47

As in Field Slave 47. Walter Mosley has written a story that evokes the visceral sensations of life as a slave on a cotton plantation in 1832. A boy deliberately under-nourished by his Mammy so that his growth be stunted to delay his eventual move to the slave quarters and a lifetime of tending cotton. Of being branded, chained up at night in a shared bed, awake before dawn, return after dusk, a meal of sour grain, and then collapse into exhausted sleep. Denied sexual relations on pain of death. Cruel overseers who enforce discipline with torture and fatal beatings.

Enter smooth talking Tall Tom. Slavery is a physical condition. If you free your mind then your spirit is free. Refuse to buy into the ethos and culture of slavery. Let your mind be free and let your imagination soar. Heady stuff indeed for a soul devoid of hope.

Dead Water Zone

Kenneth Oppel has written a teen-lit book that is part Sci-Fi Thriller/part coming of age novelette. Two brothers: one obsessed with body building and physical prowess, one stunted by a genetic disorder; one the dumb jock, the other a genius misfit who gets bullied; each resentful of the other's strengths and invested in supporting the other's weakness. How far would someone with a limited lifespan go for a perceived cure? What are the limits of brotherly love? What happens when a boy from the right side of the side of the tracks attempts to make it in the sewers? No one would claim that this was great literature but it's a passable hour's read. (One error I noted on the first page; alternate curls are done with dumbbells not a barbell.)