Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.36 AVERAGE
4.36 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
emotional
sad
i really want to finish this book sometime soon, but damn its long and i forgot where i left off so i feel like i just need to restart it at a later date :((
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
book #24 of 2021: Roots: the Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley (pub. 1976) wow! this book’s amazingly descriptive storytelling, wonderfully rounded and human characters, stunning survival and dignity people exhibited amidst unfathomably atrocious treatment, as well as unbelievable capacity to give back to help those around them will all suck you in utterly and you won’t be able to stop until you’ve finished it. clearly the precedent for Colson Whitehead’s Underground Railroad and Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing, this book traces a family’s lineage from Africa through slavery in the US to what we now call freedom. I have books of his interviews, as well as the autobiography he helped Malcolm X write - and I plan to read them all: end of the world permitting, but this is his family’s story that he traced back, not just for himself, but to give every black person in the US, whose family endured slavery, a sense of their heritage in Africa and through early American history. he went through so much to research this book, and while I know people have taken some issue with some of the details, the work he created is astounding. it was a 30-hour listen and I’m so grateful to Mr. Haley to have had the chance. I thought for sure that Homegoing was the best fiction I’d read this year, but I may have to create another best of category: semi-fictional family history, just for this year.
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I skipped through boring parts a lot, which was a lot of this. I know this is like the most epic TV ever (6 of the T40 programs; the only other thing w/more than 2 slots is the Super Bowl) but…the characters are not complex, the acting often bugs or bores (though I can see why Uggams was the only Globe nominee; she cries well and works better when she’s not playing a 30ish teenager), they could have taken a lot of stuff out esp since Part 8 is almost entirely not even in the book and the most interesting part i.e. Kunta’s childhood was drastically reduced though I wonder if they would have gotten a kid even worse than Burton if the mini included his younger years more. The book is fairly lively in the African section, but maybe I’ve read too many narratives of slavery in the US and the early part was just new and fresh to me while its substance might be as stale as the other material. Haley’s not a bad writer, exactly, though his writing style isn’t strong enough to overcome his faults; he just has unimportant events – or even important ones – take up too many pages and it feels like it takes forever before something happens again. He’s also better at description than dialogue, in such a way that the characters whose points of view are not heard from feel like entirely artificial constructs.
I don't even think words can be adequate testimony to just what an emotional journey this book was. From Kunta's life in Africa, to his sail towards America, his friendship with the Fiddler, Kizzy, Chicken George, Tom; each step in his life and through the years and generations is an encompassing voyage, and every character is a pleasure to get to know. The book is engrossing, the story seeps off the page at compulsive speed, the people and their experiences so knowable and real and important to know and empathize with. A really wonderful book, and truly a saga befitting its name.
adventurous
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
What an amazing and timeless story. It is well told and dramatic, with beautiful details. It is heart wrenching, inspiring, and made me cry multiple times. I wish everyone in the U.S. could/would read it.