Dennis Lee Hague
The Eyes of the Comet - An American Slave Odyssey is a “highly charged” historical novel whose time has finally arrived. The story captures the “vibrancy” of the South during the ante-bellum period. An exciting adventure, packed with all the intrigue and passion necessary to fill the reader’s imagination, the book represents a carefully researched compilation of material woven into various “themes and connections”, which provide us with a fresh examination of the era. Scenes throughout the novel are based on careful research and simply not manufactured, which addresses the old adage that “the truth can be stranger than fiction”. Uniqueness abounds since historical novels devoted to this epoch are in such short supply. Couple this with the significant theme, which resonates throughout the story that slavery was in fact an “all-American” institution and not simply confined to the South. In fact, in attempting to seek out the truth behind the institution of slavery, several chapters are exclusively centered in the North. This treatment provides us with a complete examination of the times, which has been largely absent in other writings. In addition, the implementation of a “writer’s tool”—the inclusion of a futuristic dream scene, which projects into the Civil War provides for a significant theme - the Civil War was preventable. Unfortunately, during the antebellum period, the elements of greed and power contained in the hands of a few, made it extremely difficult to see just how fractured the lines of communication between the North and the South had become. All of these elements eventually culminated into the Civil War. Understanding the unfettered truth of racism during the ante-bellum period requires what many African-Americans have long felt—the pernicious tentacles of racism run far and wide, which means our entire nation needs to “come full circle” in understanding the depth of this evil and how it can finally be ended.
