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4.37 AVERAGE
4.37 AVERAGE
I am so glad I chose this to wrap up Black History Month. I can only imagine the time Alex Haley put into researching his family history and how moving it was at each new discovery. Then to put it all together in this family saga. If each of his ancestors stories don’t make you tear up, you will definitely tear up as Haley describes his experience in Africa or in Annapolis. So glad I finally read this!!!
Wow.
I hate to admit I'd never read this book. I was a kid when it was published--and I remember my mom watching the miniseries, but I wasn't allowed to (did I want to? I remember being hustled off to bed asap). Yet, after getting history and geography degrees AND loving genealogy to no end, I still had never read it.
So I decided to. It didn't even take a week.
No, it's not the greatest writing ever--but it's not bad as many have said. And it's high-school level. I couldn't stop turning the pages.
Mostly, though, I think this is a book every genealogist should read. And historian. And American. A masterful example of what one can do with family stories, known facts, and research! And endless amounts of $$ for flying around, but don't we all wish we could go research wherever we wanted? I sure do.
The cultural history of the Mandinka was fascinating--I know plenty of Native American tribes have/had similar oral histories, and it was fascinating to find the matching up of the stories.
I know there has been "debate" over the "authenticity" of his findings. I don't know if they meet the Genealogical Proof Standard. I don't know if the GPS existed when this was researched and written.
It is also simply a fascinating story.
I hate to admit I'd never read this book. I was a kid when it was published--and I remember my mom watching the miniseries, but I wasn't allowed to (did I want to? I remember being hustled off to bed asap). Yet, after getting history and geography degrees AND loving genealogy to no end, I still had never read it.
So I decided to. It didn't even take a week.
No, it's not the greatest writing ever--but it's not bad as many have said. And it's high-school level. I couldn't stop turning the pages.
Mostly, though, I think this is a book every genealogist should read. And historian. And American. A masterful example of what one can do with family stories, known facts, and research! And endless amounts of $$ for flying around, but don't we all wish we could go research wherever we wanted? I sure do.
The cultural history of the Mandinka was fascinating--I know plenty of Native American tribes have/had similar oral histories, and it was fascinating to find the matching up of the stories.
I know there has been "debate" over the "authenticity" of his findings. I don't know if they meet the Genealogical Proof Standard. I don't know if the GPS existed when this was researched and written.
It is also simply a fascinating story.
I was really torn as to how to "rate" Roots. On the one hand, it is a masterpiece of storytelling, a groundbreaking epic work that had a huge impact culturally and broke ground for many authors writing about black life in America to follow. On the other hand, I felt like it wasn't that well written?
To be sure, I was emotionally affected by the story, and I thought that the construction of the book, stepping from generation to generation, provided a real emotional insight into one of the cruelest parts of our country's history of slavery - the separation of families. Throughout the book, each time a character that had had hundreds of pages devoted to their life was left behind, and the story moved on to the next generation, I had this desperate desire for narrative closure - that at some point the new protagonist would see their parent again, or return home, or meet their grandparent, or something to close the loop. But of course that didn't happen, because that's not how slavery worked. I thought it was deft of Haley to use our deeply internalized conventions of how a story should resolve itself to throw the reality of the slave experience into stark relief.
However, there were other times that the writing was kind of corny or labored - for example, many times that "current events" felt shoe-horned into the text in order to give the contemporary reader more historical context. Like, was anyone really talking about John Hancock's big signature at the time? The surety and clarity of the Revolutionary and Civil War events happening contemporaneously with the characters felt way overblown in a reality when news would be slow to travel and contradictory and confusing. Similarly, the first chapters of the novel, detailing Kunta Kinte's childhood in Africa, felt weird to me. I kept wondering how much research Haley actually did into the social and cultural life of The Gambia in the late 1700s. While I don't claim to be a scholar of African history by any means, the descriptions there felt too simple and almost dumbed down to ring true. In general, many of the characters and social lives and interactions depicted throughout seemed like they lacked a necessary complexity.
Finally, of course, there are the questions of Haley's methodology and plagiarism. I find it less important whether or not the genealogy represented in the book is "true." I like Haley's celebration of his family's oral history traditions, and I think his attempt to force them to be "proven" by standard white imperialist methods of record-keeping is unnecessary. What's more concerning is his evidently conscious plagiarizing and manipulation of others to try to improve his own story. From my understanding of his work on The Autobiography of Malcolm X (which I haven't yet read), the blurring of the lines of truth and fiction without regard for transparency and honesty is something of a trend for Haley, which is too bad.
Overall, I think Roots is definitely worth a read as a novel. The bits where the writing is strained are more than made up for by the emotional impact of the story overall, which surprised and engrossed me in ways I hadn't expected.
To be sure, I was emotionally affected by the story, and I thought that the construction of the book, stepping from generation to generation, provided a real emotional insight into one of the cruelest parts of our country's history of slavery - the separation of families. Throughout the book, each time a character that had had hundreds of pages devoted to their life was left behind, and the story moved on to the next generation, I had this desperate desire for narrative closure - that at some point the new protagonist would see their parent again, or return home, or meet their grandparent, or something to close the loop. But of course that didn't happen, because that's not how slavery worked. I thought it was deft of Haley to use our deeply internalized conventions of how a story should resolve itself to throw the reality of the slave experience into stark relief.
However, there were other times that the writing was kind of corny or labored - for example, many times that "current events" felt shoe-horned into the text in order to give the contemporary reader more historical context. Like, was anyone really talking about John Hancock's big signature at the time? The surety and clarity of the Revolutionary and Civil War events happening contemporaneously with the characters felt way overblown in a reality when news would be slow to travel and contradictory and confusing. Similarly, the first chapters of the novel, detailing Kunta Kinte's childhood in Africa, felt weird to me. I kept wondering how much research Haley actually did into the social and cultural life of The Gambia in the late 1700s. While I don't claim to be a scholar of African history by any means, the descriptions there felt too simple and almost dumbed down to ring true. In general, many of the characters and social lives and interactions depicted throughout seemed like they lacked a necessary complexity.
Finally, of course, there are the questions of Haley's methodology and plagiarism. I find it less important whether or not the genealogy represented in the book is "true." I like Haley's celebration of his family's oral history traditions, and I think his attempt to force them to be "proven" by standard white imperialist methods of record-keeping is unnecessary. What's more concerning is his evidently conscious plagiarizing and manipulation of others to try to improve his own story. From my understanding of his work on The Autobiography of Malcolm X (which I haven't yet read), the blurring of the lines of truth and fiction without regard for transparency and honesty is something of a trend for Haley, which is too bad.
Overall, I think Roots is definitely worth a read as a novel. The bits where the writing is strained are more than made up for by the emotional impact of the story overall, which surprised and engrossed me in ways I hadn't expected.
Powerful, especially the last few chapters when the narrator reveals his connection and journey.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-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:
Yes
I love this book. I hope to carry this story with me, and revisit it again and again. It was marvelous.
Incredible book. During the last chapters I cried as I came to understand the true weight of everything I had just heard. Kunta Kinte was not just a character, but a person, whose descendants kept his story alive through oral tradition. Every part of the book was fascinating and captivating, from Kunta's life in Juffureh to his years in America, to Kizzy and Chicken George, to the author's tale of tracing his lineage.
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes