Redwood and Wildfire

Usually, when I read a book, I automatically compare it to other books I've read: "this reminds me of X" or "this is like a mixture of Y and Z." I can't really say either about this book. It is unlike any other book I've; of course this might just demonstrate the narrowness of my reading.

Let's start with the basics: Andrea Hairston's Redwood and Wildfire is a fantasy set in Georgia's Peach Grove in the Okefenokee Swamp and Chicago. The time period is the early 1900s. The titular characters are Redwood Phipps and Aidan Wildfire Cooper. Redwood is the daughter of an African-American conjure woman and inherited her gifts. She is also a very talented singer. Aidan is an Irish-Seminole banjo player, who also has a way with words, stories and lyrics. The novel provides a stark look at Jim-Crow America's treatment of persons of color. While Aidan is treated differently than Redwood, poverty marks their lives in the south, and the north represents a land of opportunity for them. Yet, Chicago is not the paradise that they imagine.

Hairston combines several traditions in her creation of the supernatural elements. She pulls from Gullah culture, Haitian voudou, Irish folktales, Native American mythology, and folk remedies and superstitions to create a plausible world in which sensitive people can hear the voices of the dead and can see the future, in which music has healing properties beyond that we understand, and in which the right sign in front of person's door can cause them harm or make them fall in love. These supernatural elements exist in a realistic portrayal in which lynchings exist and African-American businesses are the targets of terrorism. While the strong juju of the characters can make their lives better, it is no match for the terror and prejudice that they experience daily because of the color of their skin.

Besides the realness of the violence and threats to persons of color, Hairston also portrays personal relationships in an accurate way that acknowledges the long history of bi-racial relationships, homosexual relationships, and even bi-racial homosexual relationships. Hairston acknowledges the double standards applied to love, sex and relationships. Aidan thinks: "White Peach Grove wouldn't give a damn if he dragged Redwood out back to a shed and used her like an animal. Colored Peach Grove might be angry behind their hands or think it served Redwood right for strutting ‘round like a Queen of Dahomey, getting friendly with whoever she pleased. If she loved him back, if he tried to marry her, if he tried to do right, upstanding citizens would want to string him up like a colored man."

This is a well-written and powerful book. I recommend it highly.