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Balm A Novel Dolen PerkinsValdez Books

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Balm A Novel Dolen PerkinsValdez Books

An interesting story set in post-Civil War America, highlighting the difficult adjustments to be made by newly freed blacks, and blacks that were already free before the war, including an emphasis on the role of women - both black and white - in a world of missing, dead and wounded men. The supernatural aspects of the story add another dimension, giving the author more liberty to convince the reader of her insights into the minds of all her characters. I enjoyed the story and the writing, for the most part. One negative: Sometimes I detected a strain to achieve a "literary" tone to the writing which wasn't necessary. When the writing was relaxed and not straining thus, it was much more enjoyable to read. Kudos to Ms. Perkins-Valdez for tackling big, hairy topics with grace and frequently beauty.


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Balm A Novel Dolen PerkinsValdez Books Reviews

Perkins is a weaver who took many different of various shades to weave a colorful, warm blanket. She was able to make a free black, former slave, a widowed white woman, and a war deserting Doctor of German descent meet at a crossroads. I highly recommend this novel to anyone intrigued by literary fiction.
If I could get a refund for this book, I would. It's hard to follow, told from multiple first person perspectives. It has too many flashbacks conflicting with the present. Waste of money
The characters are interesting and fairly well developed. The premise is one that is extremely interesting to explore. The writing was all over the place and a real distraction from the positive parts of the plot and character development. If you have gobs of time to invest, go ahead...but otherwise look for something else.
Fascinating book, well written, and not willing to provide easy answers to any of the questions that it raises. Dealing with the post slavery period, when African Americans were escaping to the north, and specifically with two central characters and their stories, one is shown once again the inhumanity of man to man and man's - or woman's - bravery in the face of it.
After reading her acknowledgements and all who raved about this book I thought perhaps I missed something, or we all read different books.
I loved the cover, it drew me in and made me want to read the book. The subject matter was interesting. However, I found the book to be repetitive. Several times I thought maybe I was rereading the same thing over again. I found it confusing at times. There was instances where i just didn't know or understand what was happening completely, but thought maybe it was poon purpose to be fully revealed later, but that didn't happen. Sometimes the story jumped through time clumsily, present to past and back. Some things happened without being explained, like when Sadie and Michael went into the hall after leaving the hospital. Why were they there and what was the customs that explained Sadie having to put on an apron and serve the men. She was of a different heritage and customs did she feel uncomfortable at all there?
I thought it was unnecessarily long. Some less important scenes took pages to describe while other scenes were rushed through without a clear vision of what was happening. Time jumped suddenly for apparent reason and seemingly without an adequate segue.
Other things i did like about it was that I feel it did capture life during that time period. For me, it gave me new window in the day-to-day of a 1800 woman's life. I loved how Sadie thought of her father's life and the choices he could freely make verses her life and restrictions as a woman. I loved the thought process of Hemp when he was in the camp looking for his wife and being pressed tho give the soldiers his name. I appreciated the struggle Michael faced being a man that paid his way out of the war but facing the men coming back and losing a brother to it.
I wouldn't necessarily recommend this book, but as i stated in the beginning, since it received high praise from seemingly reputable sources, I wouldn't discourage someone from reading it. I'd just say be warned.
Balm
Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Harper Collins, 9780062318657

“It would take months to unpack this foreign land…”

Balm, the second novel by Dolen Perkins-Valdez, interweaves the stories of Sadie, Madge, and Hemp, travelers who have made their solitary way to Chicago from their homes—and the lives they are trying to escape—in the post-Civil War South.
Sadie, not entirely disappointed to have been widowed as a bride, discovers in her departed husband’s home both the restless spirit of a Union soldier killed at Shiloh and her own ability to communicate with the dead. Madge, a freewoman and healer neglected as a child, discovers in Sadie a restless woman in need of a cure that goes beyond herbs. Hemp, a freed slave searching for the wife who had been taken from him years before, in chains, discovers in Madge the possibility of solace. But before any of them can fully unpack themselves in this foreign land, they must unravel—and reconcile—the past.
Perkins-Valdez, whose award-winning debut novel, Wench, explored the lives of four slave women who are their masters’ mistresses, understands the power of understatement. Able to juxtapose dominion and hatred with submission and defeat in a single gesture—the master's wife placing a cracker on the tongue of his mistress, who is chained to the porch—Perkins-Valdez writes with the kind of subtlety and precision that bring the reader fully and inescapably into the story and make that reader ache for characters who long ago lost the ability to ache for themselves.
This was an excellent book, and I enjoyed reading it. The author's language is very rich, lyrical in places, and her characters intriguing. The plot connects three otherwise disparate and lost people in the aftermath of the Civil War in Chicago. Not your typical Civil War or Reconstruction fiction as this avoids the usual tropes and cliches, while still honoring the horror and suffering from the war and its aftermath. Two of the characters are strong independent women. A lot of research and thought went into writing this book, and I thank the author for her efforts. Well worth the time to read.
An interesting story set in post-Civil War America, highlighting the difficult adjustments to be made by newly freed blacks, and blacks that were already free before the war, including an emphasis on the role of women - both black and white - in a world of missing, dead and wounded men. The supernatural aspects of the story add another dimension, giving the author more liberty to convince the reader of her insights into the minds of all her characters. I enjoyed the story and the writing, for the most part. One negative Sometimes I detected a strain to achieve a "literary" tone to the writing which wasn't necessary. When the writing was relaxed and not straining thus, it was much more enjoyable to read. Kudos to Ms. Perkins-Valdez for tackling big, hairy topics with grace and frequently beauty.