So vivid a glimpse into the lives of formerly enslaved people that it reads with the beauty and urgency of a spoken word poem ... This is an important novel, peopled with vivid characters literally and figuratively hidden from view.
Deeply absorbing ... A book that embraces mystery and the unknown, whether found in conjuring and rituals or in the vagaries of lifelong relationships ... Ours for all its elements of magic, fantasy and mythology, is a realistic depiction of how we might arrive at utopia: through people who are always trying to become, always finding ways to navigate and survive harsh realities, always reaching for moments of joy and intimacy.
A bold, ambitious, often beguiling piece of work – an epic folk tale of Black American emancipation. But the tale’s prolonged scenic ramble demands stamina and resolve ... This is a book to get lost in – sometimes pleasurably, sometimes not. The tale takes its time and the detours are engrossing, exploring the consequences and complexities of a life of freedom. Williams writes in a rich, unhurried roll, while his prose is so flamboyant that it’s tempting to ignore its occasional woolly imprecisions.
Ours joins a canon of similar works that have appeared in recent years, such as Jesmyn Ward’s recent novel Let Us Descend and Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 2016 The Underground Railroad… By taking such care to document the horrors of slavery alongside the ‘freedom [his characters] deserve’, Williams seems to offer the possibility of a world beyond trauma.”
...a vast and rapturous feat of fabulism ... This is a 19th-century historical epic created with both a vivacious enthusiasm for folkloric traditions and a deep contemplation of what it means to be freed from the violent machine of slavery in the U.S. ... Williams has a voice that soars across each page, breathing life into his dazzling array of characters--the lovers and the malcontents, the queer and the mystical, the brazen and the cautious.
A gorgeously written, evocative saga of Black American survival and transcendence, blending elements of fantasy, mythology, and multigenerational history ... As in the magical realist sagas of Latin America or the grand fictions of Russian literature, time itself becomes a morphing, enigmatic character in Williams’ novel as the town’s insular sense of security is buffeted by the Civil War and its bruising aftermath. The reader is often challenged to keep up with worldly and otherworldly happenings. But what keeps you attentive, and the sweeping narrative anchored, are the rich characterizations and, most of all, the often-startling impact of Williams’ poetically illuminated language. A multilayered, enrapturing chronicle of freedom that interrogates the nature of freedom itself.
