many favorite things about this story, but my top favorite is all the empathy and insight. Nathan Harris put his whole heart into every word. No wonder this stunning book has been nominated for so many awards! Breathtaking!
I received a gifted copy.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
Rating: really liked it
3.5*
Melancholic.
Rating: really liked it
A gorgeous debut novel, my first five-star read since June of 2021.
The Sweetness of Water begins with Prentiss and Landry, two brothers freed from enslavement by the Emancipation Proclamation, who seek refuge on the home of George Walker, a transplanted northerner white man who wants the brothers’ help to farm his remaining acres of land. The novel focuses mostly on George and his wife Isabelle and the escalating tension they face with the white people nearby – consisting of plantation owners who recently lost the Black people they enslaved, as well as returning Confederate soldiers – who do not approve of the Walkers’ more equitable treatment of Prentiss and Landry. Slightly parallel to this conflict runs a forbidden romance between two Confederate soldiers, Caleb, the son of George and Isabelle, and August, a well-connected son of rich parents who’s set to marry a woman.
Nathan Harris writes so beautifully, especially in how he shows instead of tells about his characters’ interior and exterior lives. Though I felt skeptical at first when I realized the book would focus mostly on the white characters instead of Prentiss and Landry, I soon grew to care deeply about all of the characters in
The Sweetness of Water. Harris crafts such distinct, well-developed characters with realistic limitations and a relatable desire to do better (excluding the racist white people who were straight garbage, just gonna say it like it is). His writing reminded me of Adam Haslett’s in its emotional depth that felt both direct, understated, yet so moving at the same time. I am always impressed by writers who can craft fiction with important social commentary that still centers the characters’ growth and relationships with one another – Harris accomplishes that with this debut without a doubt.
One of the two themes I loved the most in
The Sweetness of Water is: what does it look like for white people to actually be allies/accomplishes for racial justice (and even more broadly what does it mean for any privileged group to try to advocate for oppressed groups)? Harris does a masterful job of showing how George, a well-intentioned progressive-minded white person, actually really messes up in his initial attempts to be an ally which has serious, devastating consequences for Prentiss and Landry. I think this idea of performative allyship and advocacy is increasingly important in a time when some academic institutions, corporations, etc. are embracing “diversity and inclusion” while still perpetuating racism and other forms of bigotry. What does it mean to truly walk the walk and put your life and resources on the line for justice? Though I’m still processing the profound way Harris writes about this question in
The Sweetness of Water, I feel pretty certain that Harris avoids any white savior tropes and instead shows the complexities of racial solidarity, including the uncomfortable parts.
I also loved how Harris shows how white queer men can be extremely racist and problematic. Yes, the summary of this book mentions a queer romance between two men, though I think this romance is definitely secondary to the Walkers’ relationship with their own whiteness and the bigotry of their neighboring white townspeople. In fact, the romance, or at least one of the characters within the romance, exemplifies how just because someone is marginalized doesn’t mean they’ll actually support other marginalized people – they may just cling to whatever power they do have to advance in their lives. Reading about this part of the book reminded me of a time when I tweeted about white gay men perpetuating racism and sexism, and a white gay man I used to respect direct messaged me and essentially said that “not all white gay men are like that” and tried to gaslight me. He unfollowed me when I stood my ground and asked him why he isn’t trying to call out/in white gay men who are racist and sexist instead of defending himself to me. While I recognize this little Twitter exchange is by no means comparable to the anti-Black racism experienced by the characters in this book, I share the story because I think pretty much all of us can practice more intensive introspection about the ways we put down other marginalized people intentionally or unintentionally, even if we ourselves are marginalized.
Harris also writes about important themes including softer forms of masculinity and the bonds between mothers and their children. His prose never feels intellectualized or didactic though. He shows us these characters’ desires and their struggles and lets their actions and emotions convey the deeper themes of the novel. Highly recommended and I’m definitely keeping an eye out for whatever Harris writes next, if he does want to write another book.
Rating: really liked it
Set in the fictional village of Old Ox in Georgia, this story begins after the surrender of the Confederacy and the Reconstruction era that followed. Families whose sons had not yet returned from the war, and were left waiting for word, but already grieving the loss. Among them are the Walkers, George and Isabelle who live just outside of Old Ox on their family homestead. Their grief is palpable, as their son has not returned, leaving them to believe the worst, and their silence with each other enshrouds them.
When George Walker encounters Prentiss and Landry, two recently freed brothers - one the same age as his son Caleb - who have managed to end up on his property in their search for their mother. Rather than tell them to get off his property, he asks if they have any water to share, and if they will help him get back to his home, as his hip is acting up. He tells them he will make it worth their while, along with another offer - if they will help him with his crop, he will pay them so they will have the money to continue their search. With few options for income, they accept.
’They walked as one through the trees with Landry trailing them. Though George needed the stars for guidance, it was all he could do to keep his sight straight ahead to stop himself from falling over, from giving in to the pain. He placed his head in the nook where Prentiss’s chest met his shoulder and allowed the man to balance him.’’For the slightest moment, before going inside, he peered back at the forest, silent and void of life in the darkness. Like there was nothing there at all.’When Caleb does return home, it’s clear that he’s survived some brutal moments, but he doesn’t share his story with his parents, more out of shame that it would reveal too much about him. He was a deserter. Not only was he a traitor and a runaway from his duties as a soldier, he deserted the one he loved. His best friend and lover, secretly of course, August. A man who has also returned, and is about to be married. But that doesn’t discourage Caleb from wanting to continue their secret affair.
Their lives, along with everyone else’s, have changed. As the days pass, George’s health declines, Isabelle seems to find a way to navigate this new life with a believable mix of feelings, but also a resolve to find a way to navigate this new life. Instead of bitterness or despair, there is a sense of grace that goes beyond mere acceptance or this new life, there is a sense of welcoming the change.
A debut novel of unexpected relationships and acceptance, with a focus on the personal feelings of these people, and navigating uncertain times.
Published: 15 Jun 2021
Many thanks for the ARC provided by Little, Brown and Company
#TheSweetnessofWater #NetGalley
Rating: really liked it
Longlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize The Sweetness of Water takes an historical moment of great flux—the abolition of slavery at the end of the American Civil War—and distils from it a tender story of resilience and compassion in a divided time.
George Walker, grieving a son lost to war, makes an abrupt decision to take up farming. He hires two freedmen, brothers who had been the ‘property’ of his nearest neighbour to help him work his land.
‘His land was his only escape, the only place a man with such a narrowed existence might find a sense of adventure. So he kept the brothers around to keep that part of him alive. Yet where would he stand on the night when the men in town carried torches to his property and demanded payment on the misshapen justice they sought? He would not pay with his life.’Meanwhile, the town is roiling in disquiet. Formerly enslaved people are legally free but impoverished and unsupported; Confederate soldiers return home defeated and dazed; locals are unwilling to relinquish the old status quo. Tension mounts.
The pressure rouses some people to bravery and others to cowardice, but most characters show a complex mixture of both. I loved Harris’s follow-through: almost every character, no matter how minor, is a variation on this theme. Mostly the approach works (as with the deputy sheriff so traumatised by war that he fails to discharge his duties) and occasionally it falls flat (a sudden ‘awakening’ late in the piece strikes a jarringly comic tone).
Harris’s prose is lyrical but restrained enough that the writing never overshadows the story. The main characters have real depth and believability, and the settings—the town of Old Ox, the Walker farm, the woods and marshes—are vividly evoked.
At times the novel’s ambitions extend beyond its reach, leaving it uneven. Some of the characters contain multitudes and others are a little cartoony. A queer relationship, while sensitively drawn, serves mainly as a catalyst for the plot. And the plot, for me, was this novel’s weakest aspect. While the characters individually could surprise, the major plot turns never did—in fact they veered into cliché quite a few times. The novel also continues for 50 pages past a natural stopping point, rather unnecessarily putting every storyline to bed and tucking in the covers.
It’s definitely a worthwhile read from an exciting new talent, despite losing its way a little.
The Sweetness of Water is an affecting and impressive debut.
Rating: really liked it
This is a story of forgiveness and doing the right thing. Set in Georgia during the final days of the Civil War, we meet George Walker who lives on his farm with his wife, Isabelle. They have recently received notice that their son Caleb has died fighting in the war. Within days, two Freedmen (Prentiss and Landry) show up on the farm seeking refuge. They do not want George and Isabelle to have to care for them, but George presents the opportunity to farm his land in hopes of gaining a peanut crop. As the days go by, their son Caleb returns, having not been killed in the war. He joins his father, Prentiss and Landry working the land.
As word spreads in town, we see the racism that came after the war. George is willing to pay equal wages, treat the newly freed fair and well, and help those who needed it to start a new independent life. Many others in the town refused to pay decent wages or allow the Friedman their due rights.
There is murder, Mayham and plenty of mischief in this book – making it a real page turner. The reader will feel a bond with these amazing characters and their epic journey to true freedom!
Rating: really liked it
“Instead, the spark of life that connects you to the other you cherish simply dims and then goes black entirely. The present thunders on while the past is a wound untended, unstitched, felt but never healed.”
After the end of the Civil War the people in Old Ox are trying to come to terms with Reconstruction. Many resent the presence of freedmen. George Walker and his wife Isabelle are more accepting than most, and George hires the brothers Prentiss and Landry to work on their land. The brothers dream of heading north eventually, and maybe even finding their mother who had been sold. There is also a homosexual couple with a long-standing secret relationship. The combination of stresses on the fabric of the town leads to murder, a conflagration, hidden strengths, unexpected bravery and hope.
I’m not a fan of Oprah and I am skeptical of her book recommendations, but I think she got it right this time. The writing in this book is clear, direct and beautiful. A woman is “…..so severe and translucent in her visage as to seem composed of pure crystal…”. All of the characters are well developed. The plot is engaging and believable and it felt like these people might actually have existed. I have nothing bad to say about this book. It certainly doesn’t seem like a first book and I look forward to what the author writes next. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator William DeMeritt also did an excellent job.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
