Often, when people are writing on their deathbed, they are usually old and are speaking on the decades of life that they’ve experienced. It’s not usual that the deathbed is actually the jail cell two days before an expected execution. It’s also not usual for so much life to have in a decade or two. The book that does this is The Life and Times of Persimmon Wilson by Nancy Peacock, following the writings of Persimmon as he waits to hang for murdering his former master and bedding the woman whom the world thought to be white.
Peacock did such a wonderful job reimaging a world that is about a century and a half past. The characters were realistic and were gripping, especially as we follow Percy’s retelling of his life story to the love of his life, Chloe. While sections of this book were hard to read, it was real. The things discussed really did happen, and Peacock does not sugarcoat a single thing. I read an early edition of the book, from which I do not remember getting it, so things may have changed, but I hope not too much did, other than some grammatical errors. Take care when reading this deeply emotional text; there are many discussions about how brutal humanity can truly get.
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