Gathering of Waters: A Novel

By Bernice L. McFadden

Following her best-selling, award-winning novel Glorious, McFadden produces a fantastical historical novel featuring the spirit of Emmett Till.
—One of Essence's "Best Books of the Decade"

—A New York Times Notable Book of 2012

—Gathering of Waters was a finalist for a Phillis Wheatley Fiction Book Award.

"McFadden works a kind of miracle—not only do [her characters] retain their appealing humanity; their story eclipses the bonds of history to offer continuous surprises . . . Beautiful and evocative, Gathering of Waters brings three generations to life . . . The real power of the narrative lies in the richness and complexity of the characters. While they inhabit these pages they live, and they do so gloriously and messily and magically, so that we are at last sorry to see them go, and we sit with those small moments we had with them and worry over them, enchanted, until they become something like our own memories, dimmed by time, but alive with the ghosts of the past, and burning with spirits." —Jesmyn Ward, New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice

"Read it aloud. Hire a chorus to chant it to you and anyone else interested in hearing about civil rights and uncivil desires, about the dark heat of hate, about the force of forgiveness." —Alan Cheuse, All Things Considered, NPR
Gathering of Waters is a deeply engrossing tale narrated by the town of Money, Mississippi—a site both significant and infamous in our collective story as a nation. Money is personified in this haunting story, which chronicles its troubled history following the arrival of the Hilson and Bryant families.

Tass Hilson and Emmet Till were young and in love when Emmett was brutally murdered in 1955. Anxious to escape the town, Tass marries Maximillian May and relocates to Detroit.

Forty years later, after the death of her husband, Tass returns to Money and fantasy takes flesh when Emmett Till's spirit is finally released from the dank, dark waters of the Tallahatchie River. The two lovers are reunited, bringing the story to an enchanting and profound conclusion.
Gathering of Waters mines the truth about Money, Mississippi, as well as the town's families, and threads their history over decades. The bare-bones realism—both disturbing and riveting—combined with a magical realm in which ghosts have the final say, is reminiscent of Toni Morrison's Beloved.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Akashic Books
• Release date: Jan 31, 2012
• ISBN: 9781617751103

Bernice L. McFadden

Bernice L. McFadden is an African-American award-winning author of ten critically acclaimed novels including Praise Song for the Butterflies, The Book of Harlan, Sugar, The Warmest December, Gathering of Waters (a New York Times Editors' Choice and one of the 100 Notable Books of 2012), and Glorious. Her latest novel, Praise Song for the Butterflies, was longlisted for the prestigious Women's Prize for Fiction 2019. The Book of Harlan (2016) won the American National Book Award and an NAACP Image award, and has been optioned for a movie deal by MarkTonderai of Shona Films. In the UK, McFadden has featured at Cheltenham Literary Festival, Hillingdon Literary Festival and has given talks and signings at bookshops including Waterstones. She has featured in British media including BBC R4 Front Row, RTE Radio, The Observer, BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio Scotland and on multiple blogs.

Book preview

Critical Praise for Glorious by Bernice L. McFadden

• Finalist for the NAACP Image Award for Fiction

• Winner of the BCALA Literary Award for Fiction

• Debut selection of the One Book, One Harlem program

McFadden’s lively and loving rendering of New York hews closely to the jazz-inflected city of myth … McFadden has a wonderful ear for dialogue, and her entertaining prose equally accommodates humor and pathos.

—New York Times Book Review

She brings Harlem to astounding life … Easter’s hope for love to overthrow hate … cogently stands for America’s potential, and McFadden’s novel is a triumphant portrayal of the ongoing quest.

—Publishers Weekly

"Bernice L. McFadden’s novel Glorious, which starts with a bang-up prologue, has a strong main character (based in part on Zora Neale Hurston), hard-driving prose, and historic sweep of several decades, including the years of the Harlem Renaissance."

—Jane Ciabattari, National Book Critics Circle President

The book is sweeping in scope and brings to life the tenuous existence of an African American artist in the early twentieth century.

—Vogue

"I hadn’t read a word of hers before [Glorious], but I will follow her from now on."

—Alan Cheuse, NPR

The novel is so intense and sweeping at the same time. Some of the scenes were terrifying, and some were very comic in the irony of what the narrator was experiencing and what she was actually thinking. The word for a journey like this is picaresque, but the ever-impending tragedy makes that word not quite right for this book.

—Susan Straight, author of A Million Nightingales

"A wonderful, rich read full of passion, history, wonder, and women you will recognize: Glorious is just that."

—Jill Nelson, author of Volunteer Slavery

The seeming inevitability of cruel fate juxtaposes the triumph of the spirit in this remarkably rich and powerful novel. Bernice L. McFadden’s fully realized characters are complicated, imperfect beings, but if ever a character were worthy of love and honor, it is her Easter Bartlett. This very American story is fascinating; it is also heartbreaking, thought-provoking, and beautifully written.

—Binnie Kirshenbaum, author of The Scenic Route

McFadden’s descriptions are sometimes wrenching, sometimes heartwarming, sometimes gritty, but always evoke emotion.

—Books, Personally

This is a book that is difficult to put down. Easter Bartlett is a character who reaches out to you from the first page and who you never want to let go of.

—Curled Up With a Good Book and a Cup of Tea

Bernice L. McFadden broke and healed my heart in 235 pages.

—BrownGirl Speaks

Also by Bernice L. McFadden

Glorious

Nowhere Is a Place

Camilla’s Roses

Loving Donovan

This Bitter Earth

The Warmest December

Sugar

Gathering of Waters

This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to real events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Published by Akashic Books

©2012 by Bernice L. McFadden

eISBN-13: 978-1-61775-110-3

Hardcover Print ISBN-13: 978-1-61775-032-8

Hardcover Library of Congress Control Number: 2011923109

Paperback Print ISBN-13: 978-1-61775-031-1

Paperback Library of Congress Control Number: 2011922902

All rights reserved

First printing

Akashic Books

PO Box 1456

New York, NY 10009

[e-mail]

www.akashicbooks.com

For Richard May & Lula Mae Hilson-May

You are souls immortal, spirits free, blest and eternal;

ye are not matter; ye are not bodies; matter is your

servant, not you the servant of matter.

—Swami Vivekananda, 1893

Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Part One

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Part Two

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Three

Chapter Thirty-Four

Chapter Thirty-Five

Chapter Thirty-Six

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Chapter Thirty-Eight

E-Book Extras

Excerpt from Loving Donovan

Also by Bernice L. McFadden

About Bernice L. McFadden

About Akashic Books

Part One

Chapter One

Iam Money. Money Mississippi.

I have had many selves and have been many things. My beginning was not a conception, but the result of a growing, stretching, and expanding, which took place over thousands of years.

I have been figments of imaginations, shadows and sudden movements seen out of the corner of your eye. I have been dewdrops, falling stars, silence, flowers, and snails.

For a time I lived as a beating heart, another life found me swimming upstream toward a home nestled in my memory. Once I was a language that died. I have been sunlight, snowdrifts, and sweet babies’ breath. But today, however, for you and for this story, I am Money. Money Mississippi.

I do not know for whom or what I was named. Perhaps I was christened for a farmer’s beloved mule or a child’s favorite pet; I suspect, though, that my name was derived from a dream deferred, because as a town, I have been impoverished for most of my existence.

You know, before white men came with their smiles, Bibles, guns, and disease, this place that I am was inhabited by Native men. Choctaw Indians. It was the Choctaw who gave the state its name: Mississippi—which means many gathering of waters. The white men fancied the name, but not the Indians, and so slaughtered them and replaced them with Africans, who as you know were turned into slaves to drive the white man’s ego, whim, and industry.

But what you may not know and what the colonists, genociders, and slave owners certainly did not know is this: Both the Native man and the African believed in animism, which is the idea that souls inhabit all objects, living things, and even phenomena. When objects are destroyed and bodies perish, the souls flit off in search of a new home. Some souls bring along memories, baggage if you will, that they are unwilling or unable to relive themselves of. Oftentimes these memories manifest in humans as déjà vu. Other times and in many other life-forms and so-called inanimate objects, these displays have been labeled as curious, bizarre, absurd, and deadly.

You may have read in the news about the feline having all the characteristics of a dog, the primate who walked upright from the day he was born until the day he died, of men trapped in female hosts and vice versa, the woman who woke one morning to find that she had grown a tail, the baby boy who emerged from his mother’s womb flanked not in skin but scales, the man who grew to the towering heights of a tree, rivers overflowing their banks, monster waves wiping away whole cities, twisters gobbling up entire neighborhoods, relentlessly falling snow blanketing towns like volcano ash.

These are all memories of previous existences.

Listen, if you choose to believe nothing else that transpires here, believe this: your body does not have a soul; your soul has a body, and souls never, ever die.

To my memory, I have never been human, which probably explains my fascination with your kind. Admittedly, I am guilty of a very long and desperate infatuation with a family that I followed for decades. In hindsight, I believe that I was drawn to the beautifully tragic heartbrokenness of their lives, and so for years remained with them, helplessly tethered, like a mare to a post.

Their story begins not with the tragedy of ’55 but long before that, with the arrival of the first problem, which came draped in crinoline and silk; carrying a pink parasol in one hand and a Bible in the other.

Chapter Two

In 1900, the Violet Construction Company purchased a tract of land on the south bank of the Tallahatchie River and dug up the bones of the Choctaw Indians and the Africans. They tore from their roots black-eyed Susans, Cherokee roses, and Virginia creepers, and removed quite a number of magnolia and tupelo saplings. They did all of this to make room for forty threestory clapboard homes complete with indoor plumbing, grand verandas, and widow’s walks. A road was laid to accommodate horse and buggies and the rare motorcar. The cobblestone sidewalks were lined with gas street lanterns and the street itself was christened Candle.

Oak floors, chandeliers, wainscoting, and brass hardware dazzled potential buyers who came to view those homes that looked over the prettiest part of the river. The people walked through the spacious rooms holding their chins and sighing approvingly in their throats as they admired the fine woodwork and custom details.

The homes sold very quickly.

With the creation of Candle Street came jobs for laundresses, maids, and cooks, which brought in more people to the area—darker people.

So in 1915, the Violet Construction Company purchased a second tract of land, this time on the north shore of the river.

The north shore tract was cleared of most of the ancient, towering long-leaf pines whose thick canopy had deprived the land of sun, which turned the earth hard, dry, and as uneven as a washboard. Running vines speckled with yellow thorns coiled around trees, rocks, and the carcasses of animals and people who had stopped, dropped, and died there. The Violet Construction Company removed all of it and used the cheapest grade of pinewood to erect thirty modest-sized homes that did not have indoor plumbing, widow’s walks, or verandas. At night the Negroes had to depend on the light of the moon to guide them along the rocky, cratered footpath. And if there was no moonlight—well, God help them.

The Violet Construction Company named the street Baxter’s Road, but since only Negroes occupied those homes, both black and white alike began to refer to the little community on the north shore as Nigger Row.

The church, funded by the Negro community, was built in 1921. The residents of Candle Street gifted their dark, wooly-haired neighbors a small crate of Bibles and a proper crucifix set with a blond-haired, blue-eyed Jesus molded from plaster of paris and nailed resolutely to its center. The Negroes did not have a man of the cloth living amongst them, so sent out word that they were in search of a suitable cleric to lead their flock.

As fate would have it, Reverend August Hilson and his family had recently been displaced by the race riots that erupted in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Negroes who managed to avoid being shot down in the streets like dogs, or burned to a crisp as they slept in their beds, packed up what they could and fled Tulsa.

For weeks, August and his family lived like nomads, wandering from one town to the next until they wandered all the way to Greenwood, Mississippi. There, August learned that his services were in dire need, Just down the road, the bearer of the news advised, in Money.

August Hilson and his family took possession of a home on Nigger Row on a cool November day. The photographer from the local newspaper came to capture the auspicious occasion. The family posed on the porch. August was seated in a mahogany chair cushioned in red velvet. The long, dark fingers of his right hand curled around his favorite Bible. His left hand rested on the intricately carved lion’s head which looked out at the photographer from its post at the top of the armrest. His wife, a peanut-colored, petite, full-bosomed woman named Doll, stood dutifully at his right side with her left hand on his shoulder, her right hand wrapped around the long neck of her beloved pink parasol. The children—a daughter named Hemmingway and a son named Paris—were stationed to the left of their father, arms still at their sides.

It was the first time any of them had ever been photographed, and even though they were practically bursting with glee, their expressions were painfully somber and their postures were as stiff as stone.

From beneath the dark blanket that covered both photographer and camera, the photographer counted off: Three … two … one …

The bulb exploded, expelling a puff of white smoke. A cheer went up from the small crowd that had gathered to watch the spectacle, and the Hilson family officially began their new lives.

Days later, when August was presented with a framed copy of the newspaper article, he took it into the drawing room where the light was brightest. There, August stood for many minutes gazing wondrously at the grainy picture. He thought they all looked like wax figures—well, all except Doll, who had the faintest wisp of a smile resting on her lips.

August was too modest a man to hang the framed article on the wall for every visitor to see, so stored it away on a bookshelf. Every once in a while, when he was home alone, he would remove the framed treasure and ogle the picture.

Over the years, the clipping yellowed and curled behind its protective glass, and the photo began to distort and fade. Sometimes when August peered at it, Doll seemed to be sneering; other times, she bared her teeth like a badger. August blamed the changes in the picture on figments of his imagination, poor light, and aging eyes; he had a bagful of explanations to explain it away. The final straw, however, came when he looked at the picture one day and saw that Doll’s middle and index fingers on both hands were crossed; August could not for the life of him decide if the gesture had been made in hope of good luck or for exclusion from a promise.

He tossed the memento in the river, but it was too late—his fate was already sealed.

Chapter Three

Doll was the love of August’s life, but she was also a thief.

Back in Tulsa, she had closed her arms around the shoulders of an elderly parishioner and expertly procured a shiny, dark plume from the woman’s brand-new Easter hat.

She was a bandit—stealing her daughter’s prized silk hair ribbons and all of her son’s blue marbles. When she saw the children crying over the loss, it filled her with giddy pleasure.

Before the children came, Doll had even stolen her husband from his first wife. It wasn’t her fault—the spirit of a dead whore had taken root in Doll’s body on the very day she was born.

Doll’s mother, Coraline, was six months pregnant with her second child when Doll, who was five at the time, looked up from the bowl of shelled peas and asked, Mama, how was I when I was a baby?

Coraline was slicing carrots for stew. She stopped, raised the back of her hand to her sweaty forehead, and swiped at a damp braid of hair. The question unearthed a memory and a smile.

You come into this world screaming holy murder, and didn’t stop until you were a month old. Like to drive me outta my mind. It was your daddy—God rest his soul—who stopped me from throwing you down the well. Coraline laughed and swiped at the braid a second time.

Doll raised her hand and stroked the taut skin beneath her chin. "Maybe you the one shoulda gone down the well," she said.

The knife slipped from Coraline’s hand and clattered to the table and her mouth dropped open in surprise.

The statement was horrible—yes—but the voice behind the statement was terrifying. Esther Gold, Esther the whore—dead and buried for half a decade, and now come back in her daughter, in her Doll? Coraline blinked with disbelief.

Esther the whore had been a fixture in Tulsa, and could be spotted, day in and day out, wrapped around light poles, beckoning men with a wiggle of her finger, hissing like a snake: Pssst, come here, I got something that’ll make it all better.

She had been a beauty once, bright-skinned and thick-legged, with a curtain of hair that stretched all the way down to her waist.

Esther.

Too pretty for any woman to want as a friend. So beautiful, men didn’t think about loving her; they only fantasized about melting away between her creamy thighs.

Poor Esther.

The men she welcomed into her heart and into her bed should have worshipped the ground she walked on—and they did for a while—but eventually her beauty felt like a hot spotlight and their confidence faded away beneath the luminous beam. They questioned her loyalty and themselves.

Why she want me?

The answers always fell short of what they needed, which was a scaffold of assuredness sturdy enough to bear their egos. Esther replied, I love you, ain’t that enough?

They said it was, but it wasn’t and they didn’t know why. So the men beat her for loving them.

They beat the goodness and the sweetness out of her. They beat her into the streets, into back alleys, down into the dirt, into the gutter, onto her knees, her back, and then they climbed on top and emptied their miseries inside her.

Esther.

The voice was unmistakable, but Coraline had to be sure, so she said, What you say, gal? And Doll repeated herself in the same whiskey-and-cigarette scarred voice.

Coraline rounded the table, caught Doll by the collar of her dress, and dragged her out the house and down the road to the old woman called Sadie, who had herbs and potions that would deal with a tramp soul like Esther.

Uh-hmmm, Sadie grunted as she used her thumb and forefinger to stretch Doll’s eyelids open. After peering in the right eye and then the left, Sadie rocked back on her heels and nodded with confidence.

Yeah, she in there all right. Sadie shook her head pitifully. "Sorry for this, but it make sense now, all that hollering she done when

Reviews for Gathering of Waters

[theeccentriclady · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I was looking for a book for my book club next month. This was not it. While I do not feel the last 3 evenings have been a waste I just did not enjoy this book like I thought I was going to since so many people gave it 4 to 5 stars and great praise. I really had a hard time figuring out the connection to all the different characters and what really was the purpose of the story. I like ghost stories but that never really came to fruition. The tie in to the murder of Emmett Till was very loose. If the point was the intersecting of white people and black people and the issues that exist well I didn't feel like I was supposed to choose a side except for the stupid and unnecessary killing of Emmett. This gave me the most emotion during the whole book. Maybe it was bad timing since I just finished 2 books that I really loved.

[queencersei · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Set in Mississippi during the early 20th Century, Gathering of Waters is a fantastical story of several generations of a family of black women who live in the small town of Money. Told from the point of view of the town itself, the family and indeed the town itself is haunted by the vengeful ghost Esther, who was a prostitute.

Gathering of Waters is highly unique, totally riveting and a very fast, very engaging read. Personally I found it a bit jarring how the author worked in the death of Emmett and Till and even Hurricane Katrina into the story. As Emmett Till and the Katrina are not fictional, but fact and are such famous and tragic moments in American history, it just felt somehow unsettling to have them featured in this story, in the way that they were. That Emmett Till was somehow a victim of this enraged ghost and that Katrina was a manifestation of it. To me it just felt wrong and I can't help but feel that for me it would have been a better story had the author used a fictional character and natural disaster in place of these real ones.

[peggygillman · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I finished it but I didn’t like it. She spent too much time on the families in the beginning and they were only to get to the Emmitt Till story. I liked the narrator being the town. I also liked the writing but not so much the story or that she brought in magic at the end. 3/6/12

[sdunford_6 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have very mixed feelings about this book.

I loved McFadden's use of language, I loved the intricate plots and subplots, and the way she developed her characters. Her use of the city of Money, Mississippi as a narrator was brilliant.

That was why I was so disappointed in her last page. After pages of this beautiful, magical prose, the last 2 paragraphs felt like I'd been hit over the head. The book ended like one of Aesop's fables, with the narrator telling us exactly what we were suppose to glean from the pages, and so just as suddenly the magic disappeared. The character development no longer mattered because ..... well, you read it and figure it out

[whitreidtan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sometimes a book that you are reluctant to read turns out to be a real surprise. Always reading the same type of book gives you a happy sense of familiarity but it doesn't stretch your reading assumptions in any way. Bernice McFadden's Gathering of Waters is definitely a different book than my usual reads and it pushed me in ways that things that are immediately appealing to me don't always do.

Narrated by the town of Money, Mississippi, the town where Emmett Till was murdered, this novel purports to tell the stories of people and place that led up to that terrible, nation changing event and the stories of those left broken in the wake of the tragedy. Opening with an explanation of the concept of animism, the idea that everything in this world is inhabited by souls, some benevolent and others malevolent, which move on to other bodies, animate and inanimate, when their shells die or are destroyed, the novel draws a straight line through characters, material things, and events predicated on this belief. Then introducing the family around whose lives the narrative swirls, the town recedes into the generational story of the Hilson family and starts its march to the tragedy of Emmett Till's short life and on far past it to the arrival of Hurricane Katrina.

This is a quick and compelling read that swirls with questions of inborn goodness and evil and of fate threaded through with a history of racial tension and civil rights. Although the cover blurb focuses on the murder of Emmett Till, the novel is much more expansive than just this single event which, in fact, doesn't occur until quite late in the novel. The narration of the town of Money didn't totally work, not least because allowing Money to continue the tale in Chicago thanks to the potted flower that Tass takes with her was a stretch, although the continued narration of Tass' life up north was certainly necessary to the plot. But over all, this not easily categorized novel was gripping and rich.

[joycebl · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I found the book "Gathering of Waters" to be engaging and evocative. The story is narrated by the town of Money Mississippi, which allows the view point to be from several places at once. The town relates it's history from the beginning of the 1900s to the winds and waters of Katrina and covers Emmett Till's murder and other atrocities of the Jim Crow era. I was disturbed that the evil spirit that invaded the towns people was made to be at fault for the murder of Emmett, preferring that the blame be rested squarely on the men who committed the murder and the society that allowed it. This is the first book that I read by McFaddden and i will look for more.

[amberalicia · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I stayed up until 4:00 a.m. this morning reading this look. I was tired but I couldn't set it down. I am almost ashamed to admit that I had not heard of Bernice McFadden before reading this. I have an intense love for Black women's literature. I am overjoyed that I have finally found her and that she has an impressive body of work out there for me to dig into! I was skeptical about the book at first because I am a history geek and feel weird about history being used in fiction but McFadden brought a beautiful magic to Emmett Till's story. I do feel that her story went way too easy on Bryant and Milam, and by extension those whites who participated in terrorism against Black communities under Jim Crow. It just lets them off easy to explain their bloodlust with magical realism. The fact is that it was ordinary human beings who tortured and murdered their fellow human beings. We can't let them off the hook. I am also really conflicted about Esther and the use of her spirit as the cause of so much sorrow. It feels a little victim blaming.
I'm not otherwise opposed to the use of magic or history here. It's a great story. I'd also like to mention that Akashic has produced a physically beautiful book here, especially for a paperback. Really nice.

[janeajones · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

McFadden's novel takes it title from "many gathering of waters," the translation for the Choctaw word Mississippi. The tale of Gathering of Waters is narrated by the town of Money, Mississippi, most noted for the slaying of Emmett Till in 1955. While Emmett is at the center of the novel, the novel sweeps through the entire 20th century with the history of the Hilson family who settled in Money after the race riots in Tulsa in 1921.

While I loved the first two-thirds of this novel leading up to the climactic death of Emmett Till, the last third seemed to dwindle away in a somewhat cliched denouement.

[xrayedgrl · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I truly enjoyed this book. The story as told by the town it was written about, a voice not oft heard, is told in mystical, delicate, detail. The characters evolve and breathe life into this novel. I love McFadden's style of writing that is both blunt and poetic at times.

[carmelitasita29 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a wonderfully wrought story which delved into the world of a family line in the prescient town of Money, Mississippi. There is something magical that moves through the entire length of the narrative, and I appreciated the mix of the fantastical and worldly. I read this book quite quickly - its size is deceptive and the story moves along at a quick pace. In fact, that was the main thing I disliked - I wished more time and attention had been taken with the characters. It seemed that just as we got to know them a little bit, they were gone. People's motives were spelled out because they were in and out of the story so quickly and if we had lingered on them longer, their actions would have seemed somehow more natural.

[lizamichelle1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This novel was outstanding. I like that “Money” was a fly on the wall of 3 generations of a family, following the troubled spirit of Ester. This story has very strong heroines. Doll, who had Ester’s spirit within her, was very troubled. It was as if she was the only character that Ester’s spirit entered who had small bouts of her true self show through. They were far and few between which made it quite easy to dislike her and how she treated her daughter, Hemmingway.

With a mother like Doll, Hemmingway had no choice but to grow up quick, which made her seem like a cold individual. Hemmingway managed to become a mother due to “immaculate conception” (according to the town folk). She had a daughter named Tess who fell in love with Emmitt Till.

By this time, Ester’s spirit had been living though a white man who had died in a flood as a young child but was brought back to life by Ester’s sinister spirit. Ester’s spirit turned that boy/man into a blood thirsty murderer who was only happy when killing human beings (or did her spirit just make his nature worse?).

Two years after Emmitt’s murder, Tess agreed to marry, moved to Detroit and had 12 children. All the while, Emmitt’s spirit followed, unbeknown to her. When she was 62, she headed back to Mississippi to finally sell her mothers home, where she eventually died in her sleep and was reconnected with her first love, Emmitt Till. This was in the Summer of 2005, just as Katrina rolled in….

I read this book over the weekend and could not put it down until it was done. GREAT story telling from a GREAT story teller. Highly recommended.

[clerdly · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a very fast read and very enjoyable. I read it, at work, over the course of several hours. I found myself interested in nearly all of the characters and wondered how the author would tie them all together. Before I knew it all loose ends were firmly knotted and the book was over. One of my favorites so far this year!

[joyfiction_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Wonderfully worded and crafted. The story has a very well put together flow about it. It was an enjoyable enough book that I could recommend it to people- if any of the people I know express interest in this type of story.

[ellenh_28 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Gathering of Waters is a mystical, eerie, captivating fictional story of Emmett Till, his famous murder in 1955, and the characters of Money, Mississippi, told by the soul of Money. The story flows wonderfully, I was captivated without stumble until the final few chapters, when Tass comes back to Money and things change for her. I wasn’t sure at first that I liked it, but it soon fit.
This is an edgy book also in that it brings back so well the hatred, but also the beauty, from that time in our history. Bernice McFadden writes masterfully, reminding me of Toni Morrison’s writing. I received this through Librarything.com giveaways, and I loved this book! This would make a great book club read

[cammykitty · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Ick. Beautifully written, and I wanted to love it. Perhaps I would've liked it better if the lynching of Emmett Till had been replaced by a made-up lynching. Once she got to the hard historic facts, the writing style seemed to make a shift. It wasn't well woven with the rest of the book. Furthermore, I disagree completely with the premise of the book. Stop reading now if you think you are going to read it. MAJOR SPOILER ALERT: The book seems to be trying to say something about female sexuality and male violence, and to me is a form of denial or shifting the blame from where it belongs to some primordial force. IMHO, the blame for Emmett Till's death belongs to three specific individuals and a town/time with police-condoned racism, not some angry spirit that flows through the world looking for sex, power and blood. I can deal with ghosts. I liked the Animism. However, when you shift the blame of Emmett Till's murder to the spirit of some dead whore, I'm not buying it.

[sallyapollon · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Lyrically told, a haunting, mystical tale. This book sucked me in and didn't let go until it spit me out at the end. I didn't know until after I read it that Emmet Till was a real person, but whether or not I knew this, the tragedy of it has an authenticy that was sadly borne out over & over in the Jim Crow era. The prose frequently made me gasp and tear up, it told a succession of stories of with such poignant beauty and sadness. It was really gripping and I could barely put it down, read it in two days; in between taking care of the kids and working! A really interesting perspective, to have the story told from this point of view, it freed the narrative to be incredibly creative. I would certainly seek out another book, or two by this author. If it was reminiscent of anything that would be "Beloved" by Toni Morrison.

[woodsathome · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Gathering of Waters is a beautifully written, utterly engrossing novel about spirituality.

Don't let the "back of the book" description about a love story between Emmett Till and Tass Hilson fool you. Neither character even makes an appearance until well over the half-way mark. This is a story about the endurance of the soul (human and otherwise) and the capacity for good and evil.

No this is not Emmitt's story. It is the story of Esther the Whore and the incredible amount of physical and emotional damage she leaves in her capricious wake.

I absolutely loved it.

One note of caution, however for the easily offended - this book can be shockingly lewd at times.

[jjm2004 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Gathering of Waters was a very easy and enjoyable read. The book was set in the south and the characters were well developed. The story is told from the voice of the town (Money, Mississippi) which I thought was a very clever narrative device. Having the town as the narrator allowed the relationships of the townspeople to be presented over most of the 20th century in a non-biased way.

[hellonicole_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Bernice McFadden is a wonderful story teller. Bright, vivid characters and writing that really flows. However, parts of the story felt almost hurried, trying to get to the bigger storyline.

[snora_11 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Gathering of Water is ostensibly about the 1955 murder of Emmett Till. In reality, the book recounts the racial relationships in the deep South throughout the 20th century. The story is told through the voice of the town, Money, Mississippi. The town's spirit and the spirit of other inhabitants flow through the book, giving it a light fantasy quality. Although a serious subject, Bernice L. McFadden infuses the story with humor and warmth. The many richly drawn characters will haunt me for a long time.

[bale_5 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Gathering of Waters begins with provocative insights into the human spirit: “…your body does not have a soul; your soul has a body, and souls never, ever die”; and, the Native and African American’s concept of animism: “… the idea that souls inhabit all objects, living things, and even phenomena “, they fly from one home to the next, as each is destroyed or dies. The author, Bernice McFadden, then informs the reader as to the definition of, the Mississippi River: the translation comes from the Chippewa meaning "great river" or "gathering in of all the waters". From there McFadden creates the evil spirit of Esther, connecting “her” to the horrific murder of Emmett Till, and finally, Hurricane Katrina.

McFadden begins with a strong narrative, combining her spiritual premise within her character development. However, with the introduction of each new character and time period, her story-line begins to feel choppy and episodic. The reader waits for that moment when all elements will be pulled together, but it never happens. The novel ends abruptly with a brief synopsis devoted to Emmett Till and a few lines to Hurricane Katrina. That promised moment, when all comes together does not occur. The reader is left unfulfilled.

There is little doubt Bernice McFadden is a well-tuned writer. She writes with sympathy and emotion and defines her characters adroitly. She researches her work and builds an interesting plot. This novel has great potential (a novel in progress?); it simply does not feel complete.

[actress133 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Overall, I loved the story of this book. The characters leaped off the page, and the situations were realistic and touching. I could have done without some of the saltier language, and this probably was really the only true downfall of the book. Liked the historical backbone of the novel and the long ranging storytelling. Best part: the town as the narrator. Worst part: descriptions of stuff I'd rather not read about.

[faceinbook · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book took a long time coming. Was a Jan. ARC choice, received on April 4th. Had never read anything by Bernice L. McFadden so I had no idea that the book was going to be so worth the wait.
This is a hard book to review, as much ado is made about believablity in what we read. This is a story that took me back to my youth, a time when stories were believable enough to "almost" seem real, yet fantastic enough to let the mind go all kinds of places that "real" doesn't often allow for.
The main events are, for the most part, true. They cover a dark disturbing era of American history or perhaps one should say, a time we would like to see as "historical" rather than current. There is a timelessness about this novel that is disturbing and sadly very current. Because we seem to allow history to repeat itself, no matter the consequences, to my way of thinking, this is an important novel. A book that should be read, mulled over in one's mind and then discussed.
Ms McFadden infuses her writing with the mystical, a bit of the fantastic and a touch of surrealism that was so a part of those long ago stories which were responsible for "hooking" me into my reading habit in the first place. I loved it ! I loved how one's mind was led by the author to a place where things can be what we dream them to be. Make no mistake, this is an adult novel and the topics covered are often dark but Bernice L. McFadden doesn't depress, she informs us, gives just enough dark to make an impact and then infuses her readers with hope and beautiful images in the form of a well written story. Images that make one think, feel and hope, just as we did as children listening to the tales of old, that maybe, just maybe, the fairy tale could come true. That eventually good will triumph over bad.
Finished this book in one day. After reading the last page and closing the cover, I had to sit a while, take it in, rethink the beauty of some of the passages. Was awestruck actually. I read a lot of books and this one qualifies to go on the list as "one of the best". Will be reading more novels by this author. Will also do a fair amount of jabbering about it as well. The word will be out.
Thank you Ms McFadden for the beautiful story ! Nice to be "rehooked" at this stage of my life.

[shaunil-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

"Gathering of Waters" is the first book I have read this year, and my first Member Giveaway as well. I am disappointed to say the least. Disappointed to say that I fear nothing else will compare to this sensational book!!

From the very first page to the very last, I was only sad when I had to occasionally put this one down. There is not a reader out there who will not relate to some character within the tale of Money, Mississippi. From the charming Hemmingway to the outrageously cocky Cole, I was hooked! Miss McFadden has captured my attention with her incredible dialogue, amazing character development and expert storytelling. Love, betrayal, passion, action.... This one has absolutely everything I could ask for.

I would be more than happy to suggest this title to absolutely any and everyone who reads this review! If you have a chance to snag this one, do not do yourself the injustice of passing on it! I thank you, Miss McFadden, for sharing this wonderful book with me!