It had been a French city then, with the French understanding of who, and what, the free colored actually were: a race of not-quite-acknowledged cousins, neither African nor European, but property holders, artisans, citizens. [loc. 2034]
In 1817, Benjamin January left New Orleans for Paris. In 1833, after the death of his wife, he returns to a city that has changed in his absence -- and not for the better. January is the eponymous 'free man of color': born a slave but freed as a child, he is a dark-skinned Black man, trained as both a surgeon and a musician. In New Orleans, with its complex hierarchy of Blackness (mulatto, quadroon, octoroon) and its institutional plaçage -- a civil, extralegal union between a white man and a mixed-race woman -- January has to readjust to being treated as an inferior. He has to allow a white man to strike him without raising a hand in his own defense. And when a quadroon woman is murdered (with January apparently being the last person to see her alive) he has little chance of justice, unless he finds it for himself.
I think I read a novel in this series a long time ago: I don't remember much about it, and that may be because, like all the best series, there is a strong core cast of characters who become familiar to the reader. Jumping in at the deep end means flailing without context. This time, I started at the beginning (thanks to Lockdown Bookclub) and very much enjoyed this well-written, well-researched novel. Given the times we live in, and the fact that Barbara Hambly is white, I was surprised not to read reviews about cultural appropriation, racism, privilege: but Hambly treats her subject and her characters with respect. She doesn't shy from the more horrific aspects of slavery and racism, but also doesn't dwell exclusively on this side of the story. Bad things happen to good people, true, but good things happen too, and there are moments of beauty and peace even in January's memories of life as a slave.
The murder mystery is suitably twisty, the characters -- especially the marvellous Prussian fencing master, Mayerling -- intriguing, and the descriptions of 19th-century New Orleans (a city I visited just once, years before Katrina) evocative and compelling. I have every intention of reading more in the series.
Oh, and from the Afterword: "All my thanks and humble gratitude go to Octavia Butler for her time and consideration in reading the original of this manuscript and for her invaluable comments."
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