Phillip B. Williams

OK, January 25, and I've found my first Best Book of 2024: Phillip B. Williams' Ours. No matter what else comes out this year, Ours is not getting knocked off my list.

This is a long book that makes demands of its readers. But the effort one puts in reading Ours is repaid over and over by all the book has to give. Some reviews don't like the length, but I take the author at his word when he explains that part of the book's length reflected a commitment to portraying many characters with care and thoroughness, unlike books that clearly have "A List" and "B List" characters (my way of putting it). Yes, some characters get more "page time" than others, but if I had to list the characters essential to this book, I couldn't get that list below 10, and would rather leave it at 15, maybe more.

To offer a very short description of the book's content, I'll just explain that Ours begins before the Civil War and ends after it. Saint, a woman gifted in particular kinds of conjuring, travels the south, "listening" for those who want to be freed. When she finds them, she uses her powers to kill the "so-called masters" (Williams' term) and leads the now-free to a town west of St. Louis that she's founded and has protected with boundary markers that prevent outsiders from entering. (I single Saint out because she sets the novel's events in motion, not because she stands above the book's other characters.)

That town is named Ours. Some of the town's residents have powers of their own. Some don't. And none of them completely control the powers they do have. Time and memory lengthen and contract repeatedly. Loving relationships bloom in a wealth of forms, across genders and across life experiences. And failures to love, intended to protect, complicate the interactions of characters.

One of the reviews of this novel notes that because of its complexity, Ours makes an excellent candidate for a group read. The richness and depth of its offerings deserve attention and discussion beyond the individual. I had an electronic review copy of Ours (my thanks to the publisher and NetGalley) and because I read it pre-publication, I didn't read it as part of a group, but I want to reread it in that context once it's released.

Through serendipity, I read Ours at the same time that I read Walking with Our Ancestors: Contemplation and Activism by Barbara A. Holmes, which is both kin to and very different from Ours. At just 68 pages, it's roughly 1/9th Ours' length. Walking with Our Ancestors examines events and individuals from the Civil Rights Movement through the the lens of contemplative practice, which the author doesn't see as being unique to Christianity. If you're at all inclined to think about questions of spiritual practice and its furtherance of real-world change, I urge you to do the same. The pairing resonates in wonderful ways.

Even if you don't want to commit to a group read or a two-book pairing, read Ours. Have faith that Williams will have you turning things over in heart and mind long after you finish the book.… (more)