The Sweetness of Water (2021) by Nathan Harris

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Book Review

The Sweetness of Water (2021)

by Nathan Harris

  It is not every year that an Oprah's Book Club selection makes the Booker Prize longlist, but here we are, a genuinely in-stock, best-sellng American novel that also made the Booker longlist.  Not the shortlist, which was announced last week, but considering The Sweetness of Water was already a sales success, the lack of shortlist status shouldn't matter in the least for Nathan Harris.  The Sweetness of Water is a work of historical fiction, set in the Faulkner-esque Southern town of Old Ox in the aftermath of the Southern defeat in the American civil war.   Harris provides characters of both races, genders and sexuality, with a melting pot mentality I found rewarding (and often lacking in the sometimes binary world of literary fiction)

   I liked The Sweetness of Water, but didn't love it.  Ultimately Harris pulls up short in bringing the events to an unforeseen or deeply significant ending- maybe this is why he Booker jury didn't pick him for the short-list.  Or maybe it's the Oprah Book Club thing.