The Significant Seven: November 2007

Spotlight Title: A Slave No More by David W. Blight

Most Americans have learned about the history of slavery and emancipation in the United States through a haphazard combination of grade-school textbooks, Hollywood films, and one of the most-watched TV miniseries of all time. Of the more than four million enslaved before the Civil War, only a handful of their first-person narratives have survived. Needless to say, the rediscovery of two narratives of self-emancipation is both a major historic and a literary event. In A Slave No More, esteemed historian David Blight has faithfully transcribed the unique manuscripts of John Washington (1838-1918) and Wallace Turnage (1846-1916), which were both recently brought to light from family archives. Washington and Turnage's accounts of their early lives in bondage and daring flights to freedom--through the chaotic Union army lines and perilous Alabama swamps respectively--are nothing less than riveting. In their capacity to express their authors' profound humanity in the face of the worst brutality, their words rise off the page as resilient and relevant as when they were first written. Blight devotes the first half of the book to four short essays in which he masterfully reconstructs the men's biographies and larger family histories, taking great care to bring the detail and drama of their individual lives into focus against the larger canvas of American history. But to feel the full impact of Washington and Turnage's stories, readers are urged to begin with their own words on page 162 before returning to Blight's excellent histories. --Lauren

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The Day of Battle by Rick Atkinson		The Gathering by Anne Enright
Topping a Pulitzer Prize-winning effort is tough; finding originality in a World War II narrative is even tougher. Yet Rick Atkinson accomplishes both with the second installment of "The Liberation Trilogy," The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944. His previous work, An Army at Dawn, won the 2003 Pulitzer in history, but Atkinson has managed to set the bar even higher. He descends upon each battlefield with rich historical perspective, tactical analysis, and chilling observations from those on the frontline. Cocksure Hollywood bravado is sparse, as Atkinson depicts soldiers fighting for honor, not glory. "We did it because we could not bear the shame of being less than the man beside us," explains one soldier's diary. "We fought because he fought; we died because he died." The result is an incredible portrayal of the courage, sorrow, and determination that came to define "Our Greatest Generation." --Dave		Pretty early on in The Gathering you realize that in her lingering portrait of the Hegarty clan (and this isn't hyperbole--they are a family of 12), Irish novelist Anne Enright will wrestle with all the giant literary tropes that have come before her. Family, of course, is the big one, but with equal intensity she explores death and dying, the sea and its siren song, sex, shame, secrecy, unreliable memories, madness, "the drink," and--always in the shadows--England. That said, it's not like any other novel about the Irish that I've read. The story of the Hegartys is indeed bleak, and hard, but it surges with tenderness and eloquent thought which, in the end, are the very things that help this family (or at least her narrator Veronica) survive. Through her eyes, and in Enright's skillful imagination, those small turning-point moments of life that we all know in some form or another--a petty fight, a careless word, an event witnessed--come together in an unshakeable vision of how you become the person you are. --Anne
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The Elements of Cooking by Michael Ruhlman		Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo
Inspired by the Strunk and White classic, Michael Ruhlman's The Elements of Cooking will quickly prove to be an essential culinary reference for both seasoned cooks and novices who might not know gravlax from gremolata. After a thorough "Notes on Cooking," Ruhlman, a prolific cookbook author and popular blogger, settles in for an opinionated and informative A-Z roundup (from Acid to Zester) of cooking terms, lessons, and techniques reduced to their essential essence. Even with only one recipe (for veal stock), it's a must-have for every kitchen library--a book that will help you re-think your approach to food. --Brad		Richard Russo's first book since the Pulitzer Prize-winning Empire Falls, Bridge of Sighs is a typically stunning portrait of three small town families struggling--like the town itself--to strike a balance between obsessively embracing their own history or shunning it entirely, with devastating consequences along both paths. Bridge of Sighs is pure Russo: funny, heartbreaking, and ringing completely true. --Jon
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Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine		Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Long Way Home by Joss Whedon and Georges Janty
Adrian Tomine draws his mid-twenties slackers with an impeccable, exact line for every slumpy gesture and cultivated rumple. In Shortcomings, this ex-wunderkind tackles a book-length comic for the first time after three collections of stories, and his maturity shows not so much in the ages of his characters, who are still slackly wandering, dropping out of grad school or managing a movie theater, but in his calm and masterful handling of his story, in which vividly individual characters wander through the maze of imposed and self-generated stereotypes of Asian and American identities (the title is a wry allusion to one of the most enduring of those assumptions). Never has that old commonplace that the personal is the political seemed more paralyzing, and more true. --Tom		Buffy fans rejoice! Buffy, Willow, Xander, and the Slayers live on in Joss Whedon's action-packed comic book series. Picking up right where the show left off, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8: The Long Way Home features all the butt-kicking and quipping that made the show such a marvel, not to mention the return of some of the best love-to-hate-them villains from seasons past. --Daphne
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