Set in the 1830s, the narrator for this story, George Washington Black, starts off his life story as an illiterate eleven year old orphaned Dahomey slave taken to a Barbados sugar cane plantation. With a knack for scientific sketching and a curiosity about everything biological or scientific, he helps the more tolerant of his twin brother owners design and then fly a dirigible off the island. Further travels include stops in Norfolk, Virginia, a remote Arctic outpost, Nova Scotia, London, Amsterdam, and Marrakesh. At times it seems that he is forever in a futile quest to escape his past.
The careful description of the sights, sounds and smells of the various places he escapes to evokes a time when those sensations were probably more important to survival than they are now with modern communications and much less contact with raw outdoor realities. His constant questioning of the meaning of his life without evoking any religious beliefs and his determination to contribute to the betterment of others are admirable qualities thwarted by his horribly disfigured face. And his yearning for recognition of his considerable scientific and artistic contributions is never satisfied by the end of the story, when he is only eighteen.
The story is tied together with some unlikely chance encounters, considering the limits of travel and means of communication in that age. But these provide just enough surprises to keep any lover of mystery novels engaged. Yet it seems to me that in 1836, even the most knowledgeable biologist would be unable to identify the limbic system in a cetacean brain.
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel that I picked up at the Kanata Grassroots Grannies book exchange and breakfast, although it somehow was already on my list to read. I have not read any of the Vancouver author’s previous works.
The Passionate Reader 