Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen

Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen by Sarah Bird tells the compelling story of a black woman who was taken from slavery by the Union Army and put to work as a cook’s assistant working for General Phillip Sheridan. She was enthralled by the idea that there were black troops fighting for the Union and as she had been brought up on tales of the warrior blood that ran through her veins, wanted to join the army. It wasn’t until the war was over and the army was looking for volunteers to fight the Indians out west that she disguised herself and joined as a private.

The book describes her life, how she was able to keep her sex hidden and how she fell in love with her Sergeant. Although he only looked at her as a man, she eventually revealed show more herself too him, but their being together had to be put on hold until they had served their time in the army. The book also showed how the black population, although called “free” were anything but that. The story was based on the true story of Cathy Williams, the only black woman to serve with the Buffalo Soldiers.

I was totally caught up by this powerful story. Cathy was a remarkable woman who had been born into bondage but grabbed at her chance for freedom and respect. The story covers some monumental years of American history and the author brings this as well as Cathy’s personal fight to vivid and realistic life. show less

This is astonishingly good. So good it makes me want to give up writing now because I will never write a novel this good. The protagonist/narrator is unforgettable, based on a real woman named Cathy Williams who was born into slavery, became General Philip Sheridan's cook during the Civil War, then enlisted in the Buffalo Soldiers - as a man named William Cathay. At the beginning, Cathy's voice seemed a touch too modern to me, but she quickly grew on me, and I was riveted all the way to the end. Bird pulls it off with panache, and Cathy's remarkable life justifies Bird's choices. Truly great historical fiction can take familiar settings and make them seem brand new, which is exactly what happens here as we see slavery, the Civil War, show more and the American West through Cathy's eyes. Highly, highly recommended, especially in audiobook format, not only for Bahni Turpin's always-stellar narration but for the half-hour interview with the author at the end. The forty-year saga of how Bird came to write this book is as amazing as the novel itself. show less

4.5 🌟
I loved this book, even with its obvious problems. Problems? Yes, a white woman writing about a black female Buffalo soldier, and leaving the ending without knowing Wager's and Cathy's fate. Much of it took place in Texas, close to the Rio grande Valley, that is, West Texas, was reminiscent to me of where I grew up, in New Mexico, and the reminder of the Flora and fauna of the area is sweet to me.

Cathy Williams was a captive on a tobacco farm in Missouri when general Phil Sheridan took the blacks used as slaves on the farm as contraband. He singled out Cathy to make her his cook's helper. On the way to his camp, riding in a wagon packed with sweet potato and flour confiscated from the plantations burned down, she discovers a show more dying, wounded soldier lying among the canvas sacks. She nurses him as the wagon rolls along, and though he is near dead by the time they reach camp, they have fallen in love with each other. Though seeing him thrown into a lime-lined grave with other dead soldiers, she asks for his name: Wager Swain.

The story of her disguising herself as a man and enlisting in the U.S.Cavalry as a Buffalo soldier to ride to the west and protect settlements from Indians, is engrossing and well-written. I cringed over and over at the way whites treated the black soldiers who were serving the country that had betrayed them. I wanted The Indians and Blacks to band together to stand up to the whites, who were so wrong. show less

Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen is an historical novel loosely based on the true story of Cathay Williams, a freed slave who disguised herself as a man and servedwith the Buffalo Soldiers of the US Army. The fictionalized Cathy's story begins when Philip Sheridan's Union Army liberates the plantation where she was enslaved, and mistaking her for a man, assigns her as an assistant for the cook. The real Sheridan was a problematic figure, but the rapport and eventual friendship between Cathy and Sheridan in this novel is one of its most charming aspects.

After the war, Cathy decides there isn't much opportunity for her as a freed person, and disguises herself as a man under the pseudonym William Cathay. In the novel, she gets herself show more into the cavalry and is known as a sharpshooter. Nevertheless, she faces the challenge of keeping her real identity secret amid bullying from the other soldiers and the fear of the danger she faced if discovered.

The earlier parts of the novel seem stronger to me as a plot in which Cathy has romantic feelings towards her sergeant dominate the latter half of the book. I suppose it's a natural plotline, but it seems the most obvious trope of stories in which someone disguises themselves as the opposite gender going back at least to Shakespeare. On the other hand, if you are drawn to romance, it provides a nice balance to the grim realities of war, toxic masculinity, and racial prejudice depicted in the novel.

My enjoyment of this novel was greatly improved by the terrific voices that Bahni Turpin provides in her narration. show less

Title: Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen
Author: Sarah Bird
Publisher: St Martin's Press
Reviewed By: Arlena Dean
Rating: Five
Review:
"Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen" by Sarah Bird

My Thoughts.....

Even though "Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen was a good read I did find it wasn't a easy read where it was 'Human, emotional, touching and so very raw.' I will say that after reading this novel I did look up Cathy Williams/Williams Cathay and only found a little about her. Yes, she is a real person! "Her grandmother was a queen in Africa, but she was kidnapped and ended up in slavery in the southern U.S. Her daughter and granddaughter (Cathy) were born into slavery." Cathy was definitely a very interesting courageous strong black woman. Well, show more getting into the story we find that this strong black young lady Cathy Williams was torn from her family and taken by Union soldiers to help the cook General Phillip Sheridan's army where Black Americans faced 'many things not only racism but sexism. Later she joins up with the US Army as a male 'Buffalo Soldiers [the infantry]disguised as a male for several years changing her name to William Cathay. Cathy had done this after seeing how they were treated. In the end will Cathy find her family? I found this part of the read quite 'heartbreaking story to the very end.' I do understand that this was a historical fiction read where if you look this William Cathy up you will find that a lots of the details have been altered somewhat here in this story. This author gives the reader a fascinating and riveting historical read that you will find it hard to put down and that ending!

You will have to pick up this novel "Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen" to see how well this author delivers this storyline to the reader where you will vision these adventures, conflict, danger, heart wrenching, friendship, history details, romance, with some humor, twist and turns and some well developed memorable characters. In the end the reader will get one good read. show less

HISTORICAL FICTION
Sarah Bird
Daughter of a Daughter of a QueenSt. Martin’s Press
Hardcover, 978-1-2501-9316-2 (also available as an e-book and an audiobook), 416 pgs., $27.99
September 4, 2018

“Girls want marvelous adventures just as much as boys do.” —L. Frank Baum, author of The Wizard of Oz

“Here’s the first thing you should know about Miss Cathy Williams,” Sarah Bird writes. “I am the daughter of the daughter of a queen and my mama never let me forget it.”

Williams was born a captive prisoner of war — never a slave — on a Missouri tobacco farm. Her mother raised an intelligent, resilient, fierce warrior-woman, nurturing Williams with tales of an African grandmother who was a warrior-wife of the Leopard King.

In the show more waning days of the Civil War, Williams is plucked from the farm by Maj. Gen. Philip Henry Sheridan to be a helper for his cook. Traveling with and feeding the Army of the Potomac’s Cavalry Corps engenders a sense of purpose in Williams, and she sees joining the Buffalo Corps at the end of the Civil War as the only option for a life of independence and honor. Although the trials and tribulations of hiding her gender are many, myriad, and dangerous, Williams is lifted and transported by “that feeling of being part of something fine and strong and a whole lot bigger and more important than [she].”

Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen is new fiction from Austin’s Sarah Bird. She is the author of ten previous bestselling, critically acclaimed, and award-winning books: nine novels and one book of autobiographical essays titled A Love Letter to Texas Women. Bird has written for NY Times Sunday Magazine, Chicago Tribune, Salon, Texas Observer, and Texas Monthly, among other outlets.

She was also a screenwriter for ten years, working for Paramount, CBS, Warner Bros, National Geographic, ABC, TNT, and independent producers. In 2015 she was selected for the Meryl Streep/Oprah Winfrey Screenwriters’ Lab. In addition, Bird has the splendid distinction of having been disinvited to speak to the Texas Lege.

Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen, described as a “tribute in fiction,” is a creative and immersive imagining of the life of Cathy Williams, the first woman to enlist in the peacetime U.S. Army, and the only woman to serve, from 1866 to 1868, with the Buffalo Soldiers. Written in first-person narration, Williams is determined to set the record of her life straight after a reporter insinuates that her claim of having served with the Buffalo Soldiers was quite the fib.

The pace is quick and steady, with plot twists aplenty packed into cleverly constructed architecture. The amount of research required for an epic of rich historical detail is daunting and Bird has performed rigorously. A multifaceted talent, she had me variously chuckling, gasping aloud, rubbing the chill bumps on my arms, and holding my breath.

Bird’s characters come alive on the page, especially Williams, who has a sharp eye for the absurd and a righteous sense of injustice, and is unafraid to call a thing by its name. Referencing her little sister who, Williams tells us, “if she had a scrap of cloth and a walnut, would turn it into a baby doll and glue moss to if for hair. Me? I’d blow my nose on the scrap of cloth, crack the walnut open and eat it.”

Williams’ mother told her she was “meant for better than to be a brood sow for some short-weight plowboy.” Bird obliges, imagining a singular voice, life, and love for a historical figure about which little is known. I fervently hope most of it could be true.

Originally published in Lone Star Literary Life. show less

Progress update: I was absolutely loving this book...until characters went completely out of character in order to drive the inevitable romance forward with eye-rolling tropes. Now no one seems to care whether Cathy's caught out. Sigh. I should finish in a day or two. Full review to come then.

~~~

Full Review:

Well, I guess I probably set myself up for disappointment with this one. I just wanted so badly to love it, but in the end it fell into a bunch of corny romance-y tropes that just lost me--though I want to emphasize that said tropes are totally valid and may well be what others absolutely love, so if this sounds like a book you want to read, please don't let me deter you! It's definitely worth it, and I'm still glad I read it.

The show more writing style was absolutely beautiful, a perfect balance of dialect with the intelligence and wisdom that came from Cathy's upbringing with a remarkable family and an educated father from the North. I appreciated that Cathy never learned to read and write for herself--so often that's treated as a turning point for a character, and as a reader I do understand that, but literacy is also an immense privilege that not everyone can have, and it's important to see that illiteracy and a lack of formal education in no way takes from the worth and strength of remarkable people.

The historicity of people and events seems impeccable, though I don't know enough details about this time period (a big part of my attraction to the book) to know for sure. It seems a bit convenient that Cathy/Cathay's troop never had to actually hunt down and slaughter Native Americans, but at least there was still some discussion about the conflicting feelings some soldiers may have felt about their mission.

The book was suspenseful and agonizing in a way that many woman-disguised-as-a-man books are not. It seems that most of those books gloss over the realities of just how dangerous it was to be a woman in the past and the potentially brutal consequences if the character is caught. That agony of always being on the edge of discovery was palpable, and I was glad that my commuting time for reading gave me some breaks.

There was so much to love in the first two thirds of this book...but unfortunately it's time to get back to my disappointment. I can pinpoint the exact moment where everything went off the rails for my personal brand of enjoyment: page 282.

I'd resigned myself early to the fact that we *had* to have a love interest, because of *course* no woman is complete without a perfect man in her life. Cathy's quick bond with a dying soldier in the early pages of the book was believeable enough to me, someone who has made fast--if temporary--friends in unfamiliar new situations. I'd also kind of accepted that it might be possible for Cathy to have a major crush in spite of her constant anxiety about being found out, and to a few stupid actions in the name of love. I thought that Cathy's early, failed encounters with the love interest were realistic responses and well done, so I had hope for a more realistic ending.

Instead, oh boy. I'm going to get really specific with the spoilers here, so stop reading now if you have any interest in this book.


Starting with page 282 the romance tropes and stupid actions started piling on thick:
>> deathly-cold-and-only-body-heat-will-save-them
>> love-makes-her-beautiful
>> insta-love
>> randy-as-rabbits
>> sex-solves-(almost)-everything
>> bury-your-gays (I slightly forgave this one when my prediction that the love interest would die also came trueish)
>> romantic-partners-can't-have-platonic-friends
>> she's-suddenly-so-gullible
>> life's-not-worth-living-without-him

Everyone seemed out of character after this point. After years of saying that being thought gay was almost as bad as being caught a woman, suddenly Cathay doesn't much care who sees her sneaking off for a roll in the hay with another soldier. The level-headed, practical love interest is off his head careless. The black villain seemed like an idiot for basically knowing Cathay's secret but never outright saying it or demanding blackmail. The white villain was ludicrously, suicidally stupid (though given some of the stupid things people have done out west, I couldn't find this totally unbelievable). The third corner of the obligatory love triangle is suddenly happy for Cathay instead of jealous and sad (okay, I honestly thought that was refreshing!).

Everything became more predictable, too. Sure, I'd guessed some of the key romantic plot points--hard to avoid it when you've read as much as I have and when every. single. book. about a strong woman in history *has* to have a love interests--but suddenly I was plodding through every "twist" as inevitably as the Buffalo Soldiers plodded through the desert.

Then the ending felt rushed compared to so much else. After being highly, rightly suspicious of white men, Cathy just takes it without question that her love interest is dead. There was even that soppy line about learning each other's bodies completely, which turned out not to be true when it mattered most. There was no explanation for why Cathy chose not to go south into Mexico or west to San Francisco, either of which seemed more likely than going north into the States that had so failed every single black person. Again, I guessed the very last twist, and consequently the final chapter felt more trite than anything else, like a very clumsy attempt at an Atonement-type ending.

I realize this all sounds harsh. My only excuse, if it exists, is that I felt so let down by the final third after loving the first third so much, that the disappointment makes me more critical. Well, that and I tend to criticize the media that I either love or hate. Since I'm definitely not on the hate spectrum here, I think it's because I wish that last third had done the rest of the book justice.


Ah well. Let me say again that this book was well worth the read, no matter how annoyed I was during the last third of the book. I learned so much about the "contraband" slaves in the Civil War, the Buffalo Soldiers, and--of course--Cathy Williams. It was a privilege to read about her, even if it was fiction, and I'm glad I did so. I just wish her fictional self could have had less silly romance washing out the tough, never-quit attitude her character had for most of the book.

Quotes & Comments

I didn't take many quotes because I was enjoying the writing and snark so much that I knew I'd never stop once I started. Please read through page 281 1/2!

p. 207: Not a spoiler, but I was interested in Sergeant Allbright's theory of why slavery took off. He theorizes that it's because the presence of water meant bigger crops, which meant more laborers were needed. So out west in the desert, there was no need for slaves. It's an interesting idea, and one that probably only applies to the States, since there were plenty of nomadic, desert-dwelling Biblical slave-holding societies. Of course, Egypt does also fit the pattern. Still...makes me think.

p. 214: Okay, so Cathy's trick to show off Cathay's peeing powers has really been bothering me. Wouldn't the coffeepot spout have had ragged metal edges? Yikes! And how the heck would she know where to put the large end? Most women today don't know where the pee comes out, and that's with the benefit of mirrors to check out what's down there!

p. 296: The man-illusion-maintaining trick with Mary the Murderer seemed cruel to me. Mary hadn't done anything to hurt Cathy and she also wasn't white, so I was surprised that there was almost no description of sympathy or guilt for the way Cathy used her. Cathy is normally a very introspective character, so I would have expected some kind of pondering on the nature of redemption, once the immediate fear had passed.

p. 365: Kind of sadly ironic these days that crossing the Rio Grande into Mexico is the ticket to freedom here.

p. 375: Also not a spoiler, and the only quote: "The instant that doing the right thing became a financial advantage, the mob of curs turned righteous..." Yep, ain't that the state of the world. All these corporate diversity campaigns supporting gay rights and hiring athletes of color to represent them only once it presents more of a financial gain than a potential liability. Ugh. Cynical and feels true.

And finally, what is with that useless historical note? If there's hardly anything about Cathy, I want to know everything that we do know!

Anyway, this FINALLY concludes my review. Again, all the reasons this went from awesome to annoying for me may very well be the reasons why others would love this book. The first two third are worth it. Don't let me put you off! show less