I really enjoyed the intertwining of the history and literature. Grandin retells the story of a slave revolt that was later retold in a work of "fiction" by Herman Melville. And the result is a mix of beautiful and revolting. There are some oddities about this book and it does wander all over the place, from a history of slavery to sealing to Charles Darwin. But it all comes together as part of the story, the backdrop, for this particular story.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning about slavery, especially the slave trade that occurred in South America. The other parts, especially the weaving in of Melville's literature and philosophy, is a treat and compliments what would otherwise be a straightforward historical novel.

This was definitely one of my favorite books of the year. ( )

Herman Melville wrote a novel about the historical incident at the center of this book—enslaved Africans took over a slave ship and then, nearly out of resources, forced the captain to pretend that all was well and seek aid from an American ship that came near, captained by Amasa Delano (yes, that family). But the scheme was revealed and the mutineers killed or reenslaved. The book is about South American slavery, the links between the Americas, and the resource extraction that encompassed slavery but also included the massively wasteful sealing operations that Delano’s ship was trying to profit from. It couldn’t because the seals had quickly been depopulated; Delano also failed to get what he thought was a just reward for helping the enslavers retake the other ship. It’s a story of intersecting lifeworlds and brutalities. ( )

Of course, its not really an untold history. Its been told at least twice before - once by one of the participants, Amasa Delano, and a fictionalised version by Herman Melville, in his book Benito Cerreno, the name of another of the participants.

But admittedly, its not a story that is well known. For slaves held on a slave transport to rise up was not especially remarkable; Grandin refers to almost 500 such cases. But what was unusual was for the slaves to take control of the ship, but construct a facade such that Cerreno still appeared to be the master, such that a visiting Captain, Delano was fooled.

And Grandin tells this story well. But of course, there is not a tremendous amount to tell. And so Grandin fills it out not only with the back stories of Delano, Cerreno and such of the slaves that are recorded and, as might be expected, general context of the slave trade, but also goes down many interesting rabbit holes, such as the sealing trade (brutal and devastating to seal populations, and must have obviously been so), the reasons for the distaste for Muslim slaves (but they took them anyway), how marine insurance worked, and much else.

Mostly this is interesting and works. Sometimes it feels like the padding it undoubtedly is. Grandin has, after all, managed to turn a chapter of Delano's autobiography into an entire book. None the less, the reader will come away with a much better understanding of slavery, the slave trade, and the appalling privations that slaves faced on long journeys to the other side of the world. Recommended ( )

Though well-written, this is not an easy read: Grandin's narrative has breathtaking scope, changes focus so often, and weaves in so much that at times one must really slow down or even backtrack to make sense of it all. But the payoff for patient reading is great. By virtue of my profession, I had a pretty decent prior knowledge of many (by no means all) subjects explored here, but Grandin arranges his material into new combinations that have transformed and challenged my understanding. Also, Grandin writes about Melville with a feeling for literature and a critical insight not (from my experience) always to be expected when historians write about literature.

There are weaknesses. The narrative, perhaps inevitably given its scope, is often disjointed, and again although the scope of the narrative excuses this to some extent, I think a more unified and coherent narrative was possible. And I rarely found Grandin's efforts to interpret the Tryal rebels's motivations and actions in terms of elements of Islamic belief and culture more than speculative. ( )

This will be a short review as I am currently deployed and the internet connection here is tenuous at best. This was a highly entertaining and informative volume; Grandin does an excellent job of covering most of the selected topics in an appropriate depth and in an accessible manner. Grandin weaves together many different threads in a manner that is relatively easy to follow and provides a narrative-esque flow to many parts of the book. I would recommend this book to others. ( )