Original Sins: A Novel of Slavery & Freedom

I'm back you guys, and thanks for waiting!  We'll just dive right in with a review of my very first early-review book (yes, I'm so proud even though I had nothing to do with the selection process), Peg Kingman's Original Sins: A Novel of Slavery and Freedom.

Grace is a Scottish-American woman living in 1840's Philadelphia, waiting for her husband to return home from sea.  She earns a few bucks painting portraits until her long-time friend Anibaddh returns to America from the East Indies.  Why, oh why, would Anibaddh, a former slave, take such chances after actually fleeing a life of slavery?  I'll give you a hint, it's got nothing to do with growing her silk business...

I must say, for my first early-review book, this was a disappointment.  The storyline left such opportunity for, well, good storytelling, but it's a chance lost in mundane descriptions of people and scenery that showed no evidence of moving the story along.  I found the entire book to be slow-moving and even grueling is a word I would use to describe it.  I had hoped the author would throw in some real thinkers with regards to the theme of slavery and freedom, right and wrong, culture and insanity - alas, even as abolitionist (at least in thought) Grace is plunged into slave country, a fish out of water, there is nothing shocking enough about her experience to pull the reader out of the depths of boredom.  There is a tad on the Christian bible's place in the worldwide culture and practice of slavery, but again, nothing too interesting or surprising.

I had to pick this one up many different times, almost force myself I'm sad to say.  During those times, I grabbed Rachel Carson's Silent Spring and William P. Young's The Shack, both of which had more to say about freedom and man's place in the world than did Original Sins. Anyway, I really look forward to more early review books because that's what it's all about - you read it, you might like it, might not, but you saved some cash in the process either way!  Go LibraryThing, you go.