in between the wake review
The author set the novel in between the wake of Hurricane Katrina and being hauled by the spectre of the Mississippi flood of 1927. The novels describe water as liberation and sometimes as part of the problem. For example, Mama had a rich cosmology of the spirits; she liked to call on a goddess of the ocean of salt water and honouring all the life-giving waters of the world. Also, Michael, who worked on the offshore oil rig he is seen apologizing to the water for taking a job which might contribute to the death of sea animals such as dolphins (59).
The author used water in the story to show a feeling of loss, home, a family and the washing away of guilt. In the way that the story describes Lonnie vision while she battles her meth high. Water was used here to show the slow loss of her relationships with her family in a foreshadowed way. However, water is also used by characters like Richie to show a sense of connection to familiar roots. The use of water and its link to Parchment prison lives within the story of pop’s or rivers as pop’s is described as red like clay and hard like the earth whereas mam is often linked to water or the sea. This might be the author’s way of explaining why pop’s need mam after he got out of prison (100). This shows that a man thirsty for forgiveness, a parched man found his water, and though the water didn’t wash away all guilt, it helped smooth a tired soul.
Water in the novel also is derived as a source for healing and damage. For example, during Leonie and Michael’s courtship, it happened alongside the local River, and it is among the imagery that it is used by Leonie to represent the vibrancy of their intimacy after Michel returns to prison. Furthermore, water is associated with death as it represents the final passage from life into death. It is mostly combined with the belief of the African American slaves that they would reverse the passage of slavery by going back and crossing the Atlantic Ocean back to Africa after they die. Richie’s desires in the novel “Crossing the water” (281).