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4.09 AVERAGE
4.09 AVERAGE
It's so unfortunate that the author passed away a year before this book was published, but it's fortunate that David Stevens stepped in and put all of Haley's notes and research together and created this story for us to read. I loved "Roots" the novel and the mini series and looked forward to reading about his father's family history. The book starts out in 1797 Dublin, Ireland and the first of his recorded ancestors are the Jackson's. One of the sons, James will immigrate to America, take advantage of opportunities by becoming acquainted with Andrew Jackson, acquire a plantation and slaves. Queen does not appear in the book until half way through when one of the slaves Easter gives birth to Queen. The story is compelling, extremely sad but a worthy read. If you enjoyed Roots or stories that relate to the south, specifically the Civil War era you would most likely enjoy this book.
I love long books. I discovered this about myself while reading Queen, which contains pretty much everything I love about long books.
Queen is a novel about Queen Haley, Alex Haley's paternal grandmother. It begins in Ireland in the late 1700s with Alex's ancestor, James Jackson, and follows that lineage all the way down to Alex himself (early 1900s). As a result, the novel is not just about Queen, and yet, her very existence and her life as a whole are representative of so much more than simply her part in the novel.
First, there is the sprawling story. This is not a book you speed through, not because of its length, but because of its subject matter. I had to stop reading regularly to get my bearings, because as you can imagine with a slave narrative, lots of terrible things happen not only to the main character but to pretty much every black person in the novel. However, the story keeps giving, keeps going in spite of the suffering, and that makes it more hopeful--or, as hopeful as it could possibly be.
Then, there is the satisfaction of knowing the main characters' inner-most thoughts and feelings, and getting to feel like you are intimately connected with them. This is an advantage over short books, in which it is more difficult to feel close to the characters. In a long book, the author doesn't need to use as much metaphor or symbolism to convey emotion, because they give the reader so much time to spend with the character first-hand. In Queen, I think this was particularly significant, because Queen and the other black people throughout the novel have almost no "outlet" for their suffering, and so for the book to be filled with allegory and flowery language would be inappropriate. It is somehow a quiet novel, as much as an expansive one.
Lastly, there is the straightforward and clear writing style, which makes the book not feel quite so long. In the same way that a shorter book can feel too long because of clunky, complicated writing conventions, clear writing in a long book makes you keep turning pages.
Queen is a novel about Queen Haley, Alex Haley's paternal grandmother. It begins in Ireland in the late 1700s with Alex's ancestor, James Jackson, and follows that lineage all the way down to Alex himself (early 1900s). As a result, the novel is not just about Queen, and yet, her very existence and her life as a whole are representative of so much more than simply her part in the novel.
First, there is the sprawling story. This is not a book you speed through, not because of its length, but because of its subject matter. I had to stop reading regularly to get my bearings, because as you can imagine with a slave narrative, lots of terrible things happen not only to the main character but to pretty much every black person in the novel. However, the story keeps giving, keeps going in spite of the suffering, and that makes it more hopeful--or, as hopeful as it could possibly be.
Then, there is the satisfaction of knowing the main characters' inner-most thoughts and feelings, and getting to feel like you are intimately connected with them. This is an advantage over short books, in which it is more difficult to feel close to the characters. In a long book, the author doesn't need to use as much metaphor or symbolism to convey emotion, because they give the reader so much time to spend with the character first-hand. In Queen, I think this was particularly significant, because Queen and the other black people throughout the novel have almost no "outlet" for their suffering, and so for the book to be filled with allegory and flowery language would be inappropriate. It is somehow a quiet novel, as much as an expansive one.
Lastly, there is the straightforward and clear writing style, which makes the book not feel quite so long. In the same way that a shorter book can feel too long because of clunky, complicated writing conventions, clear writing in a long book makes you keep turning pages.
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
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:
No
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Not as good as roots, but I was trying to read it so I could watch the movie starring Halle Berry. Eh.
Haley's books are so real and heart wrenching! They make you proud of what we have become, but ashamed of what's in our past, at the same time. While not as large in scope as Roots, this book certainly shows us a slaves existence, complicated by a white father. There were times I wanted to smack Queen! She could be such a sassy brat. Her mother, Easter, however, could have applied for sainthood in my book!
Out of the nearly 700 pages, the first 300 all account for a time when Queen wasn’t even born. While I appreciate some backstory on how the family came to America, it was far too much for a book entitled “Queen”
[bc:Queen|154710|Queen|Alex Haley|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327991401l/154710._SY75_.jpg|1176308]
If you like Black-historical fiction and ancestry told in a way that feels personal, you'll love Queen.
The first thing I really enjoyed about the book, was the break up of sections into four parts: Bloodlines, Merging, Queen and A Wife and Mother, Loved
I found Part One, Bloodlines, to be an integral part of the story in that it laid the frame as to why and how Queen's Irish descendants made their way to the US. As the story progresses, I was often brought back to James Jackson's (Queen's grandfather) fight against oppression and his disgust and frustrations of the rich ruling class and the affect it had on the peasants and the poor. Caught up in these discriminations during his youth, he was terrified of the abuse of power, and convinced by his best friend that even though the peasants only had pitchforks, "We are many and they are few, and it is better to die for what you believe in than live in bondage."
After a row with the British, Jamie (preferring James as his American name), is banished from Ireland, and takes his chances in America, and very quickly forgets the lessons of his earlier angst against those that have.
Part Two, Merging, while not my favourite part of the book, is that space where Alex Haley does what only he can do, weave a tale of a family's legacy in a way that exposes all the dirt, pomp, drama and scandal that is the backbone of America. Merging was an eye opening section for me in that many of the nuances of how systemic racism came to be are addressed in the exploration of one Southern State, American family, Queen's lineage. Merging is race and slave relations. Merging is a looking glass into the generational and regional attitudes towards enslavement, by both the enslaved and their 'owners'.
Merging is also a look at what's behind door number 3 when it comes to the civil war, an obvious understanding for me now that it wasn't so much about emancipation, as it was about a redistribution of land ownership & wealth; The old familiar dog whistle disguised as equality.
Earlier on in Bloodlines, James had decided to throw 'his slaves' Cap 'n Jack and Annie (Queen's grandparents) a grand wedding, inviting everyone, showing the world and his slaves "the benign face of slavery. They would see that it was not all beatings and lashings and rape and exploitation, but rather a unique and unrivalled management of the land and people."
Later through Merging, his son, Jass (Queen's father), who had once held strong beliefs against slavery and envisioned a day when freedom would ring, had eventually succumbed to the belief that his "utopian ideal was not possible, not in the South at least, perhaps because he thought it might be destructive to what he was supposed to maintain."
The seeds of confederate justification; the right to protect your legacy and the need to protect your privilege.
Part Three, Queen, was a slow start for me mainly because I hated how they took her away from her mother, Easter, to live in the Big House, like that was going to be of some benefit to her. The early years discussed in this section reeked of privilege and white supremacy, and was the course that set Queen on a lifelong identity crisis. While obviously able to pass, a large part of the story, her passing in the big house, amongst her own kin, was never going to happen. While being white as cotton is her blessing and her curse, at least with her mother and 'her people', she'd of learned earlier on who she was and who society was always going to see her as.
There's few bread crumbs as to Queen's recognition, that no matter what she did, or how well she did it, she was always going to be a child of the plantation. This was made obvious when Jass, her father, came home from the war after the South, including their own plantation at The Forks, truly fell from grace. The entire time, Queen was there, giving her all... thinking it was being appreciated and recognized.
Chapter 64, that's when we really see the shift in Queen's understanding of her role in her father's life, and the change in narrative as it related to how she saw her own future within the Jackson family: "He was fond of Queen, fonder of her than of any other of his former slaves, for she was Easter's child, and a living fragment of the memory of his love. That she was also his own child was a lesser issue, and one of lessening importance to him. Although the war had been over only for a few weeks, his discussions with his friends and associates had concentrated all his attention on the survival of his immediate and legal family in the postwar years.
The rest of this part of the book is hard. Queen lives in squalor and heartbreak, with the lack of capacity to make effective decisions, due to what we know now as a symptom of extreme trauma. When the book first came out, I mighta thought she was simply immature and needy. Now I understand her to be broken and without any real sense of acceptance. It must be said of all the people that came in and out of her life, I'm left wondering whatever happened to Alice and Joyce, two women who took her in, one hoping to teach her how to pass as white, the other hoping to teach Queen how to see herself for who she really was. "I love being me," she said. "I tried being the other side, and now I love being black."
The book closes out with part four, A Wife and Mother, Loved. There's a simplicity in how the book ends that feels full. There's an understanding that while Queen would always be at the mercy of her demons, her finding a family of her own was the balm she needed to carry through. Queen learns to love, and from that she finds personal happiness and self respect.
I'll be carrying space for the memory of Queen and the shadows of the plantation babies, bi-racially dispossessed, searching for home in the skin they're in, for years to come.
If you like Black-historical fiction and ancestry told in a way that feels personal, you'll love Queen.
The first thing I really enjoyed about the book, was the break up of sections into four parts: Bloodlines, Merging, Queen and A Wife and Mother, Loved
I found Part One, Bloodlines, to be an integral part of the story in that it laid the frame as to why and how Queen's Irish descendants made their way to the US. As the story progresses, I was often brought back to James Jackson's (Queen's grandfather) fight against oppression and his disgust and frustrations of the rich ruling class and the affect it had on the peasants and the poor. Caught up in these discriminations during his youth, he was terrified of the abuse of power, and convinced by his best friend that even though the peasants only had pitchforks, "We are many and they are few, and it is better to die for what you believe in than live in bondage."
After a row with the British, Jamie (preferring James as his American name), is banished from Ireland, and takes his chances in America, and very quickly forgets the lessons of his earlier angst against those that have.
Part Two, Merging, while not my favourite part of the book, is that space where Alex Haley does what only he can do, weave a tale of a family's legacy in a way that exposes all the dirt, pomp, drama and scandal that is the backbone of America. Merging was an eye opening section for me in that many of the nuances of how systemic racism came to be are addressed in the exploration of one Southern State, American family, Queen's lineage. Merging is race and slave relations. Merging is a looking glass into the generational and regional attitudes towards enslavement, by both the enslaved and their 'owners'.
Merging is also a look at what's behind door number 3 when it comes to the civil war, an obvious understanding for me now that it wasn't so much about emancipation, as it was about a redistribution of land ownership & wealth; The old familiar dog whistle disguised as equality.
Earlier on in Bloodlines, James had decided to throw 'his slaves' Cap 'n Jack and Annie (Queen's grandparents) a grand wedding, inviting everyone, showing the world and his slaves "the benign face of slavery. They would see that it was not all beatings and lashings and rape and exploitation, but rather a unique and unrivalled management of the land and people."
Later through Merging, his son, Jass (Queen's father), who had once held strong beliefs against slavery and envisioned a day when freedom would ring, had eventually succumbed to the belief that his "utopian ideal was not possible, not in the South at least, perhaps because he thought it might be destructive to what he was supposed to maintain."
The seeds of confederate justification; the right to protect your legacy and the need to protect your privilege.
Part Three, Queen, was a slow start for me mainly because I hated how they took her away from her mother, Easter, to live in the Big House, like that was going to be of some benefit to her. The early years discussed in this section reeked of privilege and white supremacy, and was the course that set Queen on a lifelong identity crisis. While obviously able to pass, a large part of the story, her passing in the big house, amongst her own kin, was never going to happen. While being white as cotton is her blessing and her curse, at least with her mother and 'her people', she'd of learned earlier on who she was and who society was always going to see her as.
There's few bread crumbs as to Queen's recognition, that no matter what she did, or how well she did it, she was always going to be a child of the plantation. This was made obvious when Jass, her father, came home from the war after the South, including their own plantation at The Forks, truly fell from grace. The entire time, Queen was there, giving her all... thinking it was being appreciated and recognized.
Chapter 64, that's when we really see the shift in Queen's understanding of her role in her father's life, and the change in narrative as it related to how she saw her own future within the Jackson family: "He was fond of Queen, fonder of her than of any other of his former slaves, for she was Easter's child, and a living fragment of the memory of his love. That she was also his own child was a lesser issue, and one of lessening importance to him. Although the war had been over only for a few weeks, his discussions with his friends and associates had concentrated all his attention on the survival of his immediate and legal family in the postwar years.
The rest of this part of the book is hard. Queen lives in squalor and heartbreak, with the lack of capacity to make effective decisions, due to what we know now as a symptom of extreme trauma. When the book first came out, I mighta thought she was simply immature and needy. Now I understand her to be broken and without any real sense of acceptance. It must be said of all the people that came in and out of her life, I'm left wondering whatever happened to Alice and Joyce, two women who took her in, one hoping to teach her how to pass as white, the other hoping to teach Queen how to see herself for who she really was. "I love being me," she said. "I tried being the other side, and now I love being black."
The book closes out with part four, A Wife and Mother, Loved. There's a simplicity in how the book ends that feels full. There's an understanding that while Queen would always be at the mercy of her demons, her finding a family of her own was the balm she needed to carry through. Queen learns to love, and from that she finds personal happiness and self respect.
I'll be carrying space for the memory of Queen and the shadows of the plantation babies, bi-racially dispossessed, searching for home in the skin they're in, for years to come.
This book was good but not nearly as good as Roots. Where Roots focused more on the families involved and their relationships, this one seemed to focus more on the history of the time period in which the story took place. Still very good book, though.