Good Dirt

Finally: a really good book! Just published this week (January 28, 2025). Have you noticed all my lukewarm or very cold reviews lately? This book is different.

Charmaine Wilkerson’s Good Dirt has likable characters, a good plot, and very beautiful writing. It’s full of fascinating historical detail, set in the context of one family’s experience. The central character in the novel is Ebby, a young woman who struggles because of a devastating trauma she experienced at the age of ten: witnessing the murder of her older brother. Most of the action takes place when she is around thirty years old. Recently, she has also suffered a humiliation when her fiancé abandoned her on the day of her wedding. 

Ebby’s parents are highly successful and wealthy descendants of Black and Native Americans who settled in New England during the nineteenth century. The author makes it very clear that the history of all races in the US is American history: not separate, but part of a whole. This theme of the book is both powerful and meaningful, and I enjoyed discovering the author’s viewpoint, which is integral to the novel and very much part of its appeal to me. Her choice of characters and events allows her to present many ideas without being in the least preachy — an impressive accomplishment.

A major character from the historic era in the novel is named Moses; he is a skilled potter who was enslaved in the South where he produced large storage jars of great usefulness and beauty. One of these jars remained in Ebby’s family until the tragedy: her brother’s murderers also toppled and destroyed the jar itself. As part of her efforts to forge a meaningful life after trauma, Ebby records the family stories about the maker of the jar and the family’s experiences in Africa, in the Old South, and in New England.

One good thing about this novel is that it doesn’t try to make everyone happy and satisfied at the end in a fake way, as sometimes happens in novels about bad things that happen to good people. The ending is realistic, acceptably provides a resolution to the story, but not forced. 

Inspiration for the Historic Era in this Novel

From the author’s afterward: “While writing the story of Moses, I visited an exhibit of nineteenth-century stoneware that originated at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and traveled to other cities. The show, Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina, included key pieces by the real-life potter Dave (called David Drake following the end of his enslavement).”

Two Storage Jars, University of Michigan Museum of Art in 2023

As I read the novel, I was constantly thinking about the exhibit titled “Hear Me Now,” which was presented at our local museum last year. Remembering the exhibit contributed to my enjoyment of the novel, which brought a fictional version of the enslaved potters to life, including their search for “Good Dirt” with which to form their useful and beautiful creations. Here are two of the items that impressed me.

Text of the label for the depicted jar:

____________(Potter once known)

Likely enslaved at Phoenix Stone Ware Factory (about 1840)

Alkaline-glazed stoneware with iron and kaolin slip High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Purchase in honor of Audrey Shilt, President of the Members Guild, 1996-1997, with funds from the Decorative Arts Acquisition Endowment and Decorative Arts Acquisition Trust

Stamp: PHOENIX / FACTORY / ED:SC

This object stands apart for its striking decoration. A Black man and woman in fancy dress make a toast. Below, a nursing hog faces off against a two-handled pot evocative of this watercooler. Little is known about the object, and the significance of the imagery is not clear. Some interpret it as a wedding scene, while others read the pot as a presentation piece, intended to showcase the skill of the potters at the short-lived Phoenix Factory

A storage jar by the potter David Drake, probably like the one in the novel.