The Deep by Rivers Solomon

I recently listened to the audiobook of The Deep by Rivers Solomon on some snowy walks with the dog recently. It was narrated by Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes. The book is based off of a song that Diggs originally produced for the podcast This American Life, so it was fun to hear him read it. 

In this story, water-breathing descendants of African women who were thrown off board slave ships have built their own society living in the ocean. Their past is too traumatic for them to deal with, so they put all their memories into one, the Historian. But what happens when the trauma is too much for the Historian to handle?

I have mixed reviews on this one. It's beautifully written and Diggs does a nice job with the narration. But it's really hard to listen to. It's hard to think about. It's hard to think that the Historian, Yetu, is anything other than a selfish waste of space. But then it's hard to think about what it would be like if you were single-brainedly responsible for the entire trauma of your family's past. It's really a challenging book with its themes of intergenerational trauma, slavery, and climate change. 

Also, I think Diggs did a good job as narrator, but I sort of wish that that narrator had been a woman because most of the characters were women. Is this sexist? I don't really know.  

4/5 stars

Lines of note:

And then she sings for us and we are in love. (timestamp 1:10:38)

Who hasn't fallen immediately for a great performance?

Every sentence is a gorgeous song and their harmonies rip us in half because we are too full on contentment, too happy. (timestamp 1:18:59)

Such pretty writing. Their harmonies rip us in half. Evocative, right?

We are collectors and a collection is never complete. (timestamp 1:21:32)

I loved this little observation.

Yetu was black and scaled, she lived in the water and she looked it. They looked so...fleshy... (timestamp 1:50:08)

This is an inside joke with me and my husband. My husband is a thin man. We were watching a show with David Boreanaz (probably Angel) and I was talking about how I didn't understand the fuss about Boreanaz. "He's attractive enough, but he's so fleshy" was the direct quote. So when I hard this line, I laughed, paused it, and made my husband listen. 

It was strange to be having such a strange conversation with her amaba, discussing their varied interpretations of the History. What had always seemed certain to Yetu wasn't so immutable. The living put their own mark on the dead. Goodness, how had she missed it? (timestamp 3:43:13)

This is why we have a varied work force and we listen to other people!

"...I misinterpreted."
"It is easy to do that with the past, even with the blessing of the full visions of the History," said amaba. (timestamp 3:44: 12)

It's crazy how what you always thought was normal is not always the way other people interpret the same thing. 

Hat mentions:

None