Esi Edugyan

Part 2 ends at the midpoint of Esi Edugyan's novel Washington Black with the eponymous narrator, now 13 years old, standing alone in a snow storm in the Arctic as he watches his mentor and protector, Titch, disappear into the whiteness (symbolic?), the 2nd suicide he'd witness. Titch has been overcome w sorrow at his reunion w his father, a renowned scientist living in spartan conditions w a crew of native assistants as he conducts a study of arctic ice. He is completely indifferent to his son - contemptuous even - about his son's own scientific exploration and equally contentious of his brother's management of the family plantation (Faith!) - and Titch recognizing the hypocrisy: letting others do the dirty work of plantation management while using the generated wealth to pursue his own interests. Some authors would end the novel at this point , but not EE, who seems to have limitless talent for plot generation and topical description: her account of Arctic life is worth reading in itself as well as her ability to imagine a first exposure to snow and ice from the viewpoint of one raised in The Caribbean. So we will continue to follow Wash on his adventures- however improbable, how ever much they resemble a "tall story," because of EE's writing and most important her careful establishment of the personality and perceptions of a young man making his way toward freedom in a frightening, racist, and hostile world.

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