Night falls in East Texas and a young man home from World
War Two smells warm rotting foliage, remembering how he has
learned the scents of heather, lavender and death. This
marvellously evocative book skips through time periods to
shed light on the issues faced by denizens of the South in
a changing world.
THE SLEEPING NIGHT tells of Parker Corey and his daughter
Angel who run a small country store. Parker and the father
of Angel's friend Isaiah both served in France during WWI
and this has cemented their friendship, no matter that the
Coreys are white and the Highs coloured. Parker came home
deciding to treat everyone as equal humans and this
attitude has not made him or his little girl popular among
the townsfolk. Angel and Isaiah both love books and play in
a tree house.
When Isaiah joins up to fight, he and Angel correspond, but
he sees a new side of life in Britain and decides that he
can no longer live in Texas. He only returns there to bring
a Polish Jewish girl to her family. Angel is now orphaned
and a war widow, and cascades of water pour through her
roof when it rains, so Isaiah recklessly offers to fix it
for her. Angel can't afford to pay and does not want to
accept the aid of a predatory local bachelor, so she
agrees. The townsfolk however do not approve of Angel's
living alone and running a store by herself. All would be
well if she remarried, but her independence sees her dumped
as Sunday school teacher and isolated. Only the coloured
women who shop with her, and the local Jewish lady, are
treating her well. Loneliness drives her to spend time with
Isaiah and the pair face breaking the greatest taboo of
all - heedless of danger.
This story squarely presents discrimination of many kinds.
The horror of Hitler is countered with the thoughtless,
ongoing disregard of the rights of coloured people, or poor
white trash, or of women, especially single women. Barbara
Samuel's rich prose brings to life the countryside, the
people, the food and the weather, so we feel steeped in the
atmosphere and the times. This excellent romance deserves
a wide audience.
Gideon, Texas 1946. He was a hometown native, returning from the war, determined to change the world he'd fought to protect. She was the girl who'd been his secret friend in childhood, now a beautiful woman. Her letters had kept him alive. Now, their unspoken love proves impossible to resist. Revealing it the town may get them both killed. He was black. She was white.
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