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A Million Nightingales: A Novel

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If the language of pain is universal, Susan Straight is an inspired translator. In luminous prose, A Million Nightingales is a revelation of style and acuity of vision, the characters multidimensional, human, flawed, fragile and brave, the novel following the dangerous path of a beautiful fourteen-year old slave, Moinette, a petite mulatresse, through the treacherous world of early 19th century Louisiana. Like all slaves, Moinette's fate is, indeed in the hands of others. Recently acquired from the French, Louisiana is a strange mix of race and regulations, the French Slave Code of 1724 made more restrictive by the Americans in 1806. Innocent of such realities as a girl, Moinette is sheltered in the slave quarters, her mother instilling caution in her child, exercising her own, watching over her daughter at night: "Lie down make me too rested. Lie down mean I can't watch." Following her mother's example, Moinette's language is spare: "A hard knot blocked my throat. Like a pecan lodged there, where the words should come out." Yet these precious words bring Moinette comfort, as she turns them over in her mind like prayers.

Sold without warning, Moinette is carried to a plantation far from her mother, fearing she will never see her again. Their lives unbearable, some slaves dare to run, easily recovered with the aid of slave-catchers and rewards, dealt with severely: "Chiens de negre, chiens de renard. Dogs for blacks, dogs for fox." For Moinette, the years pass slowly, assaulted at every turn in a society that views her as property, her one chance at love lost because she cannot bear to leave her small son behind. As the child of a slave, Jean-Paul only sees his mother sporadically, their relationship altered by the distance of the early years and her inability to set him free or protect him from the world at large, one filled with Indians, Africans, Americans, French, and English, all involved in the trade economy, from field hands to masters, tradesmen, slave-catchers, lawyers and ladies, a m?lange of race and heritage often at odds.

Masterfully blending characters of varying race and position, Straight illustrates the complexities of a society besieged by conflicting interests and legislation. Moinette's life is defined through her association with these characters, caught in a web of time and circumstance, her every attempt at freedom thwarted, from the simple connections with other slaves to the more subtle interactions with her white masters. There is no freedom in an institution based on greed and inhumanity, only a process of bartering, a miasma of conflicting regulations that block Moinette at every turn. Through difficult years of patience and negotiation, she continues to be the subject of random savagery. That she experiences so little love, save that of her mother, is unfathomable, but Moinette survives the brutality of her existence, finally a haven for others less fortunate, a poignant example of the indestructibility of the human spirit. Luan Gaines/2006

In the early nineteenth century following the United States purchase of the Louisiana Territory from the French, Moinette a "mulatresse" is a personal slave to Cephaline while her beloved mother works in the master's home near New Orleans. Moinette's life seems good to her as her mistress treats her kindly and even shares books with her. However, when Cephaline suddenly dies, Moinette becomes expendable.

She is sold to another plantation owner. Ripped from her mother and a somewhat sheltered life, Moinette becomes a sexual plaything to her new owner. Abused and sexual assaulted and raped, Moinette eventually gives birth, but is once again ripped asunder from a loved one when she is sold and her child remains behind. Her dreams keep her going that one day she, her mom, and her child will be reunited.

This is a fascinating yet horrifying look at the de jure plight of a black female slave who must suffer sexual assault and humiliation. Adding to the overall feel of debasement is the comparisons to the lifestyles of her mistress. Though Moinette seems too enlightened about her place in society, readers will feel for her (impossible to fully empathize unless you lived the scene as being beneath the lowest rung of society) as historical readers get the rest of the story not included in the hasty books.

Harriet Klausner

I have not read a book this profoundly moving in a long, long time. I read books all the time--good books, bad books, mediocre books, books my friends have written--and with each book I read, my heart yearns for something that is as exquisitely written as A Million Nightingales. Every book Susan Straight has written has been thoughtfully, creatively rendered. I have read and loved all of them. But this one, by far, will be placed on my list of favorite books of all time. The words of the text sing like a lyrical psalm of outcry to god for the grief of children, for the grief of mothers, for the grief of souls separated by cruelty and greed. This book will touch the heart of anyone who believes that we must be reminded of true things, even if they are painful, so that we can move forward instead of repeating the past. A Million Nightingales is not a chronicle of hate, but rather an anthem of love.

I was hooked into the story in the first few pages and kept on reading. This isn't a fairy tale so not really any neatly tied up strings - kept me guessing until the end. The author gives some references for her inspiration and I plan on checking them out.

This story will stay with you. It was sad but beautiful and inspiring. Don't listen to the one negative reviewer. I could not put this book down. I love the first person narrative and the dialoge in this story flows like poetry.

"A Million Nightingales" is not just another story of slavery. Rather, Susan Straight paints a vivid picture of an individual, her religeous and folk beliefs, the plantation community with its extended caring family, and blood-related relationships. In this case, Moinette, a very light skinned slave, fathered by a white man she never knew, begins her tale at Azure, a sugar cane plantation in the bayou country of Louisiana. mamere, her supposed mother, a talented laundress and seamstress, teaches her daughter the skills of bleaching, dyeing and repairing clothing. Moinette is taken into the big house to serve as personal maid, first to the daughter of the owners and then to the aged mistress.

Through the eyes of Moinette, we see what it was like to be totally dependant upon the caprice of owners, good and bad. Through her, too, we hear a cry for freedom in interior monologue as poignant as any we've heard. Susan Straight brings an elegant use of language to this novel, a way with metaphor that is sheer poetry, lyrical in sound as well as image, a song both beautiful and terrifying.

An inordinately intelligent child, Moinette learns more than most men or women of that day simply by listening to her young mistress repeat her lessons and confirming what she hears by looking at the pages when it's safe for a black girl who can read end write. She must conceal what she has learned for severe punishments await a slave discovered to be literate. We learn, too, from her silence -- head down, never looking the master in the eyes, no answering back; indeed, a slave never begins a conversation, but simply waits to be called upon. To do more can be taken as a sign of defiance. As a consequence of the rigidity governing a slaves' speech, we learn more and more about the culture and the strict boundaries set for slaves. For that reason, too, much of the story is told in interior thought, i.e., what a slave thinks and the way she sees the world without verbalizing experience.

"A Million Nightingales" shows the reader, perhaps for the first time, the constant fear with which slaves live their lives. Here, Ms. Straight teaches us how it is to have nothing, a dress, a cape, perhaps shoes; but nothing else in a place where even one's body belongs to someone else, where every action, frown or faint smile can be a signal for swift reprisal, a slap, a whip, club.

Ms. Straight is also an artist in doling out suspense, the companion of pain and death. By the time she is 17, Moinette has been raped several times by white as well as black men. Finally a child is conceived and she gives birth to to a boy. While she is a willing and competent worker, she is punished for slight infractions of plantation rules. In this book, we experience what slavery can be like when Moinette is sent away with a visitor to the plantation only to realize that she has been sold without permission even to say goodbye to her mother. Her terror throughout this ordeal is palpable, rendering her literally catatonic as she imagines the things the slave owners and traders might do to her.

Moinette has but two great loves in her life, her supposed mother and her own child, and to a lesser degree other slaves who live near her in the slave's quarters. It is her deep love for those few human beings that sustains her through the hardships that slavery presents. In this new life, a single man, a lawyer who wants her as the manager of his household, maid, housekeeper, laundress, cook. For a very long time she is afraid that he too will sexually assault her. As they begin to trust each other, their lives settle into a benign relationship of respect, although she never truly loves him -- how could she love a master, a person who owns her. In a truly astonishing close, Moinette wins all and true to her theme. leaves it to the children she loves most.

Set in Louisiana, in the 1800s, this is a heart-wrenching and gut-churning tale of the inhumanity of slavery. Centered around the life experiences of a mulatresse (half white, half black) girl, Moinette, until she reaches her early fifties.

Moinette is the only child of Marie-Therese, an African slave who had been "bred" with a white man that Moinette never met or knew as her father. "Bred" because the blacks were considered animals whose only value was to produce more slaves for their masters to work in the fields or in the house. But this story is told in first person, with such intelligence and tenderness that the reader can't help but become fascinated and drawn into the story. Moinette is raised in her mother's sparse cabin, but is content to just be with her mother.

As a teenager, Moinette is the servant to the Bordelon's daughter, Cephaline. While Cephaline was being tutored, Moinette was always nearby absorbing the information and even learning (illegal for slaves). When Cephaline dies young, her father sells Moinette because he could not stand that his beautiful daughter was gone, yet this unworthy slave girl was the picture of health.

At first, Moinette hates and distrusts her new single owner, and feels certain he will force himself on her unexpectedly and repeatedly. When this doesn't happen, and he leaves her to run his boardinghouse, a delicate bond is formed. When his male business partner moves in, Moinette sees their affection and respects their privacy. Using her as cover for their relationship, they eventually give her the boardinghouse and her freedom.

Raped more than once, Moinette produces a son. So much hard work and sorrow have filled her life, yet she keeps trying to better herself. At age 30 she is an old woman, used hard but not used up.

A Million Nightingales is told with such tenderness and candor, and resonates long after the book is finished. The author's delicate storytelling skills wrap the reader in the cocoon that is Moinette's life. The violence will rock the emotions, and the few glimpses of happiness will tug the heartstrings. This story educates as well as entertains.

Armchair Interviews says: A very moving and yet disturbing piece.

I bouoght this book yesterday and finished it tonight. There is no other way to say it: this writer has created a masterpiece. My breath has been taken away by what she has created on the pages. Unforgettable.

I had not read any of this writer's work before yesterday. I will read all of what she has written now. It is life-affirming to know that a person can create imaginary characters that actually change you. So, to the author, I say thank you.

Moinette will make you think twice before uttering a racial slur or thinking that African Americans are lucky because they got free passage here. She is the principal character in Susan Straight's riveting historical novel, "A Million Nightingales," about slavery in Louisiana in the early 1800s. "I have a million nightingales on the branches of my heart singing freedom," Straight writes as her introduction, quoting a folk song adaptation of the poem Defiance," by Mahmud Darwish and acknowledging the book's main theme.

The reader is introduced to Moinette while she is under the watchful care of her mother, Marie Thérèse to whom she refers as Mamère, a slave in the household of a typical sugar cane plantation owner. The setting is near a Louisiana bayou where it was deemed easier to die than to escape.

As Moinette grows older the reader learns that her mother is less able to shield her from the rigors and inhumanity of slave life. Moinette's obligation to assist in the day-to-day running of the Bourdelon household and the personal life of the master's daughter, Céphaline, do save her from the rigors and bodily harm caused by harvesting their cane. It also does allow her exposure to the educational curiosity of the daughter, a learning she keeps secret but one that assists her later in life. However, her role eventually puts her in harm's way.

Moinette learns she is property. But without compunction on the part of Céphaline's father, she is separated from her mother and friends when she is sold to a distant plantation owner after Céphaline's death.

At one point on the way to her new location--Rosière--Moinette is led by a rope around her neck. Never accepting that she belonged to anyone other than her mother, Moinette at first reminisces about her journey further away from her, "I couldn't run. Every tree was bare, every bayou low and dank..." Her eventual attempt to escape from her present owners on the water (this is an important symbol) gets her captured by a contemptuous white man and his Indian accomplices. Fortunately, before she is harmed here the Indians surreptitiously decide to take her back for a reward expected in gold.

Moinette's return to her master earns her a Fleur-de-lis branded on her shoulder. And Moinette's overseer, who is punished when her meat allotment is withheld, threatens to kill her if she runs again.

With hints about her beauty it is inevitable that men will have their way with her. The helpless reader can just wonder when and how often. (The author alludes on more than one occasion to the slave girl with two legs and her skirt raised above her head.) The reader is exposed to scenes of masturbation involving her and then the inevitable rape that produces a son, of whom at first she isn't sure who the father really is. But that doesn't matter; neither will claim him.

The author does not let the reader off the hook regarding the degradation of women, let alone humans in general. In spite of describing how Moinette's fortune changes when she is sold to a secretly gay barrister from the city, she fails to protect herself against a sexual attack by a syphilis-ridden white trapper who snares her in her yard away from the protection of anyone or anything like a gun. Her subsequent illness wreaks havoc on her laboriously gained financial independence that had allowed her to buy her son, Jean-Paul. Tied in with her misfortune he eventually has his own oppressed destiny.

There are many themes in the book as well as characters that interact with Moinette, including the two slave girls Moinette buys that become her daughters. Of particular interest is the author's use of Creole French, a mixture of the language of native Indian tribes, African slaves, as well as that of over a half dozen nationalities that came to Louisiana as early as the 1700s. A note about the language and a glossary of words appearing in the book may be found near the final pages.

"Faro, ni, dya" are words explained chapter by chapter, passed along to Moinette by her mother, that refer to the passing of the spirit to another family member. For enduring all of the pain that life bestows upon her, Moinette dies with progeny and the hope for their better future.

Full review appears in The Joplin Independent online.

Told in lyrical prose, Susan Straight's "A Million Nightingales" is a deep exploration of Moinette's life as a female slave in Louisiana. She is exposed to the pain of forced labor, being owned, treated and traded like an "animal". Having learned about spiritual life from her mother, she is engaged in a deep exploration of the dichotomies of ancient African traditions and "modern", scientific views, where - as one example - hair can be seen as keeper of spirit to one or dead matter to the other. In her exploring mind, in taking the pain out on her own body, in her path to becoming a free woman, Moinette is ultimately a modern character. Yet the author's historical knowledge and skillful descriptions of life in the early 1800s Louisiana, make this a fascinating and beautiful historical novel.