The Binding
by Gianaclis Caldwell
Genre: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense / Alternate History
ISBN: 9780986190728
Print Length: 364 pages
Reviewed by Victoria Lilly
Bleak and tense, hopeful and courageous
In an alternate-history America where the West was never colonized, a border between two vastly different societies runs down the Appalachian Mountains to mark the border between starkly different worlds.
To the East, the Atlantic States of America is a corporate-run dystopia riddled with pollution and poverty. The United West, on the other hand, is a utopian land of egalitarian social values, clean environment, and high-tech.
Ruby Roth is an indentured worker struggling to make ends meet while taking care of her ailing grandmother and a young boy living next door. Ruby has the gift of “binding,” an empathetic link that seems more of a liability than a blessing. Threatened with the prospect of a forced marriage to a police officer, she turns to an underground network that promises to smuggle her to the West.
Kaileh Clearwater Lewis, a border-officer of the United West, is dead-set on guarding the borders of her nation and the culture of her people. That, and to uncover the truth behind her brother Tareq’s death. When her latest assignment forces her to work with the people smuggling desperate runaways from the East, Kaileh must confront her own deep-seated beliefs and prejudices if she is to find her answers and fulfill her warrior’s vows.
The Binding is a deeply felt tale of perseverance and change, culture clash, and the struggle to survive in a world shifting beneath one’s feet. By imagining an America that could have been—or could yet be—Caldwell explores issues of community, inequality, family bonds, and a need for change across all parts of society. When done well, alternate history settings can be a powerful tool for interrogating our own history and present issues. Lucky for us, author Gianaclis Caldwell does it well.
Imagining an uncolonized America, especially from an insider to the indigenous American cultures, is something I was eager to read, and the book deliver on many of my expectations. But the storyline exploring the corporate dystopia of the Eastern Seaboard might be an even stronger element of the novel; images of derelict industrial sites, shantytowns, and polluted waterways of Maryland and Virginia were especially vivid and left a powerful emotional impact.
Although circumstance describing the establishment of an independent United West are reasonably well described, there is not much social or historical development in over 200 years between that point and the present action. Further, certain elements from our own, real history are used (like Calvin Coolidge being an American president in the 1920s) despite historical divergence.
The United West utopian society is imagined in lines with contemporary American progressive notions. This society maintains aspects of our modern urban industrial way of life, such as major cities, solar farms, and high-speed rail. None of these things are an issue in themselves, but with the thriller escape plot taking up much of the novel’s page-count, there is space left for the foundations of this utopian society to be explored in more depth.
The action of the novel is gripping and well-paced once it gets underway, even if that takes a while. Ruby is compelling enough to carry the story, and the host of supporting characters give color and liveliness to the quest and the world as a whole. From the monastic order that sets Ruby on her way, to goat-raising Anabaptists of Virginia, to the mysterious indigenous man known as Brother Q who handles the beginning and the end of Ruby’s journey, The Binding is populated by people you will be eager to follow.
The border officer Kaileh’s story is much more slower-paced by comparison, but her persistent suspicions fueled by nationalism and distrust of foreigners make for some truly intriguing character development. Her story contrasts nicely with the implied culture of inter-cultural tolerance and cooperation in which she lives.
The Binding blends a suspenseful, character-driven plot with bold questions about social justice, cultural values, and familial ties. This is both an engrossing escape thriller and a heartfelt exploration of resilience and compassion under stark oppression. Readers drawn to speculative fiction that interrogates our present through the lens of a reimagined past will find much to admire here. Caldwell’s vision of two Americas divided not just by borders, but by radically different values, lingers long after the final page.
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