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From Booklist Pam Durban explores memory, race relations, and moral responsibility in her beautifully written and complex new novel. At the center is the horrific murder of three African Americans in Aiken, South Carolina, in 1926, murders for which no one was punished. The events of the night unfold slowly, with each character adding a voice and a perspective to illuminate how the murders happened and the effect the murders had on the town and townspeople. Durban shifts back and forth in time, from the immediate aftermath of the murders to the death-bed reflections of the main protagonist, Henry Aimar. The tale is narrated through a series of multidimensional characters, each representing a different part of the heavily segregated southern society. The shifting narration gives the reader a panoramic view of the town, and Durban deftly places the reader inside the heads of the characters, illustrating their excuses and justifications for action or the lack thereof. Durban’s expertly paced, concise, and compelling read packs a mighty literary punch. --Eve Gaus Read more Review "Durban's powerful, time-shifting narrative pulls us into all this darkness without ever turning maudlin or preachy and eventually turns up the light and turns this extremely ugly chapter out of our tumultuous near past into something miraculously redemptive."--Alan Cheuse, NPR"[A] hard-hitting but lyrical novel....Crisp and honeyed prose underpins this honest, well-wrought study of a community's shared guilt."Publishers Weekly"Durban's precise, beautifully evocative prose builds to a brief but breathtaking meditation on the true legacy of racial violence."--Shelf Awareness"[An] unnerving but startlingly clear depiction of the contemporary South, its history and its people."--Carolina Quarterly"It would be easy for a story about racist violence and guilt in the early twentieth-century South to fall under the shadow of Faulkner, but Pam Durban's The Tree of Forgetfulness casts a clear and eerie light of its own. As her memorable characters emerge from hearsay, denial, supposition and secrecy, Durban reveals the implications of 'complicity' in 'the low pressure system of the spirit' that one South Carolina town has become following a lynching 'so twisted nobody will ever set it straight.' In her vivid and suspenseful novel, Durban does get it straight in such important ways that, even in the presence of tragedy, we can find reasons to rejoice." --R. T. Smith"[A] hard-hitting but lyrical novel....Crisp and honeyed prose underpins this honest, well-wrought study of a community's shared guilt." --Publishers Weekly Read more See all Editorial Reviews
P**E
Well deserving of the Lillian Smith Award!
I was interested in reading this book because I grew up in Aiken County, SC and I had never heard word one of this tragedy. I was very involved in civil rights and though I am white, I was deep in the black community (or so I thought). Pam, a high school classmate of mine is an astonishing writer. This book is truly in the spirit of Lillian Smith's book "Strange Fruit" which was about the lynchings happening in the south after the civil war was over. I believe her book led to legislation to stop the lynchings. Pam's book recalls that time in Aiken County during the 20s and 30s and ends with an astonishing confession (true or not) of people in the town still living with their silent support of this horror! Her writing is wonderful prose, the novel's story is based on a real life episode. She captures it all from several perspectives, from evil to innocent.
G**E
Southern writing at its best
This book by established author, Pam Durban, is a fine piece of work.I like most southern writers and she is near the top of the list now thatthis book lead me to her.Fiction, based on actual events, The Tree of Forgetfulness is a story that tells of racial tensionsthat lead to bad stuff and how an entire town pulled the shades down and pretended thatnothing much had happened.We can see through the eyes of several of the characters, all of whom are well developed.You'll like this if you have any interest in South Carolina history, post-slavery blacksand how some things that should have, but didn't, come with their "freedom".I give this book five stars.
H**N
Violence and tradition in the 1920s South
This novel is a story of the lives of those involved, directly or tangentially, in a lynching in South Carolina in the 1920s, when a mob of whites took two black men and a black woman from the county jail and shot them. It recreates the atmosphere of the time, and describes the nuanced interactions of family members, generations and blacks and whites in this era when racism was the norm, even as some folks tried to come to grips with their actions, or lack of actions. I recommend it highly.
M**S
Difficult but intriguing read.
Perhaps due to the delicate nature of the books' topic, (a lynching in the south) the story as told seems fragmented. Nonetheless it is a careful examination of, and social commentary on, a horrific action practiced in the name of racial superiority. It would have helped the reader if the author had provided more background information.
K**R
I enjoyed it
I read a lot -- fiction, nonfiction, almost all genres. This was a really good read for an evening when you just want to kick back and enjoy a read/
T**N
A Disturbing, Vivid Visit to the South
I am not a Southerner, but my parents were. They told me of how it was, but this book brought to life how confusing and frightening the times were for my people. It also reminds us that if we forget our history, we are only doomed to repeat it. We are certainly doing this to ourselves in the North, Chicago. Things have changed, but only so much. A worthy and interesting read.
D**K
Five Stars
Wonderful book. I am now rereading it
T**E
It's okay.
meh. It wasn't great, it wasn't bad, it just didn't seem to move well. The various viewpoints were good, but really, it's an airplane read at best.
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