Finished Confessions of Nat Turner

This is an excellent read. As I mentioned before, this William Styron novel won the 1967 Pulitzer Prize. Right after that, it became very controversial. Styron, after all, was a white Southerner, writing a novel from the point of view of a black slave. Black critics were especially bothered by the character Nat Turner's feelings toward a young white woman and the less-than-hagiographic portrait of a man sometimes thought of as a folk hero. But the white woman plays such a central role in the plot, I can't see leaving her out. All these details are fictional, of course, because very little is actually known about Turner's personal life.

The portrayal of Turner as a prophet who receives visions from God . . . well, you know how that fits into my current interest in religious history.

Styron is also an amazing writer. I don't want to go on at too-great a length. I'm tired. But this is one to read.