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A Gathering Of Waters (2012)

by Bernice L. McFadden(Favorite Author)

3.95 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1617751103 (ISBN13: 9781617751103)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Akashic Books

review 1: 3.5 really.the storytelling is compelling. the premise is clever - i love a town as a narrator. it's also a great interpretation of the emitt till's tragic story. the writing is good - i love how mcfadden talks about love, loss, ghosts, and the insane bigotry in the south. but something - and i can't quite put my finger on what - fell a little flat for me. i think it had to do with the ending - which seemed a little too neat and tied up in a bow. but i'm definitely up for reading other of mcfadden's work to get a better feel for her as an author.
review 2: This book is a case where what's listed on the blurb does not even come close to telling the reader what the book is about. While the blurb mentions the blossming romance between Emmett Till and a young lady ... morenamed Tess that was cut short by his tragic murder by white racists, this book is really about the town of Money, Mississippi, where the murder took place and how it came under the cloud of bad fortune. Gathering of Waters is basically divided into two parts with Till's part being the dividing point. The novel would have been more enjoyable if it fleshed out the first part without going into the second. The first part deals with Tess's mother, Hemmingway, and her grandparents, especially her grandmother, Doll, who is said to be possessed by the ghost of an angry prostitute named Esther. It is here where Bernice L. McFadden shines with her thorough description of Money and how the town may be cursed. Once the novel leaves that period it loses steam quickly. McFadden's focus shifts from the town as a whole to Hemmingway and Tess alone with the novel losing the colorfulness that drove the first half of the book. McFadden makes Money come alive too bad she just could not sustain that spark of life for the length of the novel. less

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