The Night Travellers

In a style reminiscent of Toni Morrison, this novel tells the life of Mary Kerr Harbison, a young dancer from North Carolina. She is a sensitive girl child who knows that her mother would rather be in her laboratory, testing products and chemicals for the US government on animals than being a loving presence at home. When her father dies of an apparent heart attack, Mary Kerr centers on her dancing to deal with being the only child of an abusive mother.

Mary Kerr meets Jeff(erson) Blaise, another child of the segregated South, and he becomes her life-long love. He is already on the outskirts of society due to calling out the hypocrisy of the Establishment with word and deed, including possibly being responsible for blowing up the show more laboratory where Mary Kerr's mother works and costing Kate her career.

Jeff's actions in the burgeoning movement against the Vietnam War force the young couple to flee to Canada, as so many young people did then. Mary Kerr gives birth to their daughter, and then Jeff continues his anti-war work in the US, leaving Mary Kerr alone. She makes friends, money and letters are sporadic, and she works as she can.

The story is told pretty chronologically at the beginning of Mary Kerr's life by Mary and Kate, her mother. Once she and Jeff are in Canada, however, the observational way of recounting events supersedes the narrative: multiple POV recount different aspects of the same event. I find this storytelling not one that I like and seek out as I've come to learn over the years. The star rating is a reflection of this book's over-reliance on observation and imagery, rather than creating a storyline with images to bolster it. show less