Walk Through Darkness [Paperback]

David Anthony Durham (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Doubleday, New York, New York, U.S.A.; aFirst Edition First Printing edition (2002)
• ASIN: B000PCLJ8U
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful and Intense, August 30, 2002

By 

Nicole McCurty (Chesapeake, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Walk Through Darkness (Hardcover)

Very rarely do I read novels about slavery, but the excerpt really drew me in. I had to find out what happened to William, a runway slave, in his quest to find his wife, Dover, who has been sent to live with her mistress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (a free state). When William discovers what has happened, he flees with his master, trackers and a mysterious white man hot on his trail. Along the way, William will encounter various people. Some will be of help and others a hindrance, but William is determined to see his love again.

I found myself tearful while reading the atrocities that black men and women were forced to endure in this novel. But this story was about so much more than that. It is an expression of the tenacity of the human spirit to survive even in the worst conditions. It is a representation of a body imprisoned with chains, but a mind free to think and dream. It is a testimony that love can conquer all.

If you want to read a story about slavery, you will like this one. But if you want to read a story of love, hate, kindness, betrayal, hope, tragedy, imprisonment and above all freedom, then you will not be able to put this one down.

Reviewed by Nicole
APOOO BookClub

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How did I love this book? Let me count the ways...., December 2, 2002

By 

Richard E. Hourula (Berkeley, CA. United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Walk Through Darkness (Hardcover)

As he did with his first book, Gabriel's Story, Durham has provided readers with a book that works on many levels. First of all it's a hell of a story. This is an exciting adventure, an intelligent page-turner. Interesting, well-drawn characters, who, like people in "real life," can act in unpredicted ways. These characters rank with those created by Charles Frazier in "Cold Mountain."
If you've ever grappled with imagining the lives of slaves in 19th century America, their struggles and the response of whites to them, reading "Walk Through Darkness" will help.
The story concerns a slave, William, escaping a cruel master and his search for his pregnant lover. Durham intersperses this tale with relentless pursuit of the protaganist by a tracker.
While spinning this fascinating yarn, Durham offers a hard look at a time and place not so distant and the attitudes that pervaded American life.
This is Durham's second book, following the fantastic "Gabriel's Story". He is two for two, having hit both out of the ballpark.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars And from the darkness shall come light, June 27, 2002

By 

The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers (RAWSISTAZ.com and BlackBookReviews.net) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Walk Through Darkness (Hardcover)

Not every book has the ability to affect the reader as deeply as Walk Through Darkness affected me. David Anthony Durham, author of the critically acclaimed Gabriel's Story, has written a haunting novel about William, a fugitive slave. One may surmise that the force behind William's escape is freedom. Freedom is, of course, part of the reason William flees his harsh laborious conditions. But even moreso is his desire to find Dover, his wife, who is pregnant with his child and has moved North to freedom with her mistress. The story alternates between William's point of view and Morrison's, a Scottish slave tracker. Somehow these three people, who are separated by miles and life experience, are connected.

Durham's writing is refined, articulate, and descriptive. He makes you feel the fear, terror, relief, pain, joy, and a plethora of other emotions felt by the protagonists. The characters are in no way shallow, instead powerfully constructed with a certain profundity. The author uses a historical setting and breathes new life into it, providing the reader with a raw, fresh story in lands never traversed. Transcending race, time, and status, this Walk Through Darkness will make anyone see the light...