THE BOOK OF CHUCK, by LaToya Watkins
In every generation, those who speak uncomfortable truths are often maligned and ostracized. That stigma is on full display in LaToya Watkins’s lyrical new novel, “The Book of Chuck,” where a clairvoyant child, then her son years later, are abandoned for their ability to see a person’s death before it occurs.
It’s 1936. Little Nannie is barely a year old when she babbles a premonition foretelling her father’s demise. It turns out to be an accurate vision — shortly thereafter, her father is lynched. The events spook Nannie’s mother so much that she flees, leaving Nannie to be raised by others. She fears Nannie is “something not of her world; something wicked and unkind.”
But Nannie is not the first in her family to experience a chilling vision, and she will not be the last. After her, there’s her son, Walter, nicknamed Chuck, who has otherworldly talents. Then Chuck eventually has a child of his own, Baby, who also has these gifts.
Despite its supernatural framing, “The Book of Chuck” is no horror story, unless the horror is the withholding of love. Mostly, this is a slow burn of a tale about family and legacy that casts a wide emotional net, exploring how denials, secrets and repeated rejection can distort a person’s identity and development in life.
The book goes back and forth in time, from 1930s Jim Crow Texas to the 2000s, following multiple generations of an African American family grappling with the burdens and effects of their abilities while also confronting personal, economic and race-related challenges. Watkins, whose story collection, “Holler, Child,” was longlisted for the National Book Award, makes the novel shine with her ear for language and eye for memorable imagery.
One big question the novel asks is: If you see the world for what it is, can you change it, or do you change yourself? Chuck hides from his abilities, even as they wreak havoc in his life. Baby, however, does not deny her powers — she merely conceals her abilities from others, secretly hoping to use them to alter the events she foresees.
Overall, “The Book of Chuck” feels like a poetic allegory for both generational trauma and generational healing. This is most evident in Chuck’s story line. Shortly after giving birth to him, Nannie abandons Chuck, leaving him in the care of distant relatives. Those guardians also reject him. The only compassionate parental figure Chuck has ever known is Daddy, the former husband of one of his caretakers. Daddy, unlike everyone else, treats Chuck as someone who deserves love, kindness and forgiveness.
“You a good boy,” Daddy tells Chuck after Chuck returns home from a stint in prison. “Always been a good boy. We all lose our way in the muck sometimes.” It is a life-changing declaration, made quietly over a plate of fried catfish and sweet potatoes. “It made me want to do whatever I needed to do to prove myself worthy of what he’d always given so freely,” Chuck recalls.
Throughout the story, characters display a desperate need for a sense of belonging, sometimes to their great detriment. Chuck, for instance, turns out to be a tenderhearted husband and father himself, but grave missteps in his marriage to Lettie have lifelong consequences.
Ultimately, we spend much of the novel watching these characters learn to live with their visions without negating themselves. The narrative calls to mind a core idea of Toni Morrison’s “Beloved,” in which the author uses supernatural elements to explore a fundamentally human challenge: We may yearn for the acceptance of others while neglecting to spare enough respect for ourselves.
The story of Chuck’s troubled family suggests there is room for that self-regard to blossom.
THE BOOK OF CHUCK | By LaToya Watkins | Tiny Reparations Books | 306 pp. | $30
The post Their Family Curse: They Can See When People Are Going to Die appeared first on New York Times.
