G.L.'s Reviews > Wakulla Springs

This book is composed of four chapters, each set in a different period in time, that, together, tell the story of one African-American family in North Florida from the 1930s to the present day.

But reading this book isn't so much like reading four different stories as it is like reading two, very different ones.

First, I'll adress the first two chapters. They are compelling. They have well-developed, complicated characters that are easy for the reader to identify with. Most importantly, the first two chapters contain a powerful sense of place. Wakulla Springs and Wakulla County surrounding it add a presence to the book as powerful as any of the characters. These chapters are subtle and understated and assume that the reader is intelligent enough to understand what is going on.

When the story broke between the first and second chapter, I was a little disoriented at first, because story is so often identified with a character, and here it's identified with a family. Once I got my bearings, though, I appreciated this underused form of storytelling.

My impression of the book after chapter two was very positive. I wish I had stopped reading there. The last two chapters are rushed. Nothing happens in them of much significance or interest to the reader, and the characters in them feel flat and lifeless. Most importantly, they've lost the powerful sense of place that made the first two chapters so lifelike. The last chapter is entirely set in Wakulla Springs. Yet, to me (I'm a local who has spent more time at Wakulla Springs than I can reckon), it seemed like it was written by someone who had never set foot near the Springs, only read about it. This is a marked contrast to the first two chapters, which were so immersed in place that I could go down to the Springs right now and point to exactly where each piece of the action happened.

I really don't know why the last two chapters were included. They are not only weaker, but they add nothing to the story. I advise you to read the first two chapters, then put the book down. Seriously. The first two chapters make an excellent story in themselves, and need no further embellishment. If my copy had omitted the final two chapters, I'd have given this four stars instead of three.

As an aside, this is nominated for an award as a science fiction/fantasy book. This is somewhat mysterious to me. There are subtle allusions in three of the chapters that there may be some strange cryptid or monster in the woods of Wakulla County. But the references are brief, never resolved one way or another, and have minimal impact on the story or the characters. I wouldn't call this a science fiction or fantasy book. It is less of one than, say, The Scarlet Letter. But, as literary or historical fiction, it's excellent. Up to the end of chapter 2.