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Reviews
Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist's Memoir of the Jim Crow South by Winfred Rembert, Erin I. Kelly
dinasamimi's review against another edition
5.0
What a memoir! What a life! This is a masterfully told slice of history -- Rembert was a talent, as an artist and storyteller and activist. Bryan Stevenson provides a moving foreword and Rembert sprinkles in a couple beautiful vignettes from his wife Patsy's s perspective, which added a lot of dimension.
emilyb_chicago's review against another edition
4.0
A haunting, fascinating world that is more magical realism than high fantasy. The joy is discovering the story as it unfolds around you. Read it for the discovery!
For those who wondered (like I did before reading): while the title has meaning, the story does not require any knowledge of Greek/Roman history or mythology.
For those who wondered (like I did before reading): while the title has meaning, the story does not require any knowledge of Greek/Roman history or mythology.
rainbowbookworm's review
4.0
This memoir reads as hyperbole, it gave me Forrest Gump vibes, but there is no denying Rembert is a talented storyteller both with his words and in his art.
vtlism's review
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Incredible. It took me about 50% through to really get into it. It's so beautifully reflective, and I love the passages from his admirably fiery wife.
cssfarley's review
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.5
This was such an insightful memoir and the author captured many details about so many different aspects of the artist’s life. It’s easy to think that we are so far from this time, but he voiced his story in such a way that forces the reader to acknowledge both how far we have come and how far we have left to go.
An uncomfortable, but important and valuable read.
An uncomfortable, but important and valuable read.
unladylike's review
5.0
The events in this man's life are absolutely incredible, but I believe him. Fighting a sheriff off while locked in a jail cell and making off with his gun?! Surviving a lynching?! Selling heroine for years to provide for his family and somehow not being seduced into drug addiction?! There are so many times you would expect Winfred Rembert to have been killed in this memoir, and yet he lived just long enough to get his life stories written down for the rest of us - he completed the interviews for this book in March 2020 and then died in March of 2021 at the age of 75. Just 75 years and he experienced this much hate and violence from mobs of white people, prison wardens, judges, and potential employers! This is all so recent! He was about 25 years younger than my own grandparents but born into a culture out to dehumanize and kill him. And then late in life starts churning out incredible works of art on leather canvasses using skills he learned in prison and figured out himself. But it is clear by the end of this memoir that gaining fame, praise, and wealth did not remove the suffering, the physical and emotional scars that would keep him from sleeping well.
Read this phenomenal memoir ASAP! I listened to it read by my favorite audiobook narrator - Dion Graham, who performed several wonderful James Baldwin novels - and then studied a physical copy of the book for all the paintings that you will miss out on otherwise. I definitely recommend that method, and it only took ~7 hours.
Read this phenomenal memoir ASAP! I listened to it read by my favorite audiobook narrator - Dion Graham, who performed several wonderful James Baldwin novels - and then studied a physical copy of the book for all the paintings that you will miss out on otherwise. I definitely recommend that method, and it only took ~7 hours.
claytell's review
3.0
It has been a little while since I read a book with this type of content. I enjoyed it.