Hansen, Joyce. The heart calls home.
HarperTrophy. 242p. c1999. 0-380-73294-7. $5.95. JSTo quote the review of the hardcover in KLIATT, November 1999: This book completes a trilogy; the other titles are Which Way Freedom and Out From This Place. The three books tell an important story of slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. In this last book, the war is over and Obi is in the final months with his army buddies, stationed close to the place he was a slave. All Obi can think of is locating Easter and Jason, whom he knew when they were slaves together. Obi returns to the farm only to find everything changed and the people he knew gone. He follows every lead possible and finally locates Easter's friend, who knows that she is in Philadelphia, studying to become a teacher. Letters between them assure that Easter is willing to marry him and wants to settle on the barrier island off the coast of South Carolina where ex-slaves have started a community called New Canaan. Obi awaits Easter's homecoming, working hard to build a home for them.
There are many details of the life these ex-slaves experienced, the politics of the times, the bitter relations between whites and blacks. It is an important time in U.S. history, setting the stage for the end of Re-construction and the terrible Jim Crow decades that followed. For a brief time, there was hope, and Hansen recreates that time well. Claire Rosser, KLIATT
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| Author: | Rosser, Claire |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Kliatt |
| Article Type: | Book Review |
| Date: | Jan 1, 2002 |
| Words: | 242 |
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