Title: Book Of Negroes

Author: Lawrence Hill

Publisher: Harper Collins

Category: Fiction

# of Pages: 486

Released: 2007

ISBN-10: 0-00-225507-3

ISBN-13: 978-0-00-225507-3

$34.95 CDN 

4 Stars 

Reviewed By: Kindah Mardam Bey 

I seem to be going through a ‘theme’ this month as I recently watched the 30 year Anniversary of Alex Haley’s Roots on DVD. I was too young at the time to have been impacted by the Roots revolution; as one person states on the documentary special features section ‘time was divided into before Roots and after Roots.’ No television event has affected the world in a greater way since. So after digesting four generations of the Haley family I settled down into a good read of Lawrence Hill’s fictional account of Aminata Diallo’s life in The Book Of Negroes. Diallo is a character, but easily a compilation of so many Africans captured and sold into slavery in the United States.   

Aminata Diallo is the daughter of a ‘baby catcher’ in the early nineteenth century, when at the tender age of eleven years old she is abducted from her West African village and sold as a slave in America. Diallo’s greatest skill is her knowledge of midwifery, but her greatest asset is her will to endure. An unromantic appeal to the sign of the times, Hill tells of Diallo’s journey from freedom, to slave, to employed literate woman, to a voice for abolitionists, to England and then eventually to a sanctuary found in no particular land but in the cycle of history itself. Diallo also plays a large part in The Book Of Negroes, a historically relevant documentation she finds her cause in. Aminata is a strong female character, full of intelligence and savvy; knowing when to fight and when to live to fight another day. Following Aminata’s heart down her journey of suffering and tribulations is like walking a mile in her shoes. 

Canada’s answer to Alex Haley is Lawrence Hill not just in theme, but in substance as well. A meticulous storyteller, Hill searches out the crevices of history and anchors his story firmly in plausibility. Quite possibly the most delightful part of this book is the plethora of tidbits about history that many of us may not know, like where certain terms or names came from. However, it is the heart of Hill’s leading character, her robust sense of life, a fully developed character that will keep you turning every page.  

At times, particularly the first three quarters of the book I found a little slow to develop, but then when the book picks up the pace you are galloping with plot developments to the story’s end. Hill hasn’t the sharp edged storytelling of Haley, or even harder hitting novels from Lance Horner and Kyle Onstott, but who can these days as so much seems censured, even in novel form. However, those harrowing descriptives can be the meatiest part of a story that will render your gut somewhere gulping in your throat. Are we a tamer society now? Is Hill’s writing a mere example of this? I believe so. In that circumstance, Hill’s book is evocative and poignant for its times. 

Lawrence Hill’s greatest asset as a writer is his empathy and connection to his characters that pours through every page.