Issues of racial identity, family dynamics between a slave holder and his Black children, and ownership of land for Blacks and Whites of varying class sizes all get tackled in a way that parses through the messiness, but remains true to real life. Taylor allows her readers to see Paul Edward’s parent’s relationship in the confines of the Reconstruction Era along with how it affects their White and Black children. Where a less assured writer may have skirted the origins of Paul Edward’s mixed heritage and feelings of discomfort at not being fully White, Black, or Native, Taylor leans into these emotions. This was my second reading of this book since high school, and I got mad all over again for Paul Edward. Taylor does an excellent job of showing depth in Paul Edward and the surrounding characters’ development as the story progresses. The recently emancipated son of a well-off White land owner, Paul Edward is learning the rules of what it means to be a multiracial man in this new Southern world where both, Whites and Blacks, are coming to terms with Slavery ending. Paul Edward is a man of mixed Native, African-American, and White heritage. Taylor’s prequel of the Logan Family Saga, “ The Land,” she follows the patriarch of the family, Paul Edward Logan, during the 1870’s to 1880’s in the American South.
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