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4.36 AVERAGE
4.36 AVERAGE
I’m not sure I will ever get the Kinte family out of my head. I still find myself grieving for Omoro and Binta, for Kunta and Bell, and for Kizzy. This is an incredible read that brings the atrocities that slaves in this country faced to life in ways that I’m not sure any other book has. And I think one of its greatest strengths is that it does it while making you fall in love with Juffure and each of the characters (yes, somehow even Chicken George) along the way. This should be a must read for everyone (the controversies about its historical accuracy aside) and WILL be required reading for my kids as they’re old enough to truly process the beauty and the devastation that millions of people experienced.
dark
informative
inspiring
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Incredibly entertaining, but also psychologically changing. It inspires me to want to learn more about my family’s history.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Gore, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Excrement, Kidnapping, Abandonment
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Pregnancy
a profoundly important book for me when I read it at age 13 in 1979 and it continues to inform me
Just wow! I saw the miniseries as a child and retained the feeling it left with me rather than the details of the story. Reading it for the first time over 40 years later.
Such a masterfully woven history from beginning to end. When the voice changes to Alex Haley's own in the final chapters, it makes what was excellent even more compelling. Full circle and full of universal truth. Wow.
Such a masterfully woven history from beginning to end. When the voice changes to Alex Haley's own in the final chapters, it makes what was excellent even more compelling. Full circle and full of universal truth. Wow.
Anyone who knows me knows that I hate reading novels that involve slavery. For one, slavery is all we were ever taught concerning black history (outside of MLK Jr.) in school and we all know black history is so much more than slavery and civil rights. And two, it’s just difficult to read/hear about. Despite this, I decided to read it because it was on some list of books that all African Americans should read.
Roots is a total of 729 pages (depending on the version you have) so it will take you a while to get through. Most people have seen the movie so I won’t bore you with too many details…but Roots follows Kunta Kinte, the supposed African ancestor of Alex Haley, who is abducted from the village of Juffure in The Gambia, West Africa and enslaved. It was a good book overall but I am not a fan of Haley’s writing style. It was dull, monotonous, and all over the place. Also, I question the accuracy of this story. Read more here: https://justkeyana.com/roots-the-saga-of-an-american-family/
Roots is a total of 729 pages (depending on the version you have) so it will take you a while to get through. Most people have seen the movie so I won’t bore you with too many details…but Roots follows Kunta Kinte, the supposed African ancestor of Alex Haley, who is abducted from the village of Juffure in The Gambia, West Africa and enslaved. It was a good book overall but I am not a fan of Haley’s writing style. It was dull, monotonous, and all over the place. Also, I question the accuracy of this story. Read more here: https://justkeyana.com/roots-the-saga-of-an-american-family/
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Whew. It’s safe to say that this should be considered essential reading, because it goes into so much detail about slavery that we think we know, but we really don’t. This book isn’t for the faint of heart and there were multiple points where I felt I couldn’t continue on as a reader. However, this is one you’ll need to power through (especially with an audiobook clocking in at 30 hours), because this is an important and well researched story of multiple generations that needs to be shared.
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Roots has become a cultural phenomenon, and I came into the book with high expectations, especially from the writer responsible for the autobiography of Malcolm X. My expectations were absolutely blown away. With a narrative style which is straightforward and devoid of artifice, Alex Haley paints the picture of his own great-great-great-great-grandfather Kunta Kinte growing up in the Gambia and the six generations of Americans that followed him with such imaginative imagery and such pathos that one can't help but be pulled into their lives. I greatly appreciated how Haley centers his narrative on the pride and legacy of Kunta Kinte's African roots and how his family carried them down the years rather than simply focusing on the abuses they suffered, although he certainly does not shy away from depicting in unflinching detail the brutal cruelties, twisted logic, and abject horrors of American slavery.
In Haley's hands, his family lineage achieves an almost mythic quality, symbolizing the generations of Americans whose cultural heritage and humanity were stripped away from them and who yet still endured in the face of hopelessness and terror. Throughout his family's story, he carefully weaves in the life-changing events which define the face of U.S. history—the Revolution, the Trail of Tears, and the Civil War and emancipation, to name a few. While there is much to be criticized about the book* (e.g. the pacing is strange, with the book speeding up to a whirlwind pace as it races to the present in the last fifth of the book; while the men in the book—Kunta Kinte, Chicken George, and Tom—are developed with great care and detail, the inner lives of the women in the book receive little attention; its treatment of West African life is flawed, and like the rest of the book, suffers from historical inaccuracies; several passages of the book are directly plagiarized), I would not hesitate to call this book a must-read for all Americans, irrespective of race, color, creed, or family background. It is certainly not a shining standard of journalistic or historical excellence (I think it is best to read the book with the mindset that it is almost entirely fictional), but it has a fantastic drive for beginning conversations about Black American history, celebrating the power of oral history, and sparking personal rediscoveries of family history. When it was written, it was groundbreaking and daringly imaginative; to this day, it remains a truly inspiring and moving narrative.
*See here for an interesting Reddit thread discussing some of these points: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/7fuorp/i_really_enjoyed_the_roots_remake_but_a_friend/?rdt=64565
In Haley's hands, his family lineage achieves an almost mythic quality, symbolizing the generations of Americans whose cultural heritage and humanity were stripped away from them and who yet still endured in the face of hopelessness and terror. Throughout his family's story, he carefully weaves in the life-changing events which define the face of U.S. history—the Revolution, the Trail of Tears, and the Civil War and emancipation, to name a few. While there is much to be criticized about the book* (e.g. the pacing is strange, with the book speeding up to a whirlwind pace as it races to the present in the last fifth of the book; while the men in the book—Kunta Kinte, Chicken George, and Tom—are developed with great care and detail, the inner lives of the women in the book receive little attention; its treatment of West African life is flawed, and like the rest of the book, suffers from historical inaccuracies; several passages of the book are directly plagiarized), I would not hesitate to call this book a must-read for all Americans, irrespective of race, color, creed, or family background. It is certainly not a shining standard of journalistic or historical excellence (I think it is best to read the book with the mindset that it is almost entirely fictional), but it has a fantastic drive for beginning conversations about Black American history, celebrating the power of oral history, and sparking personal rediscoveries of family history. When it was written, it was groundbreaking and daringly imaginative; to this day, it remains a truly inspiring and moving narrative.
*See here for an interesting Reddit thread discussing some of these points: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/7fuorp/i_really_enjoyed_the_roots_remake_but_a_friend/?rdt=64565
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
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:
Complicated
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
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:
N/A
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail
Definitely worth the read!