"...Cormac too looked back at Ireland, and the crossing of the ocean sea, the first years in New York and the years of the Revolution, and thought of them as part of his youth, that strange youth prolonged by a gift from African gods. That youth filled with miracles and magic. But a youth that was, he thought, only sporadically real."
This novel is appropriately titled for a couple of reasons. Protagonist Cormac O'Connor immigrates from Ireland via a slave ship to the colony of New York in 1740. He is in search of an enemy responsible for the deaths of his parents. By his kindness to a slave called Kongo, who happened to be a babalawo (what I understood as a shaman), he receives the gift of eternal life so long as he stays in Manhatten; essentially he can live forever. As a printer's apprentice, a painter, and a journalist he becomes involved in a slave revolt, the American Revolution, the corruption of Tammany Hall, and so on, until he finally is eyewitness to the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
Historical fiction is my favorite genre and I liked this book at the start. However, at 608 pages it seemed as if it would take me forever to finish it. It became rather tedious half way through; I found myself wanting just to get to the end! I will rate this one a 3. I think New Yorkers would like it much more than folks like me who were raised in the South.
