![]() The book is not only fiction, but magical realism (my fave), and historical fiction…sort of. Personally, I had never read any writer who’d approached the concept of voice in this way, and while I’ve lost the specific details, the feeling remains-the incredulity of perception, locked into the power of memory.Īnd memory’s power is one of the central themes of Coates’s fictional debut, The Water Dancer, published in 2019 by One World. He could see his voice, and, if I remember right, it wasn’t entirely human. ![]() ![]() But what Coates describes in that book is not just sound, tone, and style-it’s an actual Being, a figure. All writers grapple with voice it’s necessary territory. Now, I can’t remember exact details, but somewhere amidst the essays of that book, he writes about envisioning his own voice, his muse. If you could put such a voice on a scale, it would weigh more than one single man that heavy runs throughout his writings, a beautiful and often painful weight. I’ve read pieces of his book We Were Eight Years in Power, a collection of essays about the Obama presidency, and in that title alone, you can hear the lyricism that permeates his critical theory. ![]() ![]() He’s sharp-witted, with a critical brain. Most of his work is non-fiction: modern, American, political, cultural, male, Black. As a general statement, Ta-Nehisi Coates is a writer worth putting on your radar. ![]()
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