They also have, as Adelaide says, a secret, locked away for years, and that secret is responsible for her parents' gruesome deaths.Īfter the slaying of her parents, Adelaide decides to strike out on her own in Montana, a state she's been fascinated with for years. Her family runs a plum orchard in the area they're one of more than two dozen Black families who moved there to homestead. But there's more to this book than just that - it's an excellent novel that blurs genres and looks at early-20th-century America from a perspective that's been ignored for far too long.Īdelaide is 31 years old when the novel begins, living in California's Lucerne Valley in 1915. It's hard to imagine a darker start to a novel, and Lone Women is indeed infused with creeping dread and chilling horror. She strikes a match, tosses it on the bed, and leaves her old life behind forever. They're both dead, their corpses lying in their bed in the house that Adelaide has just finished dousing with gasoline. The narrator wants you to know that Lilith is an African (not Greek) goddess, a demon, and his beloved-.'You kept too many secrets,' Adelaide Henry says to her parents, early in Victor LaValle's new novel Lone Women. In Jewish (Mesopotamian) tradition, she was Adam's first wife, who got thrown out of Eden because she would not submit to her husband. Lilith is the Babylonian name meaning 'Of the Night.' She was a demon that caused destruction. Lilith, however, is not named for a Greek goddess but one from Africa (Mesopotamia and the Euphrates river). James adds another layer of authenticity to his novel by following this convention.

Slaves were ignorant, powerless beasts in their minds, not the potent, intelligent gods (read: masters) who wreaked havoc in the lives of humanity for their pleasure. The 'masters' entertained themselves with the irony of this cruel joke. If you know slave history, you will remember that during Europe's 'Age of Reason' (16th - 17th Century), slaveowners named/renamed their chattel after gods/demi-gods in Greek mythology. I want to add my thoughts on this question, nevertheless. If you know slave history, you will remember that durin …more Amazing, how late I am to the party.

Marlene Braxton Amazing, how late I am to the party.

The book of night women