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Cargando... House of the Patriarchpor Barbara Hambly
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Inscríbete en LibraryThing para averiguar si este libro te gustará. Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro. I arrived late to Barbara Hambly's Benjamin January historical mystery series. I've only read volumes 17 and 18. Seventeen (Lady of Perdition) was good, but was set up as a Western, which just isn't my genre of choice, so while I enjoyed it, I wasn't sure if I was sold on the series. Volume 18 (House of the Patriarch) has answered that question. I'm going back to read the series from the beginning. Benjamin January is a free man of color living in pre-Civil War New Orleans. Trained as a surgeon, but also a fine musician, he makes his living giving music lessons, since it is impossible for him to work as a surgeon as a black man. When he does offer medical advice, he has to couch it in phrases like "I was once the valet for a surgeon, and he...." He gets angry a lot. There's no way to take the treatment he faces with equanimity. His wife, a scientist, runs their home as a boarding school for young women of not-quite-top-tier young women whose families are willing to give them an education beyond dancing and embroidery and provides special effects for a local theatre. The plots are good. But what I most appreciate—if that's the world—is spending time in January's shoes. As a free black man, his freedoms are very limited. He cannot testify in court. If he attacks a white man, that's a hanging offense, regardless of what preceded the attack. And any time he travels away from home, he must be continuously on the lookout for "blackbirders." Toughs who make their money seizing blacks from the street—free or not—and selling them into (or back into) slavery. With many clients, he also has to do a lot of work to meet the social norms of the time. Even with clients who privately treat him as an equal, he has to pass as a slave in public. As I said, he gets angry. I recommend this series for anyone who reads historical mysteries. It will pull you into a time and a role that can change the way you see the world. Particularly now, when we are living in the era of Black Lives Matter, we need to see what life is like when one is marked and treated as inferior on a daily basis. I received a free electronic review copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. The opinions are my own. sin reseñas | añadir una reseña
Pertenece a las seriesBenjamin January (18)
New Orleans, 1840. Freshly home from a dangerous journey, the last thing Benjamin January wants to do is leave his wife and young sons again. But when old friends Henri and Chloe Viellard ask for his help tracking down a missing girl in distant New York, he can't say no. Three weeks ago, seventeen-year-old Eve Russell boarded a steam-boat and never got off it. Mrs Russell is adamant Eve's been kidnapped, but how could someone remove a teenager from a crowded deck in broad daylight? And why would anyone target Eve? The answer lies in New York, a hotbed of new religions and beliefs, of human circuses and freak shows and of blackbirders, who'll use any opportunity to kidnap a free man of color and sell him into slavery. January's determined to uncover the truth, but will he ever be able to return to New Orleans to share it? No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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Google Books — Cargando... GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyClasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio:
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I haven't read any books in this series for a long time, so at first some of the relationships were a bit confusing. But it didn't take long to sort out what was going on, and as January moves from New Orleans to a bustling and dangerous New York, to upstate New York - the "burned over district" where new religious movements have swept through the area. The historical details are fascinating and the story provides an interesting exploration of the second Great Awakening and some fun characters, including a wily P.T. Barnum, who knows hokum when he sees it, just as he sees opportunities to charge admission for just about anything. There is lots of suspense, both in the work January must do to find the missing girl and in the constant threat that he will be caught by enterprising slave catchers and sold into slavery - which provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the roots of our present moment in US history.
I could have done with fewer italics and all caps as January's thoughts are brought into the narrative but that was a minor irritant. Altogether an engaging plot, great historical scene-setting, and a fine cast of characters.