Publisher: Bywater Books
A
good book has engaging characters and a plot that holds the reader’s interest.
An outstanding book takes those attributes and adds a message, teaches a lesson
or allows the reader to understand something that may not have been clear to
that person before. An author rises to the top of a genre and gains the respect
of the people who read those books by developing this ability. Marianne Martin has
produced a string of award winning books because she spends her time writing
carefully, researching the topic and going over the book to make sure it is in
the best form possible before it is released. Martin also isn’t afraid to
tackle difficult topics, which is abundantly clear in Tangled Roots, the
prequel to her earlier work, Under the
Witness Tree.
Tangled Roots is set in a period of US history
that was almost as stressful as the civil war it followed. Many of the characters remember that war and
the period of adjustments that followed it. Those changes led to others that
will sweep in the Progressive movement, a time when many people, especially
women and African Americans, hoped that true justice and political equality
would be achieved for everyone. Jim Crow laws, the Ku Klux Klan and lynching
battled with the creation of the NAACP and the eloquence of Booker T.
Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois. The stifling concept of women as nothing but
breeders and homemakers was confronted by the steely determination of Elizabeth
Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and Alice Paul for women to have greater
opportunities. The conflict in the book comes between those who cannot accept
the new ideas and those who yearn for them.
The
story focuses on Addy Grayson, her granddaughter Anna and Anna’s best friend
Nessie, a descendent of the slaves who once worked for the Graysons. Addy
survived the Civil War, but questions whether she has the energy to deal with
raising her granddaughters and confronting their bigoted father. She is
rejuvenated when a younger woman introduces her to new ideas and she finds the
ability to finally deal with an old secret. Anna and Nessie begin as two little
girls who like to play with each other and share dreams. They don’t recognize
the racial divide that both of their families keep throwing in their ways until
they are older, but they share the frustration of being told that women can’t
have the lives they hope to pursue. They are caught up in the stresses of their
time, the expectations of both families and the growing awareness that their
childhood love has turned into something much deeper and forbidden. Addy is the
pillar they both lean on.
Tangled Roots is a compact novel. It’s hard to
believe that Martin deals with so many complex issues in just over 200 pages.
She’s able to do so because she chooses her words and her scenes carefully.
This isn’t meant to be a history of the period, but a snippet, the events as
seen through the eyes of her three main characters. Martin avoids the trap of
wandering around addressing issues that were important to the time, but not to
her story. Yet there is a richness in the scenes that comes off of the pages
and leads the reader to have a beginning understanding of what this period and
these women were about. This is the type of book that is not too heavy to bog
down people in the many conflicts of the period, but that leads readers to
other books and resources to find out what else happened during this time of
drama and change, triumph and dreams deferred.
Marianne
Martin has written a book that weaves a tapestry of history and romance with
the lives of the characters. It will cause the reader to think, but not to feel
that she’s been lectured to. Don’t let its size fool you. There is a lot to be
absorbed here. An outstanding book has engaging characters, an interesting plot
and leads its reader to greater knowledge. Tangled Roots certainly does all of
that.
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