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Jan 23, 2019MaryJoSchifsky rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
Jan 2019: Same author as the Second Life of Samual Tyne, which I couldn't finish because of the foreboding and evil atmosphere created by the author. Washington Black, a young slave w/no family is brutalized and then, taken into the slave master's brother's home as "ballast" for his flying machine. In the course of preparing to fly, W learns about sea life and hones drawing skills. A series of adventures, in the Arctic, Nova Scotia and, finally London, leaves him in a somewhat-supportive environment, w a quirky partner (who he can't marry because she's white), fleeing from a vicious bounty hunter and working to build a dream, a oceanarium. And, searching for the brother, who abandons him in the Arctic. Compelling writing; the hero's uncertainty, despair and rootlessness never leaves him while he continues to plow thru his life.