Reviews include “Let Us Descend” from National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward, and Ashley Hope Perez’s often banned “Out of Darkness.”
LET US DESCEND
By Jesmyn Ward
Published by Scribner (October 24, 2023)
Reviewed by Ashley Riggleson
I have read many great books this year but few more beautifully written than Jesmyn Ward’s newest novel, Let Us Descend. Ward, a two-time winner of The National Book Award, returns with a different but no less poignant novel set during slavery.
Readers follow Arese (or Annis, as the enslavers call her), who, when the novel opens, is an enslaved girl living on a plantation with her mother. The two work in the house by day and practice fighting in secret by night. Although it is risky to form bonds when people can be sold at any moment, Arese and her mother have a very tender relationship. So, it is unsurprising when, after her mother is sold south, Arese is devastated and consumed by grief. But even then, she is not without love, for she soon finds solace in the companionship of another slave, a girl named Safi. Soon their relationship turns into something more, and when the two are discovered, they too are sold.
All of this could be a novel in itself, but in Let Us Descend, there is still much more. A great deal of the book tells of the journey south. This descent is grueling and not everyone survives. When, after great physical and emotional pain, Arese arrives in New Orleans, she is given very little time to recover before she is purchased and enslaved on a plantation that is, if possible, even worse. The slaves here are starved and forced, on their meager diets, to harvest sugar cane or face harsh punishment.
These circumstances are, obviously, not ideal for development and growth and are instead quite oppressive. It would be easy to say that this novel is about the horrors of slavery, however, to say that Let Us Descend is only about slavery is to do the novel, and Arese herself, a great disservice. Arese shows great strength and resilience over the course of the text, and while her circumstances may stifle most, Arese amazingly and against all odds, comes into her own.
So, yes, Let Us Descend is about slavery, deprivation, and starvation. It is about a girl who is pushed to the limits of what a human can endure. But it is also about love. Arese holds onto the bonds that shaped her, until, by communing with the fickle and manipulative spirits of the water and earth, she discovers what happened to her mother and must come to terms with her losses.
Ward is, as always, a beautiful prose stylist. And, although there are hard topics in here (readers should be warned that sexual assault, starvation, depression, and the impacts of systemic racism are key parts of the plot), I savored this book. Ward writes about dark themes, but the novel never feels hopeless. Instead, there are moments of love and joy, even amid the horror. Arese, with her indomitable spirit, is a memorable character whose presence will continue to resound with readers well after they finish Ward’s epic yet intimate novel.
Ashley Riggleson is a free-lance book reviewer from Rappahannock County. When she is not reading or writing book reviews, she can usually be found playing with her pets, listening to podcasts, or watching television with friends and family.
OUT OF DARKNESS
by Ashley Hope Perez
Published by Carolrhoda Lab (September 1, 2015)
Reviewed by Gina E. Terry
Spotsylvania County Public School superintendent Mark Taylor removed Ashley Hope Perez’s Out of Darkness from high school libraries despite the unanimous recommendation by a committee to keep the book. I was on that committee. I stand by my recommendation that the book is appropriate for high school readers and above; however, I don’t want to read the novel again. Out of Darkness is beautifully written, but its tragedy is not for the faint of heart.
The story opens with a heart wrenching scene of a search for children’s bodies after a gas line explosion decimates a school. The opening is based on an historical event: the 1937 New London, TX explosion that took the lives of over 300 students and teachers. Despite community efforts to hold the school board and gas industry accountable, silence trumped an honest reckoning with the event.
Perez’s fictional reckoning centers less on the explosion itself and more on the ways communities and families tear themselves apart. The book follows Naomi Vargas, a 17-year old Mexican-American newcomer to the small, East Texas town. Naomi’s outsider status is exacerbated by the community’s racism, sexism, segregation, as well as growing economic disparities brought on by an oil boom. Home offers little sanctuary; she faces raising her half-siblings, twins “Beto” and “Cari,” and the sexual advances of her stepfather, Henry.
Naomi finds comfort in a growing friendship with “Wash” Fuller, the son of the principal of the local Colored School. Wash’s optimism and aspirations of college provide Naomi with hope for her own future. Naomi and Wash’s friendship across race and class lines acts as a fulcrum for the narrative. We move through the town as Naomi and Wash do, encountering a variety of hostilities and acts of kindness along the way.
At times, the perspective shifts to a collective voice, which weaves through like a Greek Chorus without morals. The threat of sexual violence pervades Naomi’s forays into school, where “The Gang,” the voice of high school boys, objectify Naomi. Their language is crude, but for many familiar with high school rhetoric, it is also realistic.
Home offers no respite; Naomi is sexually abused by her stepfather. Later, there is a rape scene; I had to put the book down for a spell after this part. But, no scene is sexually gratuitous. Each moment reiterates Naomi’s powerlessness in all the spaces she inhabits: home, school, church, and community.
Reviewers have noted parallels to Romeo and Juliet, especially with the notion of star-crossed lovers. The allusion foreshadows Naomi and Wash’s fate, who despite their efforts to carve a future for themselves, cannot hide forever in the solace of a tree. Their end is met by more horrific means than the explosion, which is awful enough as it is.
From the gouged eyes of Sophocles’ Oedipus to Shakespeare’s murdered heroes, shocking violence is a hallmark of Classical tragedy. Out of Darkness makes a foray into this centuries-old genre by combining elements of realism and suffering to elicit sympathy for those marginalized by families and communities. Tragedy spotlights humanity’s shortcomings–and asks us to do better by ourselves and by each other.
Despite needing time to recover after reading the novel, I found hope in Perez’s conclusion. The novel ends with Beto using writing as a form of catharsis for the tragedies he witnessed and experienced. Perez breaks through here, asking us, as readers, to help “carry” his story. The act of reading encourages us to acknowledge our histories: both personal and communal, and both pleasant and horrific. And through shared and acknowledged stories, the ending suggests, healing can begin.
Gina Terry is a professor and parent who will read almost anything; when not exploring literature and language, she enjoys hiking and biking with her family.
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