![]() ![]() Nat has scrabbled together a self-taught literacy through a study of the Bible. The book is narrated by Nat Turner, the poor and uneducated slave who led a rebellion against white society in 1831. The book may have won the Pulitzer, but for me it has two major problems: the narrative voice is wildly inappropriate and the characterisation is on ethically shaky ground. Some have traced the outcry which followed its release to the simple fact that a white Virginian author was writing his way into the mind of a 19th century black slave, but that is hardly the issue. I didn't know about any of that when I started it, but the more I read the novel, the more dissatisfying and even irresponsible it started to seem. ![]() ![]() This book caused quite a controversy when it came out in 1967, and judging from some of the reviews here and on Amazon, it's continuing to do so. ![]()
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