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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The son of a black man and a white woman, the down-and-out narrator of Hill's substantial, historically inflected novel, struggles to determine his identity in racially polarized Canada and within his own well-educated, upwardly mobile family. At 39, Langston Cane V is divorced, childless, uprooted, and a failed writer. Prompted by an elderly mentor to write about his forebear's illustrious past, Langston decides to investigate the family lore that claims the first Langston Cane died fighting alongside John Brown at Harpers Ferry in 1859. His research takes him to Baltimore, where half the family lives?among them his tough-talking, corpulent Aunt Milly, who's kept her distance from Langston's side of the Cane clan since Langston's parents' marriage. As he pieces together the puzzle of the past through Milly's stories, diary entries, newspaper clippings, letters and ephemera, Langston's own life appears in sharper focus. His Virgil in urban education is Yoyo, an entrepreneuring Cameroonian illegal immigrant. Langston survives a drive-by shooting, experiences a sexual rejuvenation with a young woman from Milly's church and discovers an old scandal involving his aunt. Hill's (Some Great Thing) generous spirit expands over a wide and variegated landscape of human relations; he forgives oppression and reconciles himself to history with surprising equanimity. His straightforward, good-humored prose, however, seems too deferent to the richness of the story being told. A touch of lyricism would limber up this lengthy work. Author tour.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"A good storyteller with an unusually good story to tell ... Lawrence Hill's Any Known Blood retails the fascinating history of an African-Canadian-American family of super achievers from the Underground Railroad to the present. An impressive and absorbing narrative indeed." -- John Barth
"Lawrence Hill is on to something new; a literary examination of psyche and bones and flesh. History and the imagination of this young author surge vibrantly to define, over generations, the true meaning of life. Any Known Blood becomes more than a history of lives that might normally be lost, and is instead its new interpretation." -- Austin Clarke
Any Known Blood is a remarkable achievement. Here is an immensely readable novel, populated with sympathetic yet realistic characters. It deals sensitively, yet often humorously, with one of the most compelling issues of our time in North America -- the ever-shifting, ever-problematic relationship between the races. Lawrence Hill is a wonderfully talented writer and Any Known Blood will be one of the talked-of novels of the year." -- Joyce Carol Oates
Hill's affable narrative voice, spiced with wit and humor, makes Cane's quest a delightful one.... [a] rich and absorbing novel... -- The New York Times Book Review, Andy Solomon --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
"Lawrence Hill is on to something new; a literary examination of psyche and bones and flesh. History and the imagination of this young author surge vibrantly to define, over generations, the true meaning of life. Any Known Blood becomes more than a history of lives that might normally be lost, and is instead its new interpretation." -- Austin Clarke
Any Known Blood is a remarkable achievement. Here is an immensely readable novel, populated with sympathetic yet realistic characters. It deals sensitively, yet often humorously, with one of the most compelling issues of our time in North America -- the ever-shifting, ever-problematic relationship between the races. Lawrence Hill is a wonderfully talented writer and Any Known Blood will be one of the talked-of novels of the year." -- Joyce Carol Oates
Hill's affable narrative voice, spiced with wit and humor, makes Cane's quest a delightful one.... [a] rich and absorbing novel... -- The New York Times Book Review, Andy Solomon --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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