Book: Americus
Author: Michael Datcher
Publisher: Safkhet Publishing
Price: £9.99
Review by Barbara Grant
Spanning the ‘long depression’ in post slavery America, between 1873 and 1927, Americus is the name of a black family of male funeral directors based in East Street Illinois.
The Americus clan is made up of funeral parlour founder grandpa Nema and his son Keb, the only child with his wife Sierra. Keb is married to herbalist Nutilda and they have twin boys – Aser and Set. This is a strong patriarchal family, making strides in a post slavery era when black men (and women) had limited, if any, civil rights.
The story starts on the tenth birthday of the Americus twin boys, Aser (the eldest twin by seven minutes) and Set (both named after Egyptian mythological deities) in 1873. Pretending to be pirates, they set off on a birthday adventure to find their presents, hidden like treasure.
This treasure hunt takes the boys to “Bloody Island”, a clump of land in the middle of the Mississippi, so named “because murk and mayhem are blood relatives”. Nutilda doesn’t think it’s a safe for her twins to travel so far from home during a time of open racial hatred. Little does she know that danger is lurking much closer to home in the form of brotherly envy and inner rage.
As the twins follow the map to find the treasure chest, they discover one present is missing. Set unearths the buried treasure but refuses to share the spoils with his brother. His relentless teasing of Aser, or “Fraid D. Frown”, is neither helpful nor welcome.
Set’s envy of Aser underpins a subtle power struggle for their father’s love, which often leaves Set feeling inferior. This secret tussle is an ongoing ritual for the twins, which becomes more acute as they approach puberty when Set gets the skin disorder vitiligo.
Set fears he is turning into a “bohunk”, the family’s word for Caucasians, and begins to mentally sever the invisible chord between him and his twin. His feelings of injustice and a fear of the future as his illness takes over his body, morphs into a sense of betrayal as his mother’s promise to cure him through her herbal remedies fail.
Set believes his father’s love isn’t equal to Aser’s. By 16, his physical likeness to his brother changes, as does his personality when he no longer feels the “twin bond”. He is consumed with the idea that life has dealt him the wrong cards. Gradually he mentally and physically withdraws from school, the family and the community.
As time passes, Aser marries Neru and has a son called Heru. Like Keb, Heru is an only child but father and son fail to get along. Aser feels his son is not manly enough. Instead Heru finds solace with his uncle Set, with whom he develops a loving relationship.
Set is also married, to Nephthys, but they have no children, a gap Heru fills. The twin brothers and their family live together under one roof. More is revealed about the twin brothers, who are the main focus of the story, while the women largely play the roles of wife or mother.
As the story unfolds, every generation of the Americus male tries to raise their son right, yet they all fail to recognise their parental shortcomings, which lead to a major tragedy that has a devastating impact on the family’s lineage.
Michael Datcher has created a family saga and intergenerational story told, unusually, through the eyes of the men, each one hampered by their flaws. But Americus is also a book about black history.
When you scratch beneath the surface you discover a compelling narrative about the brutality, selfishness, misogyny and arrogance of Southern men at that time. A time when male egos were rife and pride couldn’t be undermined or challenged by women.
This is not a book you are likely to find on top of a coffee table belonging to today’s modern woman. Also if you are a fan of ‘chick lit’ then this may not be the novel for you.
At 312 pages long, Americus is filled with raw male emotion, summed up by grandpa Nema, who urges his grandson to be “wrong and strong” if he wants to attract his father’s favour.
Datcher writes a compelling tale, full of unpredictable twists and turns. Would I take this book on holiday? Only if I had a strong stomach for a gruesome murder mystery with historical sensibilities. If you do, then this book is for you.