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Canaan's Tongue
by John Wray
The Slave Dealer's Tale
A review by Anna Godbersen
How's this for a bad guy: On the eve of the civil war, one Thaddeus Morrelle,
aka the Redeemer, grows rich and powerful enticing slaves to escape their masters
so that he can sell them to new masters, with the understanding that, upon escaping
again, they will be given a cut of the profits and helped to freedom. This abolitionism-for-profit
is a despicable ruse, of course. The slaves are sold, sold again, and then murdered,
so that the Redeemer's gang can cover their tracks. John Wray's messy, disturbing,
wildly imagined second novel tells the story of the Redeemer's gang, and their
misadventures in "the Trade," as it is known. The portentously named
Virgil Ball, whose lame left eye the Redeemer uses to see the future, is the novel's
hero of sorts; he is a made member of the Redeemer's inner circle, but he has
his doubts, too. As the war gets under way, and both the Union and the Confederacy
drive the inner circle to an abandoned plantation, Virgil resolves to murder their
"shanty-town Napoleon."
Wray is rambunctiously unafraid of language, and Canaan's Tongue unfolds
in a series of salty monologues, mostly Virgil's, although we also hear from
a lisper, a prostitute, an Irishman with a stutter. There are also a good many
nineteenth century flourishes, original turns of phrase, and a dose or two of
the bizarre. Wray is playing at more than the horrors of antebellum society;
he means to get at the vast, greedy hucksterism of America. "Faith," the Redeemer
tells Virgil, "is the cornerstone of this Union... Without an understanding
of it... you will never earn your penny." This critique occasionally gets
lost in Wray's hyperactive tale telling, but regardless, he keeps that tale
dark and fascinating all the way past the finish line.
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