Finding Paradise
Just before the American Civil War, Ellen Schmidt was a spinster daughter from a well-respected plantation in Georgia. Instead of dancing and taking tea, Ellen worked in the gardens or the kitchens, more comfortable amongst the enslaved people than her family. When her father marries her off to an older blacksmith in town, she takes her best friend Sukie, who is also her enslaved maid, and the maid’s enslaved husband, Amos. Tragedy ensues when Sukie dies in childbirth, and shortly thereafter war is declared. As Ellen’s husband works tirelessly for the Confederacy, his health gives out and Ellen becomes a widow in the same house as Amos. A forbidden love affair ensues.
There are some troubling aspects to this narrative, including lack of agency for characters of color, moral epiphanies that don’t ring true, and large swaths of uncompelling exposition. The details of cooking and gardening are lovely and show attention to research details. Yet there is little spark between Miz Ellen and Amos, which dooms this to be a largely forgettable book.
