Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois

Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

45 reviews

kierajane's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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celesteleila's review

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emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This book is the best book I ever read. This story was one that I wish I had had all my life. As a woman descended from the South, this book song to me, angered me, and drew tears from a faraway place in my soul. Jeffers is the kind of writer that knows how to paint a visual with her words and engross the reader with story. Love Songs soared through time effortlessly, sharing stories long lost waiting to be uncovered by the curious. This book, this story, this family …. timeless. Read it prepared to think, grieve and listen.

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cheryl1213's review

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challenging emotional informative sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Among the best I read in 2021 (fixed my own memory glitch there...feels more recent) . Thankful to the publisher for the ARC. The fact that I feel capable of writing thus overdue review says a lot. (I justify my bibliohoard in part bc the nuances of my memory results in books often feeling brand new when I revisit them.) Definitely plan to reread this

It it quite accurately described as a "saga" ... and not just because of the length. It's immersive but not as overwhelming as the page count might suggest. A main protagonist (a strange phrase but one fit for a lot of novels published in the early decades of the 21st century) links the reader to other women in her family. We get to know several sub-protagonists and experience both the beauty and the pain that is shared alongside maternal DNA. The women aren't perfect, but the author is talented enough that we're drawn in and care.

There's a lot here. It's ambitious enough to be fairly characterized as a story of America. It's also specific enough to be about the experience of being a Black American Woman in the context of a family and history. Themes include race, gender, and inherited trauma. We encounter abuse (sexual and other; child and adult victims; family perpetrators and others), racism (overt and quieter); drug abuse; depression; and more. A lot of books try to cover all or some of this ground. This feels much more successful than most. The fact that the novel still feels unique and real ... that the events seem natural, rather than forced in to check off a box ... is a feat in itself.

If you are concerned about trigger warnings, it's probably there.

Two notable and random bits that stand out in my memory: 1) Characters coming of age and finding themselves in an economic ditch from which selling illegal drugs seems like the only potential way out (and the temptations the temporary career move creates). 2) A lighter yet deeply rich scene in which a minor character (watched by one of our protagonists) visits a Black-owned homestyle restaurant and attempts to order a diet-conscious salad (it may not be fair, but i see it as an upper-middle class, suburban meal) but finds greens aren't quite what she envisions.

......

Post-review note: Someone on a review site says "If you are a white reader, THIS BOOK IS NOT WRITTEN FOR YOU!!! If it comes into your hands, know that you are on sacred ground and act accordingly. Read it with humility and with wonder." I'd like to think the book is "for" anyone who chooses to read it. I certainly felt it had much to offer me (a white woman who has spent much of her 45 years in middle to upper-middle class homes, mostly eastcoast subruban, some geographically southern but not deep South, cultural Jew but very much a hidden minority who absolutely has not experienced life in Black skin). That said, I'll own my privilege. And hope wonderment shows I have little doubt that the experience of this book will be very different for different readers. It would be a wonderful book to discuss with a group of diverse, respectful, honest readers (yes, I'll recognize the difficulty of finding such a group and the many pitfalls (including otherness traps and recognizing each reader as speaking only for themself))

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roasjeno's review

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challenging emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

Beautiful. Lyrical. Truly a masterpiece. Jeffers paints each character with such fine detail to convey these were and are real people; she challenges us to feel empathy for people we have been told are the past. I personally love intergenerational family sagas, and especially appreciated how these tales were woven into our main character’s research, as if we were following along with the author Jeffers as she researched for this novel. I’d say that this book is comparable in its scope and (potential) influence to One Hundred Years of Solitude by Márquez.

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