Our life is a faint tracing on the surface of mystery, like the idle, curved tunnels of leaf miners on the face of a leaf. We must somehow take a wider view, look at the whole landscape, really see it, and describe what’s going on here. Then we can at least wail the right question into the swaddling band of darkness, or, if it comes to that, choir the proper praise.
I’ve started reading Pilgrim at Tinker Creek for the nth time and am enjoying it so much!
BOOK DISCUSSION LINKS – Please click the three links below to view my thoughts regarding the questions presented:
01 – What were your initial impressions of the book?
02 – What did you think of the characters that Cora encountered?
03 – What did you think of Cora and her situation?
Here’s some additional links about this book that you might find of interest:
I had not heard of this book until I listened to a podcast (OnPoint with Tom Ashbrook) interview between Tom Ashbrook and the author, Douglas Blackmon. This book just won the Pulitzer Prize in non fiction (2009).
The interview was fascinating and I find the subject matter very interesting. This is an important book that I will make a point to read.
See Slavery by Another Name for more information.
Tonight I finished reading this amazing book. The story depicted slavery in a much more brutal way than any other story I can recall reading. As I worked my way through the book, the terms, “white privilege” (a term I have struggled to understand) and “black lives matter” have played over and over again in my mind. I also think of “black holocaust”, a term I had only recently heard, yet as I read of Cora’s experiences and observations in North Carolina, shares so many similarities to the Jewish holocaust.
I need to take a day or two to think about this book and let its story gel in my mind before I can write much more about it. I am appalled and moved beyond description for the things that occurred in this story. I think this is an important book that will stand the test of time and, and hard as it was to read, I am glad to have read it.