Feeding the Ghosts

Rating:
Summary: Everything about slavery is cruel, so the drama is implicit
Review: Eventhough it is a short novel the author could have done a much better work sticking to the essence of the drama and the court proceedings about the conduct of the captain of the vessel. But he choose to dwell a little bit to much on some philosophical wonderings of Mhirta which loosen the tension and did not add much to the development of the work.

Rating:
Summary: Gripping and Enlightening
Review: Feeding the Ghosts belongs with Johnson's Middle Passage and Morrison's Beloved for offering an accurate portrayal of the immense human tragedy of the transatlantic slave trade coupled with the amazing power of resilience. D'Aguiar's novel reminds us that those we may see only as victims of a brutal system constantly fought that system; their resistance continued even as their hope for a future free from inhumanity disappeared. From the opening line of the novel, "The sea is slavery," the narrative reveals the many ways that the enslaved were at the mercy of their captives, yet it chronicles the repeated efforts of one slave in particular--a young, English-speaking woman--to find a small remnant of humanity in her captors and turn that humanity into freedom.

In addition to the novel's sobering re-creation of the indignities of the slave trade, its imagery and spellbinding writing offer a subtext that explores the power of language. Though the merchants of and investors in the slave trade were allowed to describe and control the language with which the trade was conducted, the final word is yet to be spoken. D'Aguiar's voice joins with that of his character Mintah to help us redefine this peculiar institution.

Rating:
Summary: not as good as hoped
Review: I was actually rather disappointed by the book. The subject matter is obviously very important and emotional, but I felt that the book didn't deliver as much as it could have. At various points in the text, the metaphorical passages seemed somewhat contrived and unoriginal.