The Last Runaway. Tracy Chevalier. Penguin Group (USA). January
2013. 320 pp. hbk. ISBN #: 9780525952992.
Honor Bright is an English Quaker who has emigrated from
England with her sister, Grace, who hopes to marry a former resident of her
hometown. Grace, however, dies on the voyage to America and Honor arrives full
of grief and confusion. Honor also had a
boyfriend in England who dropped her for another young woman, a fact that
devastated Honor so much she felt she had to leave the place where she would
always be labeled as the gal who was “jilted” by her one and only great love. So the goal is for Honor to live with Grace’s
fiancé and his recently widowed sister-in-law, all of whom Honor doesn’t know
and whose reception she wonders about frequently.
Honor is so physically spent from sea-sickness on the
horrific trip (in her mind anyway) that she stays for a few days in the town with
a milliner, Belle Mills before continuing a few more hours to her destination,
Faithwell. Belle is a gritty,
no-nonsense kind of gal who insists Honor do some sewing of pieces for hats as
she is a very talented sewer and quilter.
Belle, however, is sensitive enough to perceive Honor’s fragile status
in a land that brooks no weakness because it is so fragile itself in its
pre-Civil War confused state in 1850.
Slaves are running north and it is irony of irony that Bell is helping
to shelter the runaway slaves traveling the famous or infamous, depending on
one’s point of view, Underground Railroad.
Honor finally realizes it as well which poses another problem since
Quakers never, ever lie! What to do when
Belle’s brother, Donovan, a slave catcher and abrasively teasing young man,
questions her about what she’s recently seen?
And how is she to respond to the attention of Jack
Haymaker, who volunteers to marry her after her brief respite in the Quaker
town of Faithwell fails miserably? The
conflict which is quite ever-present intensifies when Honor bucks the Quaker
mentality of disapproving slavery but refusing to take any part in the runaway
slaves’ precarious position on every step of their formidable journey. Realistic decisions and a true examination of
the faith where she has always found comfort leads to some surprising, very
satisfying results!
This is quite a different topic from Tracy Chevalier’s
normal forays into European history in her fiction, but it is finely written and
in many ways surpasses her previous historical novels. She “gets it right” for every point of view
on the issue of slavery that was gradually tearing apart a nation, as well as
her portrayal of a single Quaker woman who evolves from a tragic, weak woman to
a principled protagonist unafraid to act out her beliefs and more the admirable
because of that growth.
The Last Runaway is superb, poignant historical fiction. Tracy Chevalier has again shown her mastery
of character development and a plot that grows intriguing with every turned
page, a future best-seller for sure!
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