Grace (2016) by Natashia Deon

1,001 Novels: A Library of America 

Grace (2016)

by Natashia Deon

Faunsdale, Alabama

Alabama: 13/18

   I probably would have enjoyed Grace more if I had read it outside of the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America project.  I don't consider myself particularly sensitive to depictions of sexual violence, but it is hard to ignore the presence of sexual violence either explicitly or implied in nearly every book in this chapter.  Grace did stand out in terms of the ambition and literary merit- it is peppered with modernist techniques that make the story much more difficult to follow than your normal life during the antebellum south book.  It was also what you would call "unflinching" which made the frequent sexual violence more squirm inducing.  What is clear to me after this chapter of the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America is that getting real about slavery in the American South is really digging into the very worst of humanity.  

  The books set in this part of America- the cotton belt of the deep south, put on display a kind of worst-of-the-worst environment because essentially all of the slaves in this part of the country were ripped out of their existing families in the upper south and sold "down the river," creating a profound double fracture. The fact that these populations were freed and essentially abandoned is one the great cruelties of American history.

  But the literary merit here is undeniable- making this book a top three title for Alabama simply on the basis of artistic ambition.  It's just that this a rough read.