Customer Reviews

Soul Catcher

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

In Soul Catcher, Michael White has created a complex and fascinating look at the internal search for meaning and truth. His book is set in the antebellum world of slaves and slave-catchers. The main figure, Cain, is a wonderfully developed character of great depth and strength. His biblical name is very apt as one who leaves his settled world, sacrifices all that is dear to him, and enters a new world, protected by God's mark. Rosetta, the main female character, is likewise a very strong character. She is almost Mosaic as she leads Cain through his personal wilderness into a place of self-acceptance.

I did have one problem with the book. It may be a personal grudge, but I was really disappointed when White makes Cain into almost a super-human character. He was shot and stabbed more times than I could count and yet, like the Eveready bunny, he keeps on ticking. This just didn't ring true to me and detracted from an otherwise breathtaking book.

This is as good a story of life in the very rough days of the nineteenth century as I've ever read.The characters are unforgetable. The action is constant. The insight into the human condition is profound. It would make as good a film or TV miniseries as "Lonesome Dove". When I finished the book, I felt like I had ridden every mile, dodged every bullet, and felt every feeling along with Augustus Cain. Don't miss this book if tales of America's days before the automobile are your thing--Talmage Boston

Soul Catcher by Michael White

Reviewed by GW

It is truly a joy when a book comes along like Soul Catcher. From the opening chapter until the final sentence, I was mesmerized by this very important piece of work. I could not wait to get home from work and begin reading about this journey of adventure, romance, poker, gunfights, horses, moral conflict, and an absolutely original and terrific plot.

Augustus Cain is a character that will live in the minds of the reader for years to come. All of the characters are memorable. Some of them are down right mean and vicious while others are just trying to adjust to a way of life forced upon them.

When Rosetta a slave escapes from her owner, Eberly, a wealthy tobacco plantation owner, Cain's services are needed. Cain tracks and returns runaway slaves to their owners for money, and he is very good at his trade.

Unfortunately, Cain is forced into this job. Having lost money and the bill of sale for his horse in a poker game, Cain must take the job. Augustus Cain is very dependent upon his horse, and he will do anything to keep him.

Augustus Cain has an adventurous background, and it is revealed throughout the book. The reader will hang onto every phrase in this exciting story as Augustus deals with his past, present, and future.

The two slaves in question by Eberly are Henry and Rosetta. They escaped at the same time, but Rosetta is the main reason Eberly wants the services of Cain. Rosetta will touch the heart of everyone reading the book.

Cain must take the Strofe brothers and a man called Preacher with him to retrieve the slaves. As the journey starts, it is apparent that trouble is brewing down the road. Cain is an intelligent man who reads Milton's Paradise Lost. Cain's comrades lack sophistication and intelligence.

This story is set in Pre Civil War leading up to the beginning of the conflict. Michael White's prose moves like a shark in the water - smooth, engaging, easy to follow and smart.

To give away any more of the plot would be a travesty to avid readers. Rush to the nearest book and track down Soul Catcher by Michael White. Real events are dispersed throughout the book that gives it realism and depth.

It is a reading experience that delivers thought provoking dialogue and issues for anyone interested in the human race and life. Finding the right thing to do with one's life and the journey arriving there is sometimes difficult and filled with moral consciousness and mind challenging events.

I wish someone else in my community would read the book. I want to discuss every aspect and motive within this classic piece of work. It was relevant before the Civil War, and many themes are relevant today.

I have not read a book in a long time that has affected me like this. I think about the characters and the story throughout the day as I go about my job. The relevance and emotional depth that the book leaves with the reader is exactly what books should do. Whether fiction or non fiction, the reader should be left with food for thought and knowledge for conversation.

I highly recommend Soul Catcher by Michael White to anyone looking for substance, significance, and accomplishment. I commend Michael White for creating a story with wonderful characters, just the right amount of action, and a knock out plot for everyone to enjoy.

Augustus Cain has become one of my favorite fictional characters. He has an adventurous soul that lurks inside all of us. However, like Cain, we must strive to find the right path.

I could not put this book down. The background details were almost as wonderful as the characters, but the pace of the book never lagged.

When Cain finally "humanizes" one of the slaves he captures, the trail to redemption is fascinating.

I really liked "Garden of Martyrs" but I LOVED this one. Also historical detail seemed accurate.

I hope some movie producer picks this one up....it would make a fantastic movie. (Hallie Berry and Russell Crowe maybe???)

Augustus Cain is a drunk, a gambler, and a laudanum addict. Most people would think the sum of all these vices would be bad enough; however, Cain has one more sin to bestow upon this world. Cain's peacetime profession is a "Slave Catcher," aka, a Soul Catcher.

This information forms a very bleak picture of Cain, but it is not the whole story, for Cain is a man struggling with his own ideology. He has been brought up to believe that human beings of a particular race are property. He also believes that men and women who run away from their owners are criminals. And, who is there to oppose this view, for his family, neighbours, even the law, support this very attitude. Nevertheless, Cain has had enough of fetching slaves for wealthy landowners. This is not because of any moral reason, but, rather, because he is hurtling toward middle age, and an old war wound causes him pain when he sleeps outside. In addition, abolitionists like John Brown are just waiting to make examples of southern slave catchers so retrieving slaves is getting to be dangerous business. Reluctantly, Cain agrees to perform one last job, as gambling has robbed him of everything he owns. Enter Rosetta, a feisty, defiant, and beautiful young woman, who will take any risk to achieve her freedom. Cain sets off on a journey that will slowly change everything he believes in. And, after meeting Rosetta, he will cast off the doctrines of his youth and realise the malevolence of his own actions.

Soul Catcher is certainly not a book that will lift your spirits or cheer you up on a rainy day. Its content is harsh, gritty, and intense. And, it is obviously well researched, which makes the story appear more real and authentic. I would not say it was an enjoyable read, because how can this sort of subject matter ever be described in this manner? Nonetheless, as the front cover states, it is certainly rich in detail and contains a very dramatic narrative. This novel will be a feast for those who eat up this kind of fiction!

Soul Catcher does have its flaws, the love story between the two main protagonists seems largely fuelled by lust on Cain's part. Cain's love for Rosetta seems only to fill a basic human need, rather than to be a meeting of the minds. Perhaps if she had been a bit older and not so beautiful, Cain's change of attitude would have had a lot more gravitas. A thirty-six-year-old man, with a physical deformity, falling for a twenty-two-year-old, blue-eyed, dark-skinned beauty, is not much of a stretch. Having said this, their doomed romance does have some beautifully poignant moments. And, although the book has some very likely plot twists, the reader is left guessing to the very end as to how their liaison will end if, in fact, it does.

In Soul Catcher, the true horrors of a land that was about to be torn apart by war are vividly brought to life. Soul Catcher describes a very bleak odyssey that may, at times, appall the contemporary audience. I do not consider this novel a work of great note, as its content is too clichéd and predictable. Despite this, Soul Catcher's moral lesson is a powerful one: Change begins when one person stands up and says, "This is wrong and should not continue!"

Augustus Cain, a 36 year old Richmond, Virginian in the 1850s with a reputation for skill in capturing runaway slaves, presently employed only in gambling, boozing, & womanizing, has been forced into repaying a gambling debt by tracking 2 runaway slaves. The three other mismatched men hired for the job and Cain set out for upper New York state on a mission Cain had hoped to never have to engage in again. The story centers on the adventure of the journey, and how one of the slaves impacts Cain's life.

The first 50 pages really drew me into the story and the last 100 or so pages were good and tense - very exciting; the middle of the 418 pages was pretty predictable, moved quite slowly and was only mildly interesting at times, despite fascinating subject matter. The sense of place was not as powerful or absorbing as I would have liked, but it was OK. The dialogue was flat and repetitive at times, and a couple of times whole paragraphs summarized what had happened earlier, but thankfully the dialect was not overdone. The book kept me reading, though I wanted to skim some of the middle parts. The plot remained plausible throughout; though the climax may have been a little overblown, with either God or luck definitely on Cain's side, but it was exciting and could easily be forgiven. I thought all the characters, good and evil, were quite interesting and enjoyable.

Somewhat crippled Mexican War veteran Cain owes a large debt to vicious Virginia plantation owner Mr. Eberly so he accepts the assignment to find and return runaway slaves Rosetta and Henry. As much as insuring the fugitive slave-catcher performs his task as assisting him, Eberly assigns three of his employees to accompany Cain.

Cain follows the trail through New York to Boston where he finally captures the two runaways. However, Rosetta remains uncooperatively defiant as she has decided death is better than returning to the abusive Eberly. Henry is a bit more compliant, but looks for a chance to escape on the trek back to Virginia and hell. As they journey together, Cain begins to see his prisoners as people not beasts of burden, but to liberate the pair means death for him and probably them.

This pre-Civil War historical thriller provides a fabulous account of a nation struggling for its soul. Cain in many ways is symbolic of the non-slave states of the United States in the 1850s as he does not care one way or the other about slavery except how it affects him by allowing him to earn a living until he escorts his latest runaways back to their owner. As he gets to know the pair, he begins to wonder what he is doing to real people. A chance for redemption is his, but the price might prove high. Although much of the support cast seems overly stereotypical, Cain makes for a strong morality tale.

Harriet Klausner

A complex and wonderfully told story of a slave catcher and the runaway who challenges his path in life. Multifaceted, rich in historic detail, and emotionally gripping--I could not put this book down. The characters are complex and fascinating, and none of their choices are pat or easy. White somehow creates a sympathetic protagonist out of a character you feel you ought to hate. I really wanted to see Cain redeem himself. Very cinematic in tone--this would make a terrific movie!

Eberly is a rich, poor excuse for a human being, owner of many slaves. He is very distraught since the escape of his favorite slave, Rosetta, a beauty he truely must have returned. I won't let you in on to their true relationship in fear of ruining the plot.

Cain is a slave catcher. He conducts searches for escaped property in return for a handsome monetary reward. He does not condone slavery, however through his own childhood rearing believes slaves are better off being the property of someone else since they would not be able to fully take care of themselves. Mud hut vs warm shack and food in return for services. Not a bad exchange.

Cain is paid alot of money to locate and return Rosetta. It is his job. Once Rosetta is located the journey back to Virginia commences along with a search for his own soul. The title of the book is even interesting in that a soul catcher is an individual who captures the beings of captured slaves. It may also apply to Cain and his own quest in capturing his true self.

A must read

As an avid reader of Civil War fiction and nonfiction, I was so disappointed in this book that I couldn't even finish it - threw it away, in fact. Maybe it's because I've read so many of the Slave Narratives, and other autobiographies of slaves and Civil War soldiers (on both sides), but these characters were so 2-dimensional that even I could have written the dialogue and the plot. After plodding laboriously through several chapters, I found myself wondering why I was wasting my time when there's so much good material about all of the events mentioned. It looks like I'm in the minority...but that's my reaction to the book.