Mother Swamp - Jesmyn Ward - ★★★.½

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AUTHOR: Jesmyn Ward
SERIES: A Point in Time, #7
GENRE: Short Story, Historical Fiction
RATING: 3.5 stars.

In a Nutshell: A literary-style short fiction focussing on the extent to which people can go to ensure survival. Good story, okay ending.

Story Synopsis:
Afice is the only one left from nine generations of women who escaped from slavery, and survived in the swamp. Each woman battled animals, sickness and hunger, and ensured the continuity of her line through a special arrangement with another group of male survivors. But now, Afice is all alone. And at seventeen, she has reached the age where she must set out on the path of survival, honouring her forebears and ensuring survival.
The story comes to us in the first person perspective of Afice.


Most of this historical fiction short story is compelling. It depicts the battles fought by a strong woman while escaping from slavery and her decision to continue amid the swamps with her line of daughters. Each generation highlights women power in various ways.

The writing is poetic, evoking myriad feelings ranging from helplessness to hope, from despondency to determination. The way the mothers and daughters followed the dictates of First Mother and the minor rebellions that crept up along the way in the matrilineal society – everything is written in a stark yet vivid manner.

It is tough to believe that this story is just about 24 pages long. Despite the elaborate imagery, the story is quick in pace and powerful in impact. What elevates the experience even more is the detailed author’s note, which highlights the facts behind this fictional work.

I wasn’t in agreement with the characters’ choices many a time, but mine is not to decide if a character was right or wrong. Mine is to see if the author portrayed the situation convincingly, and she did.

The ending, however, left me dissatisfied. While somewhat hopeful and bittersweet, it left me wanting a lot more in terms of information as well as closure. Also, nine generations to be covered within 24 pages (including the author’s note) means that the whole flow feels very hurried and most of the characters are touched upon only at a surface level..

This short story isn’t for those who seek a traditional plot with a clear start-middle-end progression. The structure herein is more of a go-with-the-flow, moving back and forth across the various mothers and daughters, with a dash of magical realism to boot.

Recommended, but to a limited audience.

This is one of the standalone stories in the ‘A Point in Time’ collection, and is available for free to Amazon Prime subscribers.

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