FICTION

Balm

by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
Amistad: HarperCollins. May 2015. 272p. ISBN 9780062318657. $25.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062318671. F
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When Madge, a freeborn black woman from Tennessee skilled in the art of making healing ointments, teas, and balms from herbs and bark, takes a maid's position with Sadie, an unhappy, white widow in Chicago who speaks with the dead, both women are hesitant to reveal their secrets, remembering past hurts. The two main male characters are equally troubled. Sadie's doctor friend, Michael, is racked with guilt over not enlisting during the Civil War, and Hemp, a former slave, has to fight off his feelings of attraction to Madge while he searches for his wife, who was sold off before the war. In their individual ways, they are all walking wounded—in need of spiritual soothing. The author deftly weaves her characters' longings with the gritty realities of American life after war's devastations.
VERDICT No sophomore slump is in evidence here. Readers who were captivated by Perkins-Valdez's first novel, Wench, will be intrigued by the post-Civil War lives of three Southern transplants to Chicago. [See Prepub Alert, 11/10/14.]
Reviewed by Laurie Cavanaugh, Holmes P.L., Halifax, MA , Apr 15, 2015
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