Descend- First Steps

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Ward’s novel is a mythic tale about Annis’ hunger to resist and rise, to put into practice her warrior legacy. There are lots of spirits in the book, looking for love and worship, taking and giving and transforming. Symbols of Water and earth are also symbols of rebirth, of reclaiming what has been stolen, a descent into history and storytelling, spirits and soil, the family you came from and the one that you give rise to through your strength and resolve. or like her grandmother, will her indomitable spirit be forced to fade in the shadow of unspeakable cruelty around her?

But I cannot help but believe that the roots of this book grew from that horrible time when literally and figuratively, none of us could breathe – least of all the families who knew that in America, Black lives have the same value as a plow horse or a grizzled donkey. Grave Descend is a lighting quick read, full of action and intrigue, just what you'd expect from a Hard Case read.In this story about the love of women—a mother’s love, a mother’s mother’s love, and a daughter’s trust—readers are gathered together in the name of hope. I’m not sure if there are more books featuring McGregor, but GRAVE DESCEND certainly left the impression that this protagonist was designed to be a series character. Still, I felt as if I were reading something remarkable and for that reason, I urge others to walk south with Annis. Throughout the story, she is visited by the spirit who oversaw both her grandmother and mother before her.

She tells the story here of Annis, who at a young age watches as here mother is literally sold down the river headed for New Orleans.The protagonist of the novel is James McGregor, a diver working out of Jamaica who is used to exploring sunken ships. To understand how, Jesmyn Ward introduces the element of magical realism, in the form of her African warrior grandmother, who Annis simultaneously embraces and rejects in her darkest hours.

Certainly I was as this moves through circles of hell ('let us descend') and we also follow the moral degradation of everyone involved in chattel slavery from the slave ships to the slave markets and auctions to the plantations themselves. But the simple truth is that the book made me weep for the utter horror of those lives that Jesmyn Ward brings to life.With her friend Safi no longer by her side and her mother and grandmother so far out of reach, Annis begins to despair.