The Deep
Yetu holds the memories for her people — water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slave owners — who live idyllic lives in the deep. Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly, is forgotten by everyone, save one — the historian. This demanding role has been bestowed on Yetu.
Yetu remembers for everyone, and the memories, painful and wonderful, traumatic and terrible and miraculous, are destroying her. And so, she flees to the surface, escaping the memories, the expectations, and the responsibilities — and discovers a world her people left behind long ago.
Yetu will learn more than she ever expected to about her own past — and about the future of her people. If they are all to survive, they’ll need to reclaim the memories, reclaim their identity — and own who they really are.
Author: Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, Jonathan Snipes | Publisher: Saga Press
Goodreads | IndieBound (buy local!) | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Rating: 3.75/ 5
“One can only go for so long without asking ‘who am I?’, ‘where do I come from?’, ‘what does all this mean?’, ‘what is being?’, ‘what came before me and what might come after?’. Without answers there is only a hole. A hole where a history should be that takes the shape of an endless longing. We are cavities.”
The Deep is an impressive novella, with a fascinating and heartbreaking storyline and musical, emotional language. It’s a quick read that’s going to stay with me for quite a while.
This story is about generational trauma, memory, and the importance of collective history. Yetu is the designated historian among her people, who are mermaid-like predators of the deep ocean. She holds the memories of her people’s history on their behalf, experiencing them as if they were her own. This allows her people to live happily and painlessly in the moment. Once a year, she gives those memories back for a few days so they can remember who they are and where they come from. The answer to that, by the way, is they came from the bellies of pregnant slaves thrown overboard.
But it’s all too much for Yetu this year, who feels herself being slowly eroded by the presence of her people’s collective memory. She runs away, to the surface of the water, and meets land dwellers who will both change her and bring her back to herself.
I really liked this story, and I really liked Yetu’s character. The reason I’ve dropped my rating is that I felt this could have been a very strong short story rather than a somewhat repetitive, stretched-out novella. I found myself grasping whatever the author was trying to say, but then being told it again several more times before the plot moved forward.
Still, it’s the lesson behind the story that matters most here. The pain, and hope, and trauma, and culture, and heart. I would still recommend making room for it on your to-read list; it’s worth it.