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4.36 AVERAGE
4.36 AVERAGE
If you want to hear about history, real history, then read this book! I loved it, and listening to it being read just heightened the experience
challenging
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Pregnancy
It was really hard for me to get into, but it picked up about 1/4 the way through.
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
challenging
emotional
tense
There are some books you got to plow through. This one was a saga in its truest sense spanning generations, illustrating with great detail the lives of one family. The weight of the history it holds makes it an important book. An incredible narrative backed by research spanning 12 years.
I really liked this book. Opened my eyes to what slavery was really like. Now I'm reading Faulkner, and trying to get a sense of what the South was like after Reconstruction. There is some real hate between the North and South during this period, so foreign to me now, but I bet it still exists in pockets down there. How did I never see this growing up in Texas?
I decided to drop everything else this week and read Roots--a book I've wanted to read for years--in preparation for the new miniseries soon to be broadcast on Memorial Day. I hadn't seen the original miniseries with LeVar Burton, so I was coming into the novel fresh. As the high rating on Goodreads testifies, it is an unforgettable experience. Haley is able to impart the emotionally jarring and life-changing moment of being torn from one's family without notice, never to see them again. Those dramatic shifts are the most devastating sections in the novel--specifically, when Kunte Kinte is abducted from his village and when his daughter is sold down river. Characters whose lives we have come to share for hundreds of pages simply disappear, never to be seen again, except in memory. We also experience the power of oral tradition in preserving those memories, as well as personal identity, cultural traditions, and communal history. We see how language, reading, and writing are the keys to knowledge and freedom, and why slaves were prevented from attaining these goals by their fearful masters. Haley devotes ample time to major aspects of slavery, including the agonizing months on the slave ship, the futility of escape, the punishments for breaking the maters' rules, the complex relationships between master/slave, the physical and sexual violence inherent in the system, the economic conditions surrounding plantation owners and poor whites, the communication techniques among slaves, the impossibility of family life, the tension between American-born blacks and African-born slaves, etc. It's very easy to become fully immersed in the world of this huge, epic novel.
Of course, it's a shame that Haley had to plagiarize so many passages from Courlander's The African. We also have to acknowledge that the stunning final chapters--in which Haley traces his roots back to Juffure through archival research, the oral history of his family, and the villagers of Juffure themselves--are mostly a fictional fantasy. But reading this as a work of fiction doesn't take away the power of the message. (If it did, then what would be the point of fiction?) We find truth everywhere in this novel (for that's what it is), even in the fantasy of Haley tracking down his precise ancestors, the village from which they came, the exact slave ship upon which Kunte Kinte arrived, etc. I don't blame Haley too much for this type of wish-fulfillment fantasy. African-Americans CAN trace their roots back in this fashion--even if not on paper--through oral tradition, with each family tree containing equally amazing stories of survival, epic journeys, and an enduring strength of spirit. The larger truth of the narrative outshines the fictionalized ending and lifted passages, even as Haley assures readers on the last pages that everything is based on fact. Indeed, what is literature if not an amalgamation of pieces of history, other people's stories, a few facts, and some fictional embellishment? As such, Roots remains a memorable and essential literary journey for every American to take.
Of course, it's a shame that Haley had to plagiarize so many passages from Courlander's The African. We also have to acknowledge that the stunning final chapters--in which Haley traces his roots back to Juffure through archival research, the oral history of his family, and the villagers of Juffure themselves--are mostly a fictional fantasy. But reading this as a work of fiction doesn't take away the power of the message. (If it did, then what would be the point of fiction?) We find truth everywhere in this novel (for that's what it is), even in the fantasy of Haley tracking down his precise ancestors, the village from which they came, the exact slave ship upon which Kunte Kinte arrived, etc. I don't blame Haley too much for this type of wish-fulfillment fantasy. African-Americans CAN trace their roots back in this fashion--even if not on paper--through oral tradition, with each family tree containing equally amazing stories of survival, epic journeys, and an enduring strength of spirit. The larger truth of the narrative outshines the fictionalized ending and lifted passages, even as Haley assures readers on the last pages that everything is based on fact. Indeed, what is literature if not an amalgamation of pieces of history, other people's stories, a few facts, and some fictional embellishment? As such, Roots remains a memorable and essential literary journey for every American to take.
Absolutely fabulous book that details the history of Haley's family (with some embellishment and plagiarism, apparently) from Gambia to Tennessee. I was absorbed by the characters (although I could have done with a little less cockfighting) and the history was well done.
I found that Kinte's story really made me think a lot about exile and keeping faith and history when one is exiled - I thought of St. Nina more than once while contemplating these ideas, and think that it was one of the overarching themes of the novel.
Well done, and now I want to see the mini-series.
I found that Kinte's story really made me think a lot about exile and keeping faith and history when one is exiled - I thought of St. Nina more than once while contemplating these ideas, and think that it was one of the overarching themes of the novel.
Well done, and now I want to see the mini-series.
