Michael Burke's Reviews > Sky Full of Elephants

The premise of “Sky Full of Elephants” is intriguing. All white people in America walk into the nearest body of water and drown. Charlie Brunton, unjustly imprisoned in a racially motivated conviction, is contacted by his daughter Sidney– whom he has never met. She is mixed-race, although she rigorously identifies as white, and wants Charlie to transport her from Wisconsin to Alabama where she believes she has white relatives surviving.

The highlight of this novel is the road trip. The father and daughter’s struggle to understand one another is complicated by Charlie’s secret reason for his incarceration and the distance he has kept from Sidney. Along the way we also see how the vanishing of white control is affecting different aspects of the country.

Everything changes once they enter Mobile, in the Kingdom of Alabama. The atmosphere is festive, a huge weight has been lifted off the people. Now the Charlie - Sydney plot virtually disappears, as they have other priorities. Sydney also does an unreasonably sudden 360, magically embracing her black identity after a lifetime of stubborn denial.

The reason for the white erasure? Without revealing too much, it involves the profound historical suffering inflicted by white America. While it is understandable that this has lifted a huge burden off the remaining world, the abrupt transformation into an idyllic world is a stretch.

While far from perfect, “Sky Full of Elephants” makes for a stimulating read. It explores identity– not only how the individual sees herself, but how a whole race has been manipulated by the enduring repercussions of slavery.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #SkyFullOfElephants #SimonShuster