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zoes_human's review
3.0
A wonderful collection of African American folktales as well as related African tales including essays and notations by leaders in the fields of history and folklore. Also included amazing high quality images, photographs, and historical illustrations. The annotations and essays can be challenging for amateurs such as myself but were nevertheless informative and provided greater insight into the history of both the included stories and American culture.
chelsaat's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
This is a huge endeavor of a collection. It spans from the legends of African origin, like Anansi, to slave plantation tales, to those co-opted by white America, like the Uncle Remus stories (to which I admit I had a blind spot and had never heard of before.) The context surrounding each tale was incredibly helpful, as was the history of how different tales have been perceived over time.
I love tricksters always, so Brer Rabbit has my heart.
I love tricksters always, so Brer Rabbit has my heart.
doriastories's review
5.0
Stupendous and far-reaching, detailed and and multi-teaching, there is so much pleasure and learning on offer in this enormous treasure house! It’s a true coffee table tome, filled with extraordinarily poignant archival photographs, transcribed scholarly talks, reproductions of illustrations and children’s periodicals, transliterated oral narratives.... the array and variety of source types is dizzying.
Aside from the Herculean scholarly endeavor this represents, the power and poignancy of the content is what shines through. The stories are powerful, truthful, harsh at times, rooted in the lived experience of African Americans of all ages, genders and class. Far from being blended into a mishmash, the individual voices are reverently presented in their authentic settings, as closely as possible. This is revealed the complexity and diversity of African American experiences throughout the last few centuries.
There is so much that can and should be said about this wonderful book, but for now I will merely say, read it if you can. It is over 600 pages, and I savored each one, but even if you merely dip into it here and there, you will come away the richer for it.
Aside from the Herculean scholarly endeavor this represents, the power and poignancy of the content is what shines through. The stories are powerful, truthful, harsh at times, rooted in the lived experience of African Americans of all ages, genders and class. Far from being blended into a mishmash, the individual voices are reverently presented in their authentic settings, as closely as possible. This is revealed the complexity and diversity of African American experiences throughout the last few centuries.
There is so much that can and should be said about this wonderful book, but for now I will merely say, read it if you can. It is over 600 pages, and I savored each one, but even if you merely dip into it here and there, you will come away the richer for it.
kikiandarrowsfishshelf's review
5.0
To say that this is another excellent entry into Tatar’s stunning Annotated Fairy Tale series would be true and an understatement.
To say that it is at the high standard you would except from two academics of their standing would also be true and an understatement.
The collection includes stories from African because of their influence on African-American folktales, it tackles the complex, complicated, and damaging legacy of the Uncle Remus stories with detail and care, includes ballads (such as John Henry) there is material from Hurston’s collections as well as a discussion of her collection methods, variants from Caribbean countries and two photo collections.
And of course, it will add books to your tbr pile, or if you are like me, the tbr mountain range.
It would be fair to say that there are perhaps less annotations in this one in the other volume, though the introductions to each section make up for this. Yet the supplement material, including introductions and commentary on the various sources as well a chapter dedicated to quotes from writers about the influence of folklore upon them (including Jacqueline Woodson!).
The one thing I wish there had been was more of a discussion about the Brer stories. There is a version of the three pigs that appears in the Joel Chandler Harris collection (problematic I know) but it is quite clear in the story that the wolf is the slave owner (and the wolf dies). So are there instances in the stories where the symbolism of characters change, and if so how and so on. But to be fair, perhaps this book is not the place to examine such a question.
I did also wish they had been more Aunty Nancy stories, especially if she is a version of Asani.
Those quibbles aside, there is so much to unpack and learn in this collection. From the importance of such ballads as Frankie and Johnny to the Preacher tales to the purpose of a Tar Baby story.
I highly recommend buying the book in hardcover.
To say that it is at the high standard you would except from two academics of their standing would also be true and an understatement.
The collection includes stories from African because of their influence on African-American folktales, it tackles the complex, complicated, and damaging legacy of the Uncle Remus stories with detail and care, includes ballads (such as John Henry) there is material from Hurston’s collections as well as a discussion of her collection methods, variants from Caribbean countries and two photo collections.
And of course, it will add books to your tbr pile, or if you are like me, the tbr mountain range.
It would be fair to say that there are perhaps less annotations in this one in the other volume, though the introductions to each section make up for this. Yet the supplement material, including introductions and commentary on the various sources as well a chapter dedicated to quotes from writers about the influence of folklore upon them (including Jacqueline Woodson!).
The one thing I wish there had been was more of a discussion about the Brer stories. There is a version of the three pigs that appears in the Joel Chandler Harris collection (problematic I know) but it is quite clear in the story that the wolf is the slave owner (and the wolf dies). So are there instances in the stories where the symbolism of characters change, and if so how and so on. But to be fair, perhaps this book is not the place to examine such a question.
I did also wish they had been more Aunty Nancy stories, especially if she is a version of Asani.
Those quibbles aside, there is so much to unpack and learn in this collection. From the importance of such ballads as Frankie and Johnny to the Preacher tales to the purpose of a Tar Baby story.
I highly recommend buying the book in hardcover.
archaicgambit's review
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
slow-paced
5.0
I would love to own this book! So informative, the way they grouped different sections of African American myth, the influences and discussed the different folklorists was so interesting! I also appreciated the footnotes for cultural understanding and how they included historic versions of AAVE.
I originally got this book from the library to learn more about Anansi but learned so much more!
I originally got this book from the library to learn more about Anansi but learned so much more!
thistle_and_verse's review
4.0
Liked the selection of stories and there was a lot of informative history given. I felt like the annotations' helpfulness was hit or miss. I read this book all the way through and felt like the organization could have been tweaked a little, but it probably isn't intended to be read like that.
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