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A novel about freed slaves and their children living in Germantown, Pennsylvania, in 1913 is potentially compelling reading. Teenotchy is the timid 19-year-old boy who works as a housecleaner and gardener in the Quaker home where his mother had worked. When Teenotchy was five, he witnessed his mother's rape and murder--a devastating event that has left him incapable of intimacy. When a young aristocratic Englishman, visiting relatives in Germantown, falls in love with Teenotchy, the results are disastrous. There is rich material for a novel in this unusual plot, but stilted writing and awkward phraseology make it difficult for the reader to sympathize with the characters. The most vivid, and painful, scenes are those describing the sexual abuse of Teenotchy's "Aunt Em" (actually his grandmother) at the hands of her white owner when she was young. It's a shame that this strong subject didn't evince a stronger novel.
- Janet Boyarin Blundell, MLS, Brookdale Community Coll., Lincroft, N . J .
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Hunt's portrait of the relationship between an Englishman and a haunted young black man in the racially divided Germantown, Pa., of 1913 is marred by caricatures and a forced ending.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.