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A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest
Fiction. Poetry. When Titus Horace, successful African American author, inherits a large tract of land, he leaves Chicago with his Jewish wife Ardene and their daughter Asa, and moves to the segregated North Carolina of 1950. Unhappy at being uprooted from her school and friends, Asa quickly learns how persons of color are intimidated and humiliated on a daily basis and how, despite their education and talent, each day becomes an effort to survive brutal hostility. Asa discovers she and her father, a professor at the college for black students, cannot enter the town's public library. As Asa struggles to adapt to her new life, she falls in love with a musical savant who lives in a cabin on Horace land, and joins members of a small diverse community to defy the oppression of legal segregation through profound acts of resistance.
THE BOOK OF ASA was a finalist for the inaugural International Beverly Prize established to honour the memory of Beverly Swift, a Quebec-born attorney and academic. Beverly Swift was a writer and reader whose passion for books, sense of humour and compassion for animals was widely known.
THE BOOK OF ASA was a finalist for the inaugural International Beverly Prize established to honour the memory of Beverly Swift, a Quebec-born attorney and academic. Beverly Swift was a writer and reader whose passion for books, sense of humour and compassion for animals was widely known.
664 pages, Paperback
Published August 1, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 24, 2020
3/7. Whoo. This was a bit of a tough one. This was a book club pick, suggested by someone who had read this book who had somehow known the author. As far as a book club pick, this posed a bit of a difficulty, because it was not traditionally published and not available in our library and only available in a limited number of places. This also concerned me on another level, as in trying to investigate the background of this book, I discovered it was published by a very small British publisher, and when books are published by very small publishers, that's only an infinitesimal step above self publishing, and many of the same problems found in a lot of self-published books are still present.
Also, being very cognizant of the "own voices" issues, this book is supposed to be about a girl who is half black and half Jewish in 1950 in quasi-rural North Carolina. I could not ascertain whether this author is similarly half black and half Jewish. My guess is that she is, but I don't really know. I don't know how much of this milieu the author experienced directly -- my guess is almost none, but perhaps heard family lore about some issues that may have transpired? I don't know whether the author was a similar age to the author in 1950 -- I don't know if she remembers 1950 but much of the depiction feels "off" to me. There was a LOT of imposing 21st century sensibilities to 1950 characters and that really didn't work for me. She would describe some racist incidents and the characters would react with surprise and judgment about them, which just didn't happen -- not that the racist incidents didn't occur, but they would not have surprised anyone, particularly black people, when they happened. The South has been viscerally and deeply racist for centuries. At the point in history where this book takes place, the pushback against any progress on human rights for black citizens was extreme. There would have been no surprise whatsoever at any of the occurrences and there would have been a far greater level of fear among the citizens who were very aware of the power and consequences of white supremacy.
This leads to another issue I have with the story -- that it seemed implausible that it would have happened in the first place. A black man who had escaped the South and become a highly educated and successful professor, and married a Jewish woman and then had a child would not move back to the South, even for free land, knowing that by doing so the lives of his entire family would be at risk. The impetus for this move is never satisfactorily explained -- beyond an aunt bequeathing him this land and requiring him to live on said land. I don't think even that would be a sufficient motivation to endanger the family. (Perhaps this could have been resolved if there had been some kind of incident in Chicago where the family was also in danger there and they had to flee, but this is not what happened.)
Another incongruous aspect of this book is a significant inclusion of LGBTQ characters, yet they are accepted and discussed in a way that comports with current day sensibilities, but would not at all have been accepted or discussed in that way in 1950. I'm not sure why these characters were included, as that isn't really the focus of the story -- it seemed like this LGBTQ element was thrown into the story to show how accepting the author is, but it takes up just as much real estate (if not more) as do the racial and religious elements, which were supposed to be the focus of the book. Early in the story, the girl sees her father engaged in a romantic kiss with a man, but this thread is entirely dropped and never referenced again. So, this is yet another puzzling element.
There were an awfully high number of Jewish characters and hidden Jewish history in this semi-rural area of the South, and that also struck me as implausible. I do leave room for the possibility that these really were present, and that would be surprising to me, but hey, you learn new things every day. So maybe there was a greater Jewish presence than I ever thought, but I don't see any evidence that this is the case. It actually seemed like a lot of the Jewish discussion was thrown in so the author could show how much she knows about Judaism. It didn't advance the story, and it wasn't as much of an issue of conflict as I would expect -- again in a story that is supposed to be about a half Jewish, half black girl from Chicago who moves to the semi rural South run by the KKK at the end of the Jim Crow era.
We don't really see any anti-Semitic incidents in the book, but we do see some racist ones. But again, these are treated in a not-believable manner, with the victims tsk-tsking about them and somehow being surprised at them. A few people die and we're just told this is sad and terrible.
Another element of this book that I sometimes see and really don't like because it strikes me as lazy, is extensive quotation of other literary works. I feel like when authors do this, they're getting these other works to say what they want to say for them, when really they should be saying what they want to say themselves, without reference to the works of others. (This isn't limited to self-published books, but I see it far more frequently in them.)
I didn't like some of the cutesy elements in the physical publishing of the book -- it's printed with right justification, unconventional dialogue style, and much of it is supposed to be written in prose, rather than the standard narrative. There are also very large margins, which bring the physical book to 635 pages, but I suspect it's closer to probably 120K words or so, which would make it more in line with a standard 350-ish page book. But I was waiting for 600 pages for something significant to happen, and spent that whole time wondering just where this story was going. Well, finally at page 607, something very significant happens. But this is the wrong place for an event of this magnitude. Perhaps the story should have *started* with this incident. I don't want to give any spoilers, but what happens is a major event for the main character, yet the ramifications of what happens aren't explored at all. The pacing is off and the entire story needs to be a lot tighter. (There are also a lot of minor incidents that are introduced and forgotten, such as the main character and another character rescuing a dog that is near death -- this doesn't just happen once, but actually happens twice, yet the thread is dropped nothing ever happens with these dogs. I kept expecting them to come back into the story somehow, but we never really hear anything more about them. These dogs either need to play some role in the story or not be in the story at all.)
This reminded me of a lot of pieces of writing I read when I spent a lot of time in writing groups. It really needs some significant editing and the whole thing needs to be tighter. The story arc is off, and the storytelling is weak. The response will be "But this is *literary* fiction. It's about character and setting, not about plot." Well, if the plot is weak or nonexistent, you need deep characterization and a really good sense of time and place. Here, the characterization falls short. I don't really feel like I knew Asa, the main character, or her parents. And there are way too many peripheral characters, some of whom come and go, others stick around, but I had a very hard time keeping them all straight and remembering who some of them were. Some of the setting is done well enough, but again, there is way too much imposing of current-day sensibilities to a very different time, and that affects the setting, which, while probably the best done element of the book, still needs some work.
I can't help but get the feeling this is like a lot of manuscripts I read by writers in writing groups, where it's heavily autobiographical, and tells some story that the author has always wanted to get out, and was satisfying for the author to write, but really needs some stronger storytelling and plot work, s well as editing out large segments that don't really advance the story or inform us about one of the main characters. There are some strong writing skills here, and there is a good basis here to flesh out a great story. But this felt like an early to intermediate draft of that story. The premise is interesting but the real issues of race and religion aren't deeply explored enough. There are some good elements here, and evidence of some writing skill, but this manuscript really still needs a lot of work.
Also, being very cognizant of the "own voices" issues, this book is supposed to be about a girl who is half black and half Jewish in 1950 in quasi-rural North Carolina. I could not ascertain whether this author is similarly half black and half Jewish. My guess is that she is, but I don't really know. I don't know how much of this milieu the author experienced directly -- my guess is almost none, but perhaps heard family lore about some issues that may have transpired? I don't know whether the author was a similar age to the author in 1950 -- I don't know if she remembers 1950 but much of the depiction feels "off" to me. There was a LOT of imposing 21st century sensibilities to 1950 characters and that really didn't work for me. She would describe some racist incidents and the characters would react with surprise and judgment about them, which just didn't happen -- not that the racist incidents didn't occur, but they would not have surprised anyone, particularly black people, when they happened. The South has been viscerally and deeply racist for centuries. At the point in history where this book takes place, the pushback against any progress on human rights for black citizens was extreme. There would have been no surprise whatsoever at any of the occurrences and there would have been a far greater level of fear among the citizens who were very aware of the power and consequences of white supremacy.
This leads to another issue I have with the story -- that it seemed implausible that it would have happened in the first place. A black man who had escaped the South and become a highly educated and successful professor, and married a Jewish woman and then had a child would not move back to the South, even for free land, knowing that by doing so the lives of his entire family would be at risk. The impetus for this move is never satisfactorily explained -- beyond an aunt bequeathing him this land and requiring him to live on said land. I don't think even that would be a sufficient motivation to endanger the family. (Perhaps this could have been resolved if there had been some kind of incident in Chicago where the family was also in danger there and they had to flee, but this is not what happened.)
Another incongruous aspect of this book is a significant inclusion of LGBTQ characters, yet they are accepted and discussed in a way that comports with current day sensibilities, but would not at all have been accepted or discussed in that way in 1950. I'm not sure why these characters were included, as that isn't really the focus of the story -- it seemed like this LGBTQ element was thrown into the story to show how accepting the author is, but it takes up just as much real estate (if not more) as do the racial and religious elements, which were supposed to be the focus of the book. Early in the story, the girl sees her father engaged in a romantic kiss with a man, but this thread is entirely dropped and never referenced again. So, this is yet another puzzling element.
There were an awfully high number of Jewish characters and hidden Jewish history in this semi-rural area of the South, and that also struck me as implausible. I do leave room for the possibility that these really were present, and that would be surprising to me, but hey, you learn new things every day. So maybe there was a greater Jewish presence than I ever thought, but I don't see any evidence that this is the case. It actually seemed like a lot of the Jewish discussion was thrown in so the author could show how much she knows about Judaism. It didn't advance the story, and it wasn't as much of an issue of conflict as I would expect -- again in a story that is supposed to be about a half Jewish, half black girl from Chicago who moves to the semi rural South run by the KKK at the end of the Jim Crow era.
We don't really see any anti-Semitic incidents in the book, but we do see some racist ones. But again, these are treated in a not-believable manner, with the victims tsk-tsking about them and somehow being surprised at them. A few people die and we're just told this is sad and terrible.
Another element of this book that I sometimes see and really don't like because it strikes me as lazy, is extensive quotation of other literary works. I feel like when authors do this, they're getting these other works to say what they want to say for them, when really they should be saying what they want to say themselves, without reference to the works of others. (This isn't limited to self-published books, but I see it far more frequently in them.)
I didn't like some of the cutesy elements in the physical publishing of the book -- it's printed with right justification, unconventional dialogue style, and much of it is supposed to be written in prose, rather than the standard narrative. There are also very large margins, which bring the physical book to 635 pages, but I suspect it's closer to probably 120K words or so, which would make it more in line with a standard 350-ish page book. But I was waiting for 600 pages for something significant to happen, and spent that whole time wondering just where this story was going. Well, finally at page 607, something very significant happens. But this is the wrong place for an event of this magnitude. Perhaps the story should have *started* with this incident. I don't want to give any spoilers, but what happens is a major event for the main character, yet the ramifications of what happens aren't explored at all. The pacing is off and the entire story needs to be a lot tighter. (There are also a lot of minor incidents that are introduced and forgotten, such as the main character and another character rescuing a dog that is near death -- this doesn't just happen once, but actually happens twice, yet the thread is dropped nothing ever happens with these dogs. I kept expecting them to come back into the story somehow, but we never really hear anything more about them. These dogs either need to play some role in the story or not be in the story at all.)
This reminded me of a lot of pieces of writing I read when I spent a lot of time in writing groups. It really needs some significant editing and the whole thing needs to be tighter. The story arc is off, and the storytelling is weak. The response will be "But this is *literary* fiction. It's about character and setting, not about plot." Well, if the plot is weak or nonexistent, you need deep characterization and a really good sense of time and place. Here, the characterization falls short. I don't really feel like I knew Asa, the main character, or her parents. And there are way too many peripheral characters, some of whom come and go, others stick around, but I had a very hard time keeping them all straight and remembering who some of them were. Some of the setting is done well enough, but again, there is way too much imposing of current-day sensibilities to a very different time, and that affects the setting, which, while probably the best done element of the book, still needs some work.
I can't help but get the feeling this is like a lot of manuscripts I read by writers in writing groups, where it's heavily autobiographical, and tells some story that the author has always wanted to get out, and was satisfying for the author to write, but really needs some stronger storytelling and plot work, s well as editing out large segments that don't really advance the story or inform us about one of the main characters. There are some strong writing skills here, and there is a good basis here to flesh out a great story. But this felt like an early to intermediate draft of that story. The premise is interesting but the real issues of race and religion aren't deeply explored enough. There are some good elements here, and evidence of some writing skill, but this manuscript really still needs a lot of work.
June 26, 2020
This is an extraordinary book, well worth the time invested, and insightful for our times. The author has created characters so engaging that the reader truly feels the impact of what happens to them - always a mark of high-quality writing. The plot is, at times, uncomfortable, describing the challenges faced by a mixed-race teenager and her parents moving into North Carolina in the 1950s. Yet the book does not preach, but rather unfolds as the reader experiences both the strength of community, family and friendship, and the shattering effects of racism and hatred.
The writing is stylistically unique. Each chapter begins with an excerpt of poetry or literature linked to the theme of that chapter. Dialogue is infused into blocks of description that create a cocoon of experience for the reader, tightening the link between what is said, thought and experienced by the characters. The language is both colloquial and literary; local dialect is mixed with elegant description that strengthens the reader's engagement with place and what the characters hear, smell, taste, see and feel.
I recommend this book to anyone who looks for quality writing, compelling characters, and a immersive story that is deeply thought-provoking. It would be a fantastic book club selection.
A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest
The writing is stylistically unique. Each chapter begins with an excerpt of poetry or literature linked to the theme of that chapter. Dialogue is infused into blocks of description that create a cocoon of experience for the reader, tightening the link between what is said, thought and experienced by the characters. The language is both colloquial and literary; local dialect is mixed with elegant description that strengthens the reader's engagement with place and what the characters hear, smell, taste, see and feel.
I recommend this book to anyone who looks for quality writing, compelling characters, and a immersive story that is deeply thought-provoking. It would be a fantastic book club selection.
A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest
November 27, 2020
Work book club selection. The plot seemed intriguing - I'd never really thought about the experience of Jewish Americans in the post-War era with anti-Semitism and the parallels to the African American experience with racism. As a biracial child of educated, passionate parents who force her to move South, Asa grapples with both sides of her identity as well as issues like colorism, sexuality, and the power of literacy. I had two primary issues with this book - (1) the writing style and (2) the pacing. The writing is in a verse-style with atypical indentation and limited punctuation, all of which conspired to make it difficult for me to get into the story and connect with the characters. The book is also incredibly lengthy (600+ pages) but not much happens until the last 100 pages, which is a sequence of misery (i.e. multiple character deaths) that ends abruptly with minimal resolution / closure. I admire what the author was trying to do with this novel, but it wasn't my cup of tea.
March 22, 2020
Read under the title A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest. I found this at my local library. I'm surprised there aren't any reviews for this book here on Goodreads or on Amazon. It's a compelling story. A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest is an Emily Dickinson poem that I was not familiar with and the author's love of poetry is evident in the verses of different poems that are printed at the beginning of each chapter as well as the style of the print on each page. I am not a regular reader of poetry so don't let that scare you off if you aren't either. Anyone with a love of reading will enjoy this book although it is a difficult read with the brutality of racism and level of human suffering for one's religious beliefs. I hope this book gains traction in the reading community.
September 29, 2020
Titus (Ty) Horace, a black lawyer turned successful novelist (under the nom de plume Ovid White), and his fair Jewish wife make a life-changing move from Chicago to North Carolina. The couple is reluctant to take their striking, confident young daughter, Asa, away from educational opportunities and leave their comfortable lives in 1950s Chicago. However, Ty has inherited ninety acres of land, the remnant of a former land grant passed through his family for over a century. His aunt’s will contains a provision that he must reside on the land or forfeit the entire estate. Thus begins an obligation that grows far graver than anticipated.
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