Middle Passage

Description

It is 1830. Rutherford Calhoun, a newly treed slave and irrepressible rogue, is desperate to escape unscrupulous bill collectors and an impending marriage to a priggish schoolteacher. He jumps aboard the first boat leaving New Orleans, the Republic, a slave ship en route to collect members of a legendary African tribe, the Allmuseri. Thus begins a daring voyage of horror and self-discovery.

Peopled with vivid and unforgettable characters, nimble in its interplay of comedy and serious ideas, this dazzling modern classic is a perfect blend of the picaresque tale, historical romance, sea yarn, slave narrative, and philosophical novel.

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In this savage parable of the African American experience, Rutherford Calhoun, a newly freed slave eking out a living in New Orleans in 1830, hops aboard a square rigger to evade the prim Boston schoolteacher who wants to marry him. But the Republic turns out to be a slave clipper bound for Africa. Calhoun, whose master educated him as a humanist, becomes the captain's cabin boy, and though he hates himself for acting as a lackey, he's able to help the African slaves recently taken aboard to stage a revolt before the rowdy, drunken crew can spring a mutiny. Middle Passage won the 1990 National Book Award.

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Customer Reviews

Middle Passage
Interesting: a glimpse of life early/mid-19th century New Orleans and the slave trade. 6.5/10.

2009-09-02 (St. Louis, MO) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Wonderful!!!!!
This book was in great condition. And it was a great pleasure doing business with the seller would do it again anytime.....

2009-04-22 | Stayin b4 God (Jackson, Tn USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Wow (a review of the audiobook)
I have rarely heard a narrator's voice so well-suited to a character as is Dion Graham's voice is to Rutherford Calhoun. The entire book is written in first person as a personal journal of a ne'er-do-well former slave from Illinois who lives in New Orleans in 1830. Calhoun stows away on a ship that he discovers is a slave ship bound for West Africa. It is captained by an American explorer and adventurer with a strong personality and an insatiable desire for new experiences.

Along the way, Calhoun discovers that the slaves and the cargo in the hold are not normal, in fact they might be more accurately described as paranormal. I would say more but I want to avoid spoilers.

In reality, this book is not a good piece of historical fiction - historical anachronisms abound. Rather, it is an exceptional piece of fiction full of good old-fashioned literary themes, adventure, personal growth and literary allusions, including the obvious ones such as Moby Dick and Homer's Odyssey.

One of the larger themes is freedom and servitude. Most obviously there are the slaves, but Charles Johnson also explores the debts we owe one another, society in gneral, employer/employee, men and women, parent and child, god and man and the way our past binds us to our future. Looked at in all of these contexts, the reader may wonder if any of us are really free?

The closest "new" book that I've read is The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti, but it doesn't come close.

I highly recommend this book, especially the audio version Middle Passage, since it so perfectly narrated.

2008-10-23 | "intrepid reviewer" (Indianapolis, IN) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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Wow
I have rarely heard a narrator's voice so well-suited to a character as is Dion Graham's voice is to Rutherford Calhoun. The entire book is written in first person as a personal journal of a ne'er-do-well former slave from Illinois who lives in New Orleans in 1830. Calhoun stows away on a ship that he discovers is a slave ship bound for West Africa. It is captained by an American explorer and adventurer with a strong personality and an insatiable desire for new experiences.

Along the way, Calhoun discovers that the slaves and the cargo in the hold are not normal, in fact they might be more accurately described as paranormal. I would say more but I want to avoid spoilers.

In reality, this book is not a good piece of historical fiction - historical anachronisms abound. Rather, it is an exceptional piece of fiction full of good old-fashioned literary themes, adventure, personal growth and literary allusions, including the obvious ones such as Moby Dick and Homer's Odyssey.

One of the larger themes is freedom and servitude. Most obviously there are the slaves, but Charles Johnson also explores the debts we owe one another, society in gneral, employer/employee, men and women, parent and child, god and man and the way our past binds us to our future. Looked at in all of these contexts, the reader may wonder if any of us are really free?

The closest "new" book that I've read is The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti, but it doesn't come close.

I highly recommend this book, especially the audio version, since it so perfectly narrated.

2008-10-23 | "intrepid reviewer" (Indianapolis, IN) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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If you write a historical novel, then get your history right.
Anachronisms, one after the other. Just in the first fifteen pages: Isabella chooses not to travel by railroad to New Orleans, which is a good thing, since there weren't any in the 1820s. Rutherford refers to "Piltdown Man", who wasn't dug up until 1912. "Credit to the race" is a twentieth century phrase. And "locofoco" matches were invented four years after "Entry, the first" was supposedly written.

I can't imagine what else Johnson comes up with in the remaining 200 pages, but this kind of carelessness doesn't warrant serious reading, much less a national book award!!

2008-08-19 (Southampton, MA) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 2

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Turning the Wheel: Essays on Buddhism and Writing

Description

"Were it not for the Buddhadharma, says Charles Johnson in his preface to Turning the Wheel, "I'm convinced that, as a black American and an artist, I would not have been able to successfully negotiate my last half century of life in this country. Or at least not with a high level of creative productivity." In this collection of provocative and intimate essays, Johnson writes of the profound connection between Buddhism and creativity, and of the role of Eastern philosophy in the quest for a free and thoughtful life.

In 1926, W. E. B. Du Bois asked African-Americans what they would most want were the color line miraculously forgotten. In Turning the Wheel, Johnson sets out to explore this question by examining his experiences both as a writer and as a practitioner of Buddhism.

He looks at basic Buddhist principles and practices, demonstrating how Buddhism is both the most revolutionary and most civilized of possible human choices. He discusses fundamental Buddhist practices such as the Eightfold Path, Taming the Mind, and Sangha and illuminates their place in the American Civil Rights movement.

Johnson moves from spiritual guides to spiritual nourishment: writing. In essays touching on the role of the black intellectual, Uncle Tom's Cabin, and Ralph Ellison, Johnson uses tools of Buddhist thinking to clarify difficult ideas. Powerful and revelatory, these essays confirm that writing and reading, along with Buddhism, are the basic components that make up a thoughtful life.

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Customer Reviews

Solid
Charles Johnson is a fictionist best known for his award winning novels like Oxherding Tale, Middle Passage, and Dreamer. He is one of the rare published writers and intellectuals willing to publicly state his displeasure with the current low state of American writing. Yet, despite his novels and short story collections, Johnson is also an essayist and Buddhist. In 2003 he published a small volume of essays titled Turning The Wheel: Essays On Buddhism And Writing. Unsurprisingly, in this deliterate age, the book was launched without fanfare and destined to obscurity, perhaps awaiting rediscovery in future decades by Johnson scholars and historians, once today's ignorant era is passé.

The book is divided into two parts, with a preface. The first part is called On Buddhism, and consists of seven essays on the subject. The second half of the book is called On Writing, and contains nine essays. As someone who is far more interested in the arts than religion, my preference is for the latter essays, but the book, as a whole is well written, and straddles the line between Lowest Common Denominator appeal and textbook jargonese. In theory, this should allow the book to appeal to both ends of the intellectual spectrum, but in practice, the ignorant simply will not read such a work, and the supposed intelligentsia will ignore it, for it does not attempt to cordon off higher thought from the barbarians....Overall, Johnson shows that, as an essayist, while he might not be in a class with greats like a Loren Eiseley or James Baldwin, he certainly has insights and an ability to convey them that surpasses- and rather easily, most books you will read on religion or writing. Yes, more Baldwinian passion, or more Eiseleyan poesy, would have made the read a great pleasure rather than merely intellectually provocative, but that's picking nits. How Johnson's art and religion informs not only the essays' both titular sections, but those in the other sections, is the unconscious sort of implementation that only a superior artist does. He does not screed, nor wave banners, nor state the manifest- especially in bald clichés. He is also someone who truly thinks- even if his conclusions are not in sync with the reader's own. There is no mistaking a work like this with the New Age charlatanry of writers like Tony Robbins, Bill Moyers, Joseph Campbell, Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson, nor Wayne Dyer. Yet, Johnson is not hermetically sealed away, as many intellectuals are, as the book even mentions a writer as pop cultural as Rod Serling (but, no- not Rod McKuen).

Overall, Turning The Wheel: Essays On Buddhism And Writing is not a work to read if one merely wants to kill time. Yet, by stating that, I am not declaring the book FOR INTELLECTUALS ONLY. If one wants to really ponder some things about life and art, it will give one some new things to chew on, make some connections, and do both in ways one would not notice. This is something that other such books in this vein will not do. To some- if not most, that will seem a call to pass on this work. To those who actually do read it, you can thank me later.

2008-10-16 | cosmoeticadotcom (New York, USA) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 3

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A Reader's Feast
This book, a collection of essays on Buddhadharma, race, and writing in America, is vintage Johnson: the essays are wise, funny, and genuinely erudite. As a spiritual writer, as a critic of predominent intellectual trends in American culture, and as a careful and intelligent arbiter in the on-going reconstruction of American identity, Johnson offers clear and memorable essays on an astonishing variety of topics. My two favorites are "A Phenomenology of ON MORAL FICTION" and "An American Milk Bottle." This book is a reader's feast.

2003-05-30 | elljwb (The Lion City) | Helpful Votes: 25 | Rating: 5

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Lyndon B. Johnson: The American Presidents Series: The 36th President, 1963-1969

Product Details

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• ISBN13: 9780805082395
• Proviso: New

Description

The towering figure who sought to transform America into a "Great Society" but whose ambitions and presidency collapsed in the tragedy of the Vietnam War

Few figures in American history are as compelling and complex as Lyndon Baines Johnson, who established himself as the master of the U.S. Senate in the 1950s and succeeded John F. Kennedy in the White House after Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963.

Charles Peters, a keen observer of Washington politics for more than five decades, tells the story of Johnson's presidency as the tale of an immensely talented politician driven by ambition and desire. As part of the Kennedy-Johnson administration from 1961 to 1968, Peters knew key players, including Johnson's aides, giving him inside knowledge of the legislative wizardry that led to historic triumphs like the Voting Rights Act and the personal insecurities that led to the tragedy of Vietnam.

Peters's experiences have given him unique insight into the poisonous rivalry between Johnson and Robert F. Kennedy, showing how their misunderstanding of each other exacerbated Johnson's self-doubt and led him into the morass of Vietnam, which crippled his presidency and finally drove this larger-than-life man from the office that was his lifelong ambition.

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Customer Reviews

Useful--but brief--biography
A useful, brief biography of President Lyndon Baines Johnson. This is one in a series, called "The American Presidents." They are all rather short, designed to be accessible to lots of people who might not want to wade through a 600 page biography. That is both the strength and the weakness of this series. One gets a "quick and dirty" introduction to the presidents, but at the cost of depth.

Each reader must determine if the tradeoff is worth it.

At that, this is an interesting addition to the series. The author takes a rather sharp-eyed view of Johnson, discussing both his strengths and his more problematic elements. It attempts to make sense of his life and is honest in its view of Johnson. The volume discusses Johnson's womanizing, his hardball politics (including a key disputed election), his deviousness, his sometimes excessively hard as nails relationship with his staff. The book also notes the impressive litany of legislative successes--whether in his role as Senate Majority Leader or as President. Indeed, his legacy is quite impressive. But the book also notes the issue that dogged him and ended his presidency--Vietnam.

All in all, a useful work, despite its brevity.

2010-07-26 (Hershey, PA (Born in Kewanee, IL)) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 3

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The 36th
Charles Peters' `Lyndon Johnson' is a short (161 page) book in a series on the American presidents. It is not always a very flattering assessment of him as a person, but always as a top politician; perhaps that and the legislation passed during his term is why he is given the appraisal that he will be ranked high in the evaluation of American leaders.

There are a few pages devoted to Lyndon`s background and what life was like in rural Texas in the early 1900`s. His interest in politics seems to begin with his father and in his college years. The move to Washington and the building of an almost unmatched political network are well accounted for.
There are many unflattering incidents described, from the time he was awarded a silver star for just being a passenger in a B-26 that was attacked in the Pacific during WWII and none of the crew acknowledged, his syncopating brashness when needed or his ultimate humility ("there could be no such thing as too much sucking up") to reach his goals even the size of office he deemed he deserved, to his treatment of friends and political acquaintances.
One of the best descriptions in the book occurs in summing up the atmosphere of returning WWII veterans who just wanted a' Father's Knows Best' - white picket fence life after the drama and danger of the war and the political climate that created.. The time of Kennedy's assassination and the many incidents and conflicts with the Kennedy`s are included..
Of course the guilt and horror of the Kennedy assassination contributed to some of Johnson's success in getting legislation passed; but the legacy of the many bills and programs such as The War on Poverty, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Medicare cannot be forgotten. The escalation of the war in Vietnam, the events and effect that that war had on this country is also his legacy. All of Lyndon Johnson's life is touched upon, including his depression and failing health after he left office.
This is a book that gives a helpful biography in a simplified form for those interested in American history and the American presidents.

2010-07-13 | the book reader (Indiana&Maryland- U.S.A.) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 4

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Lyndon Johnson in the American Presidents Series
For aging American baby boomers, the presidency of Lyndon Johnson brings back painful memories. Johnson (1908 -- 1973) became the 36th president on November 22, 1963, following the assassination of President John Kennedy. He is known for his escalation of the War in Vietnam and for the tumultuous period of unrest in the United States which followed in its wake.

Charles Peters offers a portrayal of Johnson, in all his complexity, in his recent short biography in the American Presidents Series edited by the late Arthur Schelsinger Jr. and by Sean Willentz. The books in this series give valuable short introductions and assessments to each of our presidents. Several of the volumes, including this biography of Johnson, are not mere summaries but rather offer and informed and challenging perspective in their own right. A political insider. Peters edited the "Washington Monthly" for 32 years, and he has written a book about "How Washington Really Works" and a book about the Republican nomination of Wendell Wilkie for president in 1940.

Peters gives much space to Johnson's life before he became president. The background he offers is essential to understanding the man. Born to poverty in rural Texas, Johnson struggled to afford and to graduate from Southwest Texas State Teachers College. His ambition and domineering personality showed as a young man, and Johnson early proved adept in learning to network. In 1931, Johnson became a staff assistant to Representative Richard Kleberg and, with a short two-year interlude, he would remain in Washington, D.C. until the conclusion of his presidency.

After an intense courtship, Johnson married the well to do Lady Bird Taylor. During their long marriage, he was frequently unfaithful to her. Many of his affairs were known to Washington insiders if not to the larger public. Johnson was elected to the House of Representatives in 1937, was narrowly defeated for the U.S. Senate in 1941, and in turn won a disputed and highly controversial election to the Senate in 1948. During his early teunure in Washington, Johnson ingratiated himself with powerful and important individuals including President Roosevelt and Sam Rayburn.

With his legislative skills, Johnson rose quickly, becoming Senate majority whip in
1951, and majority leader in 1955. In 1955, likely as a result of stress, smoking, and heavy drinking, he suffered a major heart attack. Johnson unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for president in 1956. In 1957, he was instrumental in securing the passage of the first major Civil Rights legislation in 100 years. He sought the Democratic nomination for president in 1960, and accepted the Vice-presidential nomination offered by a reluctant John Kennedy in order to secure Southern support for the ticket. The southerner Johnson and the patrician Kennedys never got along well. Johnson became president when Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas and in 1964 was elected to the presidency in his own right in a landslide against Barry Goldwater.

Johnson's domineering personality, shrewdness, and knowledge of the legislative process helped him secure an ambitious domestic program upon Kennedy's death. Johnson also had a commitment to Civil Rights which was probably more deeply felt than his predecessor's. He secured the enactment of landmark Civil Rights legislation in 1964 and voting rights legislation in 1965. In 1965, Johnson secured the passage of Medicare as well as of a sweeping Immigration Reform Bill the consequences of which remain with the United States today. Johnson also initiated a series of programs known as the War on Poverty with at best mixed results. His domestic vision was known as the "Great Society".

Johnson will forever be remembered for escalating the War in Vietnam. Peters' book focuses on how this escalation came about. He argues that Johnson felt pressured by many politicians he viewed as hawkish, including Robert Kennedy. Robert Kennedy had, apparently unknown to Johnson, offered a softer line some three years earlier in the Cuban Missle Crisis. Against some doubts on his part, Johnson emeshed himself in Vietnam by sending ground troops. Oddly enough, most of his critics challenged his use of air raids and did not place enough emphasis on the ground war. With the tragedy of the Vietnam war, came the student protests, rioting, the year 1968, and massive changes that remain with the United States, for good and bad. Much of subsequent United States history, unhappily, can be viewed as a reaction to both the War in Vietnam and to the unrest which followed it, culminating in 1968 with the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy. Johnson declined to run for the presidency in 1968. Richard Nixon eked out a narrow victory over Hubert Humphrey.

Peters emphasiszes both Johnson's virtues and skills together with his weak points -- his bullying, philandering, crudeness, and, sometimes, tendency to deceive. It is the mark of many other changes in American life that Johnson engaged, with the knowledge of the media, in sexual and other forms of conduct (forcing male staff to swim nude with him so that Johnson could belittle the size of their members) that would not be tolerated in a president today. In his assessment of Johnson, Peters writes that "it seems likely that history will rank Johnson in the group of presidents just below the top tier of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt." ( p. 159) Given his account of Johnson's presidency and character, Peters' estimate seems to me far too generous.

Peters has written an excellent short account of an important American president. Many Americans, including me, are old enough to remember Johnson. His presidency still remains relatively recent and highly charged. Its consequences still remain with the United States.

Robin Friedman

2010-06-21 (Washington, D.C. United States) | Helpful Votes: 7 | Rating: 4

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A General History of the Robberies & Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates

Product Details

• Fitness: New
• ISBN13: 9781599219059
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Description

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"I presume we need make no Apology for giving the Name of a History to the following Sheets, though they contain nothing but the Actions of a Parcel of Robbers."

A "Parcel of Robbers" they may be, but pirates have long held a special place in our imaginations. The iconography of piracy--peg legs, eye patches, pieces of eight, squawking parrots, the Jolly Roger--was first codified in A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates. This collection of brief biographies reads like a Who's Who? of piracy, with entries on Captains Kidd, Rackam, and Roberts, women-in-disguise pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read, and the infamous Edward Teach, a.k.a. Blackbeard, "that couragious Brute, who might have pass'd in the World for a Heroe, had he been employ'd in a good Cause."

First published in 1724, A General History is the book that launched a thousand pirate stories--inspiring Robert Louis Stevenson's Long John Silver, J.M. Barrie's Captain Hook, and Rafael Sabatini's Captain Blood. Though it had been attributed to a shadowy character named Captain Charles Johnson since its date of publication, the book has now been convincingly (though not incontrovertibly) attributed to Daniel Defoe. The 18th-century text, reproduced here complete with the awkward sentence construction, capitalization of nouns proper and common, and frequent italicizing typical of its era, sometimes makes for rather difficult reading, but Defoe's prose still manages to sparkle. With a new introduction by Richard West, author of Daniel Defoe: The Life and Strange, Surprising Adventures, A General History is a must-read for armchair swashbucklers. --C.B. Delaney

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Customer Reviews

A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates
A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates is a great book with lots of historical data and lots of tales. A must for all pirate buff's!

2008-07-18 | stoneriver1958 (EL Lago, TX) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Captain Charles Johnson vs Daniel Defoe
I bought this book for two reasons 1) to read about my relative John Gow aka Smith and 2) to crossreference it with Daniel Defoe's book "The General History of Pyrates.

2008-05-02 | kuma bear (Coquitlam, BC, Canada) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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aye matey..
I bought this book for myself having stumbled across it at the bookstore. Started reading it and loved it. I have bought two more, one for a friend who was turning 40, (a pirate looks at 40), and one for my Dad, (who at one time was a pirate looks at 40). I recommend the book!

2007-09-28 (Florida) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Saved by Captain Johnson?
If you are a fan of Defoe and want to read about pirates in their heyday then this is the book you need. It was published under the name of Captain Charles Johnson, presumably to protect its author from the retaliation of ones such as Captain Avery - then in England - whose case the book deals with first. Avery had had a play written about or by him called The Successful Pirate, and a book called The King of the Pirates, and this A General History of the Pyrates is a scathing attack against their pretentions. Because of his history as a pirate Avery would not have been able to visit the naval records office to check up on his adversary, hence the security and reason presumably for the name. Subsequent research in the naval records have shown that no such fish as Captain Charles Johnson had existed. His name is fictional.

A possible explanation for why this book was published under that name is that at the time there was a hack playwright named Charles Johnson who is suspected of having written Avery's play and possibly also his book The King of The Pirates. If so, the name Captain Charles Johnson here would have been to mock this author and subvert any such pretence.

The American Defoe scholar John Robert Moore identified A General History of the Pyrates as being Defoe's and it certainly adds to his tally of great works.

In 1988 a couple of so-called scholars dismissed Moore's attribution on the grounds that the style was not the same as in The Pirate Gow or The King Of Pirates, both of which have been attributed to Defoe. However neither of these books are alike in style (The Pirate Gow is at least good journalism) and certainly the King of Pirates doesn't resemble Defoe's style or his character, while this one does. Moore was a fan and an expert and he has to be right.

I like this edition, the print being black and comfortably sized and attractive.

2006-05-03 | whitespeck (England) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 5

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STRAP ON YOUR PEG LEG!
1695-1725 is called the Golden Age of Piracy, a time when the black flag of the skull and crossbones provoked terror like nothing else. As European ships fattened with goods and gold left the New World for the Old, pirates were as plentiful as sharks. Courageous, clever, defiant--and drunk--these thieves knew no boundaries as they plied the waters with an unquenchable thirst for mayhem. They burned ships for sport, they murdered, they stole, they even bribed colonial governors to look the other way. One gang actually drew up a formal document declaring war on the entire world.

And many of them swung from the yardarm as they were methodically brought to justice.

The most intriguing aspect of these stories is the portrayal of piratical society. They democratically elected their ship's captain. They debated and voted on their next destination. They followed orders unquestionably. They admired courage under fire, and admired an intelligent mind put to foul deeds. They trusted one another--to a point. As two or three ships sailed together, many a time one of them would weigh anchor in the dead of night and sail off with the booty, leaving their cohorts to cry in their rum--or pursue them and viciously kill `em all for daring to steal from fellow thieves. A perverse maritime code of respect and deceit evolved amongst these men, much like within today's penitentiaries.

Personally, my biggest surprise was the ease with which pirates recruited more pirates. A ship would be overtaken and plundered, and the pirate captain would shout, "Would anyone like to join us?!" and formerly law-abiding seamen would clamber over the rails to join the cutthroats. The free-wheeling life of adventure, ill-gotten wealth, and promiscuity was irresistible.

HOWEVER, these stories were written in the 1720s, and the syntax is rather bulky, which can dull the reader's attention. Worse, many of the stories sound alike: different names and places, but the same ol' plunder-burn-murder, then rest up on some secluded island, and then plunder-burn-murder some more.

So while these adventures can be rousing, sometimes surprising, and even humorous, the general monotony of the book can be very trying. Nonetheless, this book is widely considered a scholastic cornerstone for the student of piracy. So read this book--or walk the plank!

2005-09-20 (the Great Lakes) | Helpful Votes: 4 | Rating: 3

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Soulcatcher: And other stories

Description

Twelve stories about the African experience of slavery in America, by the National Book Award-winning novelist.

Nothing has had as profound an effect on American life as slavery. For blacks and whites alike, the experience has left us with a conflicted and contradictory history. Now, famed novelist Charles Johnson, whose Middle Passage won the National Book Award, presents a dozen tales of the effects and experience of slavery, each based on historical fact, and each about those Africans who arrived on our shores in shackles. From Martha Washington's management of her slaves, bequeathed to her at the death of the first president, to a boy chained in the bowels of a ship plying the infamous passage from Africa to the South laden with human cargo, from a lynching in Indiana to a hunter of escaped slaves searching the Boston market for his quarry, from an early Quaker meeting exploring resettlement in Africa to the day after Emancipation-the voices, terrors, and savagery of slavery come vividly and unforgettably to life.

These stories, told by a master storyteller, transcend history even as they present it, and retell the mythic proportions of a historical period with astounding realism and beauty, power, and emotion.

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Charles Johnson's stories about the African American experience of slavery had an interesting genesis. TV producer Orlando Bagwell asked the author to write 12 original short stories based on the PBS series Africans in America: America's Journey through Slavery. Johnson found the request daunting but irresistible. As he writes in his preface: "Rarely is a writer given the opportunity (like an actor) to climb into the skin of both Frederick Douglass and Martha Washington, to descend into the fetid hold of a slave ship and join a nineteenth century slave revolt, to play Jefferson's consul to Haiti and inhabit the psyche of both a runaway slave and his pursuer."

Accordingly, the dozen stories run a gamut of styles, each ingeniously appropriate to its subject. In "The Transmission," Johnson uses straightforward narrative to tell the story of a young slave's arrival in America. On the epistolary front, "A Report from St. Dominique" is a letter to Thomas Jefferson from his consul in Haiti. And in "Martha's Dilemma," Martha Washington describes her fear of her own slaves after her husband's death. This tale is based on a historical footnote: George Washington, privately opposed to slavery, added a codicil to his will that freed the slaves after his wife's death. "Oh, George, you were not a thinker," laments Martha. "Had you been, you would not out of Christian kindness to the blacks unwittingly consigned me to a hellish house, where in the face of each of our formerly loving attendants I now see my possible executioner." In "Confession," the runaway Tiberius describes his awakening to the injustice of slavery: "We was all like folks in one of them madhouses, black and white, thinkin' the way we lived and died was the nat'ral way of things when, from top to bottom, it was crazy as can be." Johnson shows every face of that madness. At a mere 110 pages, Soulcatcher makes a giant impact. --Claire Dederer

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Customer Reviews

Soulcatcher
This book presented 12 powerful talkes about slavery that impacted me in a way were i could not believe what people when through back when slavery began. It showed the terrors and the savagery of slavery that no one can forget. It hit me with the realism of what effects and causes of slavery and i am glad that it has come to a point where slavery is abolished.

2002-12-11 (San Francisco, CA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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A Must Read Collection of Slave Narratives
For a class in contemporary literature, I read Charles Johnson's novel, Middle Passage. The novel provoked a big response in me, big enough that I contacted the author to discuss the book. The book and the discussion piqued an interest in me to read more novels that reflect my ancestors' painful time in history.

When I purchased Soulcatcher, I was excited to find a collection of stories that bring many voices together to tell of the horrible tales of slavery. Each story was poignant and painful to read, but each enlightened me on the realism of an era where my ancestors were treated like the basic of animals.

Each of the 12 stories in this stellar collection provokes attention to a time in history that tends to get swept under the rug; however Johnson, with his tight, and at times, tongue-in-cheek, literary style, painfully brings it out with stories like, "The Transmission," a story about a boy's despairing journey on a slaveship and "Martha's Dilemma," a story told by Martha Washington about the care of her slaves after the death of her husband to a boy chained in a slaveship.

This collection is a must to everyone. These stories are testaments to a reality that won't be forgotten, and Johnson vividly portrays the horrific within beautiful prose.

Shon Bacon

2002-07-13 (Lake Charles, LA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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An inventive collection of tales
"Soulcatcher and Other Stories," by Charles Johnson, is a contemporary collection of stories that brings to life the era of African-American slavery. Johnson uses various techniques throughout the book: dialogue, monologue, third person narration, diary entries, a letter. This variety of form helps keep the book interesting throughout.

Johnson deals, either directly or indirectly, with a number of important names from U.S. and Caribbean history: Frederick Douglass, Martha Washington, Toussaint L'Ouverture, and others. The topics of the individual stories are varied; they include passage on a slave transport ship, black soldiers fighting for the British during the Revolutionary War, the pursuit of a fugitive slave, and more. My favorite story, "Poetry and Politics," is an intriguing fictional dialogue between groundbreaking African-American poet Phillis Wheatley and her mistress.

Overall, this is a solid collection which would, in my opinion, be good both for classroom use (high school and college) and for individual reading. My recommendation: read it alongside relevant works by such 18th and 19th century authors as Douglass, Wheatley, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry David Thoreau, and others.

2002-05-16 (Pittsburgh, PA USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Exceptional Portrayal of Slavery Times
Charles Johnson, previous winner of The National Book Award for Middle Passage, does a wonderful job of creating 12 fictional stories based on slavery times. He jumps in and out of the voices of everyone from a scared little boy being transported to America on a slave ship, having to witness his parents and sibling die, to Frederick Douglas, Phyllis Wheatley and even Martha Washington during the time she is trying to cope with her husband's death.

This book is innovative and creative and it gives great insight into a time that a lot of people would prefer to forget. Soulcatcher, the title story, is about an escaped slave being hunted by a bounty hunter for a $200 reward. There is another story about people trying to convince blacks to return to Africa after they are given their freedom and have outworn their welcome. It is amazing to think that people, our people, ever lived that way. While disturbing to even imagine it, this is a must read for those of us that take simple liberties for granted on a daily basis.

Reviewed by Zane

2001-05-19 (RAWSISTAZ.com and BlackBookReviews.net) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 5

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Wonderful Stirring Images
Charles Johnson has compiled stories which are stirring to the mind. My favorite was "A Soldier of the Crown", you will love the end. I can see my grandmother laugh while reading "A Report from St. Domingue".

These tales should be shared at every church and every school. Because for a moment you are there and experiencing a life we can only imagine.

2001-05-17 | aunttace (Philadelphia, PA USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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The Sorcerer's Apprentice: Tales and Conjurations

Description

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Customer Reviews

The Sorcerer's Admirer
What is important to remember when reading any of Charles Johnson's work is that he is highly philosophical. He's learned in many disciplines and is usually inclined to merge difficult and seemingly incongruent ideas. His work at times can seem jarring and ethereal--giving readers an over-the-head feeling. I find that if you can work through the areas in his work that go from familiar to foreign, and keep on pace with the story line, by the end you'll find Johnson's work highly rewarding. Faith and the Good Thing is by far my favorite Johnson novel, and Menagerie is indeed the best short story in the whole body of the fiction literature landscape. His short story China will make you re-calibrate your literary compass--it challenges writers to strive to bring more life meanings (usefulness) to their entertainment stories.
Johnson is my favorite author. Some of his work is quite difficult. He is the author who will write 1200 pages then distill the content to 250. He's careful, he's purposeful. He's brilliant. He ain't easy.

--Solomohn "Piebald" Ennis

2008-10-14 (Chicago, IL) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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The Sorcerer's Apprentice
The Sorcerer's Apprentice is a good example for writing, and the inability to write. Exchange Value was chosen by Gardner as one of the best American short stories of 1982 and has become Johnson's most anthologized short story. Two kids steal from a dead old woman who hoarded her money in fear, and they become as eccentric as she. How ironic. Popper's Disease has some interesting insights into racial matters, but then it degrades into a science-fiction story and anti-solipsistic philosophy. Similarly, Alethia starts out promising, with a sexy black woman blackmailing her philosophy professor, but then is swallowed up in dreamlike imagery and the tired notion that thinking is too much dangerous.

Occasionally Johnson displays that Ron Hansen tic of turning respectable nouns into clumsy verbs, while his classroom admonishment to get as specific as possible, is here shown to date stories. Several times he mentions Sanka rather than coffee. Who drinks Sanka anymore? Wendy Barnes in Alethia also uses trim in the sexual sense at one point, which seems terribly dated to me. But the stories aren't bad, entertaining enough, and there are early references to the Allmuseri, Johnson's fictional African tribe in Middle Passage. But I wouldn't seek out other Charles Johnson efforts as a result of this book.

2000-06-21 | purelyjoy | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 3

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