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entertaining u newspaper: your monthly guide to entertainment
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by erin thursby
scopes1925@msn.com
The mythology of the old South lays naked in this book, as its prettiness is stripped away from the mind of a man, piece by piece. It might seem impossible to us today, but there were men of honor who supported slavery. In the world of the antebellum South, accepting and supporting slavery was part of the moral fabric. Author Michael White immerses us in this mindset, using the hard-but-honor-bound character of Cain, a sometime slave catcher and n’er-do-well.
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White excels at capturing quickly sketched characters. It doesn’t hurt that most of these characters are seen through the sharp eyes of Cain, who takes the time to observe and categorize people. Through Cain, the reader gets a sense of the sort of people who inhabit this world of the author’s imagination and that particular slip of time, when the Civil War was just over the horizon, but not quite inevitable.
The title, Soul Catcher, is an old name for those who captured runaway slaves and brought them back to their master. The author, who has done his research, brings in the somewhat obscure historical figure of harsh John Brown, a white abolitionist.
Cain had thought himself retired from slave catching, a task he’d come to dislike, if only for the men it attracted and the danger of the job. But after one drunken night of playing cards against a wealthy planter, he finds himself deeply in debt. The planter, Eberly, threatens to take away his horse, but then offers to settle the debt if Cain will hunt Eberly’s runaways. Cain reluctantly agrees.
Cain begins the journey with two brothers in the employ of Eberly (Strofe and Little Strofe), a cruel man simply known as the Preacher, two tracking dogs and Cain’s beloved horse, Hermes. It’s clear from the Preacher’s introduction that Cain and the Preacher are bound to have at least one or two ugly confrontations.
While we journey with Cain and his fellow hunters, bits and pieces of his past are revealed—his lost love, past battles and how he came to be a slave catcher. Despite his occupation, he considers himself to be an honorable man. Indeed, he is a paragon of what a Southern man should be to their slaves. He doesn’t get personal and he thinks of these slaves as property. He doesn’t feel that he should have to defend his occupation; after all, he’s only following the law.
The hunt leads them to a black settlement, filled with freemen and hopeful runaways looking for a new start. From there, they hunt one of the runaways to the notorious abolitionist John Brown’s farm. They then track the second slave, an unusual female slave named Rosetta, who has distinctive blue eyes.
It is from Rosetta that Cain finally understands what might be done when one person owns another. He understands that there is no recourse, no moral ground upon which to stand, when one person owns another.
Along the way, Cain meets a would-be Tiresias, a blind abolitionist who warns Cain of the choice he will soon face. Mixed in with the mythology of the journey are all sorts of strange characters and the occasional exciting gun battle.
A book like this is bound to be compared to Huck Finn’s journey, as Cain comes to many of the same conclusions, albeit with much less boyish innocence and far more cynicism. At the heart of the book, you’ll find the same kind of sentiment. Slavery is part of the moral foundation of the South, part of the natural order of things. To work against slavery is to be dishonorable. Unlike Huckleberry Finn, above all, Soul Catcher is the tale of a redemptive journey.
Michael White has penned at least five novels, some of which, such as his Dream of Wolves, have received accolades. Mystery and historical fiction make up a good portion of his work. He often deals with the theme of a lost child, taken from their parents by force, circumstance or killed in an accident. Sometimes this features as a central theme and sometimes, as in the case of Soul Catcher, it’s an important part of the story.
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EU Critic’s Choice Awards
