Customer Reviews

Sweetsmoke

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The much awaited Civil War novel, Sweetsmoke, by screenwriter, David Fuller, explores slave/carpenter Cassius Hoke's day-to-day existence on Plantation Sweetsmoke in Virginia. Cassius learns about the death of Emoline, the freedwoman who nursed him back to health and taught him to read and write. When it is apparent it is murder, he sets out to avenge her death.

As the story progressed, I became convinced why a black woman's death, slave or free, would have a devastating affect on both black and white, and especially Cassius, as the author drew a picture of Emoline as savior and guardian angel, yet a flawed and vulnerable woman. Emoline and Cassius have a special bond through his owner and her former owner, Hoke Howard, the tortured master of Sweetsmoke. Cassius plots his investigation carefully, yet methodically, never wavering from his mission to find the truth. For every answer Cassius gets, there arises another question; just who was Emoline, other than the woman who rescued him after the most devastating time of his life? A fortunate teller, a healer, and a risk taker; she taught him to read and write and exposed him to literature at a time when it was against the law to teach a slave to read, but Emoline had many secrets.

Cassius' past and present collide amidst the superstitious beliefs of the slaves; there is an aura of bad luck that surrounds him. But while he is somewhat of a pariah, he is also a trusted slave and respected among the field hands and the house servants. Nevertheless, his life as a slave is no less easy; the daily existence to not only stay alive, but to stay one step ahead of those who own him. With the need to not only hide his intelligence, but to downplay it for mere survival, Cassius smiles and flatters, manipulates and connives, while courting freedom. Cassius thinks he finds a kindred spirit in Quashee, a newly arrived slave, and uses his influence to raise her status on the plantation. She also unwittingly helps him in his dangerous quest of finding Emoline's murderer.

There was great detail in this novel. Several aspects of slave life were examined; the courting rituals of slaves, which could be political, the social and cultural aspects, the subterfuge and outwitting for self-preservation; interaction between slaves and freedmen, field hands and house slaves. Slaves turned on each other but also helped each other and kept each others' secrets. Readers also see how slaves played a part in helping those who sought freedom as conductors in the Underground Railroad and how many were agents of one kind of another in the war that was being fought between the Confederacy and the Union. Cassius stealthily goes from plantation to plantation and into town, picking up bits of news and gossip, when fate steps in and he is sent to the battlefields by his owner. His journey is long, arduous, difficult and dangerous but it is a means to an end for Cassius; two fold, to find the truth and a quest for freedom.

Fuller embodied his characters with dignity and intelligence, revealing their flaws, yet illuminating their sense of values and beliefs. At times the reading was slow; there was so much to take in, but I did not want to miss anything as the author beautifully painted a picture of slave life that is not often told. Fuller's impeccable research and attention to detail is not without notice. I was particularly in awe of learning about the storytelling competitions among slaves that traveled from plantation to plantation. Of course, I knew about the stories of the griots dating back to Africa; this tidbit confirmed that the ancestors' gift for tall tales was a reality. Chosen as a publisher's pick and already hinting at becoming required reading in high schools, Sweetsmoke, is a worthy addition to the slave narrative as two other 2008 historical fiction releases, Song Yet Song by James McBride and Stand the Storm by Breena Clark. A great addition to the libraries of fans of the Civil War and slavery literature. 4.5 rating.

Dera R. Williams
APOOO BookClub

Set in 1862, the second year of the Civil War in the Commonwealth of Virginia, Sweetsmoke, a tobacco plantation struggles to meet the demands of the Confederate Army and the rigors of the planting season. A third-generation plantation owner, Hoke Howard is a hard man, but fair he thinks, handling his slaves with authority and brutality when it is warranted. Cassius is a favored slave, a carpenter who suffers the envy of the field hands for his larger cabin and small leniencies afforded him by the owner. Howard and his wife have lost one son to the war, another fighting on the front; Hoke increasingly relies on Cassius, believing the man to be of excellent quality, a sound investment: "We are, after all benevolent... our people are well-served." Regardless of whatever feelings churn on the inside, Cassius shows nothing to the world, having accepted the limitations of his very existence, freedom but a distant hope and years away. Cautious and enterprising, Cassius keeps to himself in an environment where danger comes from any direction, from the whites, or the petty jealousies of other slaves, their belongings, including pride, meager.

Fuller beautifully describes this nightmarish landscape, characters defined by their circumstances and limitations, Cassius's life one of nearly unendurable grief. Nursed back to physical and emotional health after the loss of his wife and the uncertain fate of his son, Cassius is profoundly grateful for the ministrations of a local freed black woman, Emoline Justice. A healer/herbalist, Emoline nurses the broken Cassius, teaching him the forbidden- reading- over the long, pain-wracked nights of his recovery. Such small moments of grace keep Cassius from despair. When Emoline is found murdered, it becomes Cassius's mission in life to track down her killer and exact revenge. Only one other woman has touched his heart besides Emoline, a new slave, bright and beautiful and coveted by other men on the plantation, men with more power and opportunity than Cassius. Armed with a list of names, Cassius eliminates suspects, determined to find Emoline's murderer, even if his own life is forfeit. Indeed, life is a cheap commodity for such a heart-heavy man, the quality of his days enhanced by small victories and one woman's proprietary glances.

In Fuller's stark reckoning, every aspect of Cassius's world is fraught with danger, a pervasive air of menace that settles over the plantation like a thick fog. War and grief are omnipresent, accepted liabilities for Cassius, his narrow existence threatened at every turn. Thus does this man embark on a harrowing journey for the truth, perhaps more truth than he expects to discover, from the fields of the plantation to the back roads where he pursues his elusive quarry, armed gunmen with their dogs on the scent of runaway slaves, the safety of an active underground railroad and the realization that even supposed friends often harbor venal instincts. In his quest, Cassius removes the shackles from his soul, his commitment to Emoline breeding a determination to succeed. His every move shadowed with suspicion and the threat of violence, Cassius is driven by his passion to set the old woman at peace while finding his own, perhaps imperfect, but precious nonetheless. Luan Gaines/2008.

The advanced praise and publisher's accolades for Sweetsmoke are not unwarranted. David Fuller has penned a rich, full-bodied story that centers on a slave's (Cassius) desire to identify the killer of a free-woman who is endeared to him via bewildering circumstances. To its credit, the novel goes deeper than the average "whodunit." It is the equally complex sub-plots, the noble and conniving characters, the accuracy of the historical content, and the wonderfully imagined social network of life, love, loss, and pain on a Virginia Plantation at the onset of the Civil War that add layers of depth and incredible breadth to the story. The politics and racial attitudes of the day are illustrated well in the book which also contained some of the most vivid battlefield scenes I have read.

So often books of this nature cover the master-slave relationship in the perfunctory manner, but Fuller exceeded my expectations by creating some very unique relationships among the slaves and the slave owners. Another aspect that I respected was the equal weight given to the happenings inside the "big house" as well as the slave quarters. He also vigilantly broached valid but unpopular topics such as as slaves supporting the Confederacy and the manipulation, betrayal, and infighting within the slave community. He also showed us the intelligence, bravery, and cunning of Cassius as he navigated the plantation and the free world.

Bottom line: There are several reviews posted already that enthusiastically endorse the novel and I agree wholeheartedly with them. Most likely this novel will make my personal Top Reads list for this year -- I enjoyed it for the history lessons, the mystery, and the characters. This book is firmly on equal footing with The March by E.L. Doctorow, Song Yet Sung by James McBride, and Stand the Storm by Breena Clarke. Recommended for historical fiction fans interested in the US slave institution during the Civil War era.

Sweetsmoke is an eloquently written historical novel of life on a Virginia plantation during the early years of the Civil War. It also incorporates a murder mystery into the narrative. The story is told primarily from the point of view of Cassius, a slave on the Howard tobacco plantation. Cassius has a relative amount of status and "freedom", as he is the plantation carpenter and a personal favorite of the current owner, Hoke Howard. Of course this does not mean he is happy with his lot in life. Indeed, he thinks of himself as a rather bitter and cold person. Moreover, the war and bad financial management have made conditions a bit strained on the plantation. Hoke is fond of gambling, his wife Ellen is fond of laudanum, they have already lost a son as a casualty of war, and their other son is off fighting, while his wife is bedridden at the plantation.

Cassius learns from Hoke that Emoline Justice, a former slave whom Hoke had freed (and with whom he may have fathered a child), has been murdered. This upsets Cassius greatly, as Emoline had cared for him after a particularly brutal punishment; and while nursing him back to health, she secretly taught him to read. Since no one is interested in solving the murder of a freed black woman, Cassius makes it his personal mission to find and mete out justice on her killer. Being a slave makes it particularly difficult to move about freely to investigate the crime, but Cassius is an intelligent and cunning character who finds ways around these constraints. Along the way he meets some interesting individuals, like the smuggler Gabriel Logue and the mad telegrapher Morningside. And his quest gets him into some interesting predicaments - at one point he finds himself in the middle of the Battle of Antietam.

The strengths of this novel are in its characterization and sense of place. The reader gets a real sense of what the life of a slave would have been like in that time and place. The characters are well-drawn especially Cassius, one of the most memorable figures in any of the recent novels I have read. (The author uses an interesting conceit in which the dialogue of the white or free characters is enclosed in quotation marks, while that of the slaves is not, so as to "separate" them.) Effective in its handling of injustice, loss and redemption, the book is at times quite moving. The narrative is strong, though I don't think the author was entirely successful with incorporating the murder mystery into the story. It doesn't have the satisfaction of a true "whodunit", but it is the force that motivates much of Cassius' action in the story. All in all, it is one of the best novels I have read in quite some time, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys historical fiction.

I've been anticipating reading David Fuller's first novel Sweetsmoke since it was released by Hyperion Books at the end of August.

I was captured by the cover image - work worn, lined, loosely clasped hands and I wondered the story behind them.

Fuller spent eight years researching this amazing novel. It tells the tale of Cassius, a slave and carpenter who lives on a tobacco plantation in Virginia. It is 1862 and the Civil War is in full swing. Interestingly Fuller found family connections to both sides of the War during his research.

After suffering a brutal punishment at the hands of his master Hoke Howard, Cassius is allowed to heal at the home of Emoline, a free black woman. Emoline secretly teaches Cassius to read and write. It is these secret lessons that ignite a need for knowledge, a want to know the world beyond the plantation.

"Cassius drove himself toward his journey in a step-by-step fashion, willing to risk everything, to know. To know."

When Emoline is murdered and it appears that no one cares to find the killer, Cassius vows he will find the killer and seek justice for Emoline.

This is a story with many threads, all of then engrossing. Life on the plantation, attitudes and the War are all portrayed with accuracy and detail, bringing to life this period in history. Fuller has also brought to life the lot of a slave, humanizing historical fact, in all it's shame. Although all the characters evoke strong emotions, it is the character of Cassius that kept me reading non stop. His journey towards knowledge and justice, combined with the mystery of Emoline's death is a gripping tale.

Sweetsmoke will be joining another similar book - "Rush Home Road" by Canadian Lori Lansens on my favourites list.

Until reading this book I was not a fan of civil war novels. This is not to say that I was not interested in the lives of those who were enslaved during this period.

The author has brought this era alive for me. As I read, I felt even more outraged at the injustice and atrocities against those who were enslaved. It was a painful read but I feel necessary. I now feel in my heart, what before I only understood intellectually.

The story was also uplifting as I witnessed the life of Cassius, who despite the atrocity he and others suffered just because their skin color was different, still believed in freedom and justice.

Cassius, the carpenter/slave in a Virginia tobacco plantation, strides like a colossus though this novel set during the Civil War. With little opportunity to exercise freedom without, he nourishes a depth of thought inside himself. After the brutal loss of his young wife and son, he becomes a man apart, but the murder of the free black healer Emoline, who has saved his life and secretly taught him to read, breaks him from his reticence; in cautious but relentless determination, he will seek out the killer. So powerful in this character that other characters stand slightly in shadow from his light like one of the great Shakespearean protagonists. And there are many characters in his journey. Emancipation is just a few years away and the masters protect their human property with a wilder grip as they sense the end nearing.

Yet the complex heart of this book is Cassius's relationship with his master Hoke Howard. There is a terrible intensity in their first scene together: the white man has every power in the world over his carpenter slave who has built everything in his study yet the slave has a strange spiritual power over the master. Every word they speak, however casual, is triggered with the possibility of danger to Cassius yet by some strange psychology, though Hoke Howard mentally plays with his slave, he defers from harming him. "He owns me," Cassius says late in the book. "He controls me," and another man answers, "That is merely the law. This was deeper. He wanted your soul." It is not until well into the story that the reader begins to understand the true horror of what Hoke has done to this slave which he can never admit or ever ask for forgiveness.

Though in shadow of this great Hamlet of a character, others are also carefully drawn: Howard's bitter unloved wife who lives on laudanum and vengeance, the complicated dynamics of the house and field slaves, and many others. Nature and the sounds and smells of woods and plantation are vivid. Still, when we are alone with Cassius struggling through the rain on a journey or smoking a handmade cigar, deep in his mind as in a soliloquy, the book finds its greatest power. He is a true hero who stands up for what he believes is right, whatever may come.

Life on a plantation is the background.Each detail of personal interactions and venue rings with truth. (Oviously the result of intense research and analysis)A fascinating crime story and the details of a great and historic Civil War battle is superimposed.

The humanity, black and white, is vivid and heartbreaking. The daily conflicts of slave and master are convincingly conveyed. The reader becomes part of the scene. There are no villains or heroes. One must empathize with each character as he faces the difficult day, ahead. This is life as it was, then, and is now, at a different level.

"Sweetsmoke" is a must read. A new classic about a special time in history.

When I snagged this book from LibraryThing's early review offers, I had doubts that an author could do much with the subjects of slavery, the South or the Civil War, that hasn't been done several times over. I was wrong. Fuller has created a unique character in Cassius, a slave who lives on the plantation by the name of Sweetsmoke.
This book was a bit of a mystery, a history lesson and a tale of human endurance. The story was so well written that both the character of Cassius and Sweetsmoke (the plantation) seemed to be very real. The war scenes, as seen through the eyes of a slave, were some of the most powerful I have ever read.
On reading some of the other reviews, I see that there were those who had problems with too much description. I love reading descriptive novels.....I like knowing the surroundings, the sights and smells of the places my mind is being taken to. Fuller does a wonderful job of setting the stage, he truly has the talent to "take one there".
I highly recommend this novel to mystery readers, those who enjoy history and any who are interested in that tumultuous period of America that was the Civil War. I would also say that, in Cassius, Fuller has drawn an intelligent character who viewed life from the stand point of one who was not free, a human being of extrodinary intellegence who, was indeed, the property of another human.

For starters, I remember growing up absolutely FASCINATED by Harriett Tubman. I think I first heard about her in 4th grade and was enthralled with her bravery, her tenacity and compassion to help others at the risk of her own safety. So when I saw this book available to me on the Vine Program and read the excerpt, I just knew that I HAD to read it.

I have to admit that I had a hard time getting into the book initially when the author wrote in detail about how he researched the details but after finishing the book, I came to understand and appreciate his explanations of how and why he did it. If though, you find yourself in the same predicament, keep plugging forward for reading this book was WELL worth the time and effort.

Once I got into the book, I could NOT put it down. I am embarrassed to say that I was so engrossed in the story that I stayed up ALL night reading this book, leaving the remaining 3 chapters until I had a spare moment to finish it. It's been a month after I've finished the book and I'm STILL thinking about the characters, the story and although this is a fictional story with (according to the author) some facts thrown in here and there; how we so easily forget that not so long ago, these PEOPLE were so horribly mistreated, unappreciated and underestimated. For me anyway, it lead me to start thinking how we are so horrible to one another...the atrocities that we humans conduct on other fellow man, woman and child. It got me thinking about this still happens out there in the world but that we're so sheltered from here in the US.

The author starts out by explaining that he spent 8 years researching facts, stories about slavery. He tried to research and understand the relationships, the 'status' that other slaves had between one another, how they treated one another based on their positions and relationships with their white masters. Although the main character, Cassius is fictional, some of the incidents that he describes, some of the things that Cassius attempted to do DID in fact happen - just by other people.

I personally resent reading too many details about a good book in a review so without spoiling it for you...if you want to learn a bit about history, humanity and lack thereof. If you want to read about compassion, regret and read a raw, gripping story about how not so long ago, there were many people who conducted themselves worse than animals would in the wild virtually right here in our backyards, if you want to read about love and sacrifice, about innocence and how it can so easily be taken away, about pain and suffering and the unbelievable strength that some individuals had to rise about it all, then read this book. What I found unique about this book was that all along, Cassius is trying to solve a murder of a woman dear to him so in a sense in all of the history, painful stories about how people were treated, there was a mystery entangled in all of this that Cassius was trying to solve.

It is NOT an easy, lighthearted book to read as there were scenes that I winced when I read them and at times had to put the book down to clear my head before going back to pick up where I left off. The author did such a wonderful job creating the characters and 'scenes' that I look forward to the day when I will read this book again. Again, I must get my point across that this book is WELL worth your time. I highly recommend this book!