My editor, Iris Tupholme, was a steadfast seeker of excellence and, also, a paragon of patience. I would need to write another book to furnish adequate thanks and appreciation for her guidance. Copyeditor Shaun Oakey distinguished the peccadilloes from the peculiarities. My agent, Denise Bukowski, insisted, for four years, that I write—and finish—this novel! David Odhiambo eyed faults with forensic insight. Leilah Nadir’s insistent enthusiasm for this story was uplifting. John Fraser was, as usual, irrefutably right about my wrongs. I also thank Noelle Zitzer for her positivist guidance. Kudos to Katie Hearn for her dextrous network management.
Austin Clarke, Alistair MacLeod, and Howard Norman, three great writers, granted me the charity of a hearing and the blessing of their endorsement. I thank them heartily—and with humility.
I accept total guilt for all errors and faults herein—as well as for my usage of Blackened English. These capital crimes are my own.
Thanks to the Rockefeller Foundation, the Banff Centre for the Arts, and the University of Toronto (especially Massey College) for financial—and time and space—aid.
I thank Geeta, my wife, for tolerating the time I put into this book. My art—despite its limitations—would not exist at all without Geeta’s generous and instructive love.
Photo Credits: Public Archives of New Brunswick: overgrown shed (p. 3); car in flood (p. 113); and Mi’kmaq men with baskets (p. 153). Courtesy of George Elliott Clarke: Venetian grave (p. 211). National Archives of Canada: George Hamilton and Rufus Hamilton (p. 217).
George & Rue was written in Halifax, Nova Scotia; Ottawa, Ontario; Durham, North Carolina; Bellagio, Italy; Banff, Alberta; Toronto, Ontario; Venice, Italy; Vancouver, British Columbia; and Paris, France; 1994–2004.
Praise for GEORGE & RUE
“Rough, uncompromising and ultimately heartbreaking.”
—The Times (UK)
“This historical novel has the brevity and immediacy of a folk ballad…. This vibrant, haunting tale of crime and punishment shares Mishima’s sense of doom and Faulkner’s cry for compassion.”
—The Daily Gleaner (Fredericton)
“Beautifully told. [George & Rue] meets one of literature’s highest demands: the novel disturbs, challenges and confronts the reader…. It is true, poetic and rendered partly in a sort of blackened English that gives a sense of the cadence of the language of Nova Scotian blacks around the middle of the 20th century. It is hauntingly brutal.”
—Maclean’s
“This formidably crafted recreation of a desperate episode should win widespread acclaim.”
—The Independent (UK)
“The power of Clarke’s writing … ensures that the reader follows George and Rufus all the way to their bitter end.”
—Winnipeg Free Press
“A beautiful example of what poets can bring to the novel form…. The book coasts on beautiful language, arresting flights of description, and the type of wordplay that would never make it into an Alice Munro story. In Clarke’s hands all this vibrant language is so well arranged and necessary it completes the story.”
—Quill & Quire (starred review)
“Like Alex Haley in Roots, George Elliott Clarke has mined his family tree for the poignant story of George and Rue. His heart does not waver in its quest for the courage to shed light on a grievous crime. George & Rue is an extraordinary and poignant first novel. We weep with Clarke while rejoicing in his triumph.”
—Nikki Giovanni, author of Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea
“A lyrical, original debut novel…. [Clarke] spins his tale in ‘Blackened English.’ The result is sparkling, powerfully inventive prose.”
—Publishers Weekly
DISCLAIMER
Though based on several actual persons and one actual crime, this novel employs facts not found in mere trial transcripts—the scratchy songs, the mouthed bits from blues. George and Rufus Hamilton always lived outside boundaries (including knowledge, including history, including archives). They are “encompassed” here only by unrestrained imagination. That is the only truth in this novel, whose English ain’t broken, but “blackened.”
Copyright
George & Rue
© 2005 by George Elliott Clarke.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © DECEMBER 2010 ISBN: 978-1-443-40656-7
P.S. Section © George Elliott Clarke 2005
Published by Harper Perennial, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
First hardcover edition: 2005
This Harper Perennial trade paperback edition: 2006
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
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M4W IA8
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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Clarke, George Elliott, 1960-
George & Rue : a novel/George Elliott Clarke.—1st trade pbk. ed.
ISBN-13: 978-0-00-648569-8
ISBN-10: 0-00-648569-3
1. Black Canadians-Nova Scotia-Fiction. I. Title. II. Title: George & Rue.
PS8555.L3748G46 2006 C813'.54 C2005-905503-0
RRD 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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