Band Of Angels
by Robert Penn Warren
Nomination: National Book Finalist 1956
Date Read: March 6, 2022
Band Of Angels follows the life of Manty Starr, considered a slave because her mother was a slave. The only thing is she can pass as white and had done so up until her father’s untimely death. She didn’t know the full truth until she went back south for his funeral and the sheriff showed up to arrest her for back debt her father owed. She was utterly gobsmacked, not having a clue.
A complete mind-shift occurs now understanding herself to be “owned.” Although she was against slavery previously, she now had a front-row seat as to how it actually felt to be sold on the auction block and having no say about her future or whereabouts. Being as white skinned as she was, however, she never experienced the truly brutal truths of slavery as others did. Nevertheless, being sold to Hamish Bond, a slave-owner with a kinder heart than most owners, was still a humiliating and degrading experience.
Over time and a failed escape plan, Manty learned to love (of sorts) Hamish and served as a companion for a diminished older man. After the Civil War broke out, he eventually gave Manty her freedom and some money to set up her own household, as much as could be achieved during wartime.
She meets and marries Tobias, an officer on the Union side and for a brief time, they are happy. She believes a ghost from her past, Seth, has told Tobias of her secret and so she agrees to marry him believing he accepts all of her, including the black part of her. Of course, he knows no such thing but is made aware many years later by Manty herself.
Tobias falls wounded. He cheats on her. Multiple times. He is self-involved but so is she and they make a life together, for better or worse. Although the subject matter is difficult, over the course of this novel Manty’s character begins to grate on me. I acknowledge she’s had a difficult life and many a conundrum to work through but holy hell. I feel like she gives up on people at the drop of a hat.
She has some bad actors in her life, make no mistake. Thank goodness she didn’t actually marry Seth. And Miss Idell is no peach. Neither, in the end, is Hamish. Or Rau-Ru. But I think Warren writing as a female isn’t his strong-suit. He made this character flighty and dithery when she could have been emboldened by her experiences and wiser as a result. In the end, she does realize that the only absolution from her past can come from within herself but what a windy road to get there.
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