false<![CDATA[Soulcatcher: And other stories]]>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172932419m/231112.jpg2311121Charles Johnson's stories about the African American experience of slavery had an interesting genesis. TV producer Orlando Bagwell asked the author to write 12 original short stories based on the PBS series <I>Africans in America: America's Journey through Slavery</I>. Johnson found the request daunting but irresistible. As he writes in his preface: "Rarely is a writer given the opportunity (like an actor) to climb into the skin of both Frederick Douglass and Martha Washington, to descend into the fetid hold of a slave ship and join a nineteenth century slave revolt, to play Jefferson's consul to Haiti and inhabit the psyche of both a runaway slave and his pursuer."<p> Accordingly, the dozen stories run a gamut of styles, each ingeniously appropriate to its subject. In "The Transmission," Johnson uses straightforward narrative to tell the story of a young slave's arrival in America. On the epistolary front, "A Report from St. Dominique" is a letter to Thomas Jefferson from his consul in Haiti. And in "Martha's Dilemma," Martha Washington describes her fear of her own slaves after her husband's death. This tale is based on a historical footnote: George Washington, privately opposed to slavery, added a codicil to his will that freed the slaves after his wife's death. "Oh, George, you were not a thinker," laments Martha. "Had you been, you would not out of Christian kindness to the blacks unwittingly consigned me to a hellish house, where in the face of each of our formerly loving attendants I now see my possible executioner." In "Confession," the runaway Tiberius describes his awakening to the injustice of slavery: "We was all like folks in one of them madhouses, black and white, thinkin' the way we lived and died was the nat'ral way of things when, from top to bottom, it was crazy as can be." Johnson shows every face of that madness. At a mere 110 pages, <I>Soulcatcher</I> makes a giant impact. <I>--Claire Dederer</I>2238431532001Soulcatcher: And other storiestotal:14|5:4|4:3|3:4|2:1|1:2|144827200falsefalseThu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004Sat Jun 06 13:35:52 -0700 2009Sat Jun 06 13:37:06 -0700 200920falsefalseSun Jun 21 00:00:00 -0700 2009Tue Jun 16 20:24:19 -0700 2009Sun Jun 21 17:53:28 -0700 200900falsefalseThu Oct 22 08:57:20 -0700 2009Thu Oct 22 08:57:20 -0700 200950falsefalseFri Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2004Wed Oct 14 08:00:36 -0700 2009Wed Oct 14 08:00:54 -0700 200900falsefalseSun Jul 19 11:42:05 -0700 2009Sun Jul 19 11:42:05 -0700 200940falsefalseFri Apr 03 12:01:56 -0700 2009Tue Jun 30 08:35:13 -0700 200900falsefalseSat Dec 13 23:08:49 -0800 2008Sat Dec 13 23:08:49 -0800 200850falsefalseWed Nov 26 23:17:52 -0800 2008Wed Nov 26 23:17:52 -0800 200810falsefalseMon Nov 03 08:12:38 -0800 2008Mon Nov 03 08:12:38 -0800 200840falsefalseWed Oct 15 21:16:27 -0700 2008Wed Oct 15 21:16:27 -0700 200800falsefalseThu Sep 11 19:54:13 -0700 2008Thu Sep 11 19:54:13 -0700 200810falsefalseThu Sep 11 11:58:29 -0700 2008Thu Sep 11 11:58:29 -0700 200800falsefalseTue Sep 09 18:51:30 -0700 2008Tue Sep 09 18:51:30 -0700 200800falsefalseSun Aug 03 00:49:48 -0700 2008Sun Aug 03 00:49:48 -0700 200850falsefalseThu May 29 17:10:28 -0700 2008Thu May 29 17:10:28 -0700 200800falsefalseFri May 23 09:20:38 -0700 2008Fri May 23 09:20:38 -0700 200830falsefalseThu Apr 24 06:49:02 -0700 2008Thu Apr 24 06:49:02 -0700 200830falsefalseSun Mar 16 16:51:37 -0700 2008Sun Mar 16 09:18:02 -0700 2008Sun Mar 16 09:18:08 -0700 200830falsefalseThu Feb 14 10:59:34 -0800 2008Thu Feb 14 10:59:34 -0800 200800falsefalseFri Feb 01 16:55:22 -0800 2008Fri Feb 01 16:55:22 -0800 2008
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