Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.36 AVERAGE
4.36 AVERAGE
A tough read. But a necessary one. Difficulties with plagiarism aside, this story highlights the indescribably deplorable depravity of slavery in a very real, human and accessible way. Disturbing and upsetting yet engaging and compelling reading. The story that starts with Kunte Kinte and continues on following his descendants from Gambia to southern USA
Overall, I'd give this book something like 3.5 stars. The first half of the book, which told the story of Kunta Kinte, was fantastic. From there, the speed at which the story was told seemed to increase incrementally through each generation, and I found these stories less engaging and the various characters more difficult to keep straight. At times, it felt overly verbose, and certain sections were a real bear to slog through, but it (mostly) held my attention through to the end. There were several places toward the latter half of the book that felt like they would make nice, tidy endings, and yet it kept going. I nearly skipped the last section, after the author got to his own part of the story and started telling how he came to write the book. It felt like an exceptionally long afterward, and it was mostly stuff I already knew. But I plugged away at it and finally finished. I'm glad I read it, but it's not one I'll pick up again for a re-read.
Obviously this is a masterpiece, but it also fits into the "multi-generational saga" format for which I have a particular fondness, so I really enjoyed this. Obviously there are parts that are horrific and hard to read, but I'm in awe of the entire novel and everything that went into it. I can't believe I didn't read it until now.
Mannnnnnn! My feelings about this book are so complicated. Before anyone asks me, I am aware of the plagiarism accusations that have plagued this Pulitzer prize winning book for decades, yet I cannot deny the impact it has made on Black culture and the history of the United States as we know it. While Alex Haley has claimed that this is true to his personal lineage, DNA tests and fact checking that revealed vital information about the griot he encountered, inevitably prove that it can't be true. I've marked this book as "historical fiction" and wish in my heart of hearts that Haley would have done that instead of creating a work that has essentially tarnished his legacy. With that being said, this book is not an easy read and has a list of content warnings that are present in every single chapter, on every single page, and in every paragraph. If you are disturbed by the vivid descriptions of chattel slavery, the middle passage, rape, racial slurs, racism, brutal death, horrific human conditions, extreme violence on page, and more, then I would proceed with caution when picking up this book.
Roots: The Saga of an American Family is everything that I love about family sagas; those books that explore the genealogy of a family generation after generation. This story in particular begins with Kunta Kinte as he lives a complicated, yet free life on the River Gambia in Juffure. Unfortunately, after being warned so many times about the possibility of being captured, Kunta finds himself amongst the many that are stolen from their land and forced to take a brutal, dehumanizing, dangerous, inhuman, and tragic journey across the Atlantic ocean to the coast of America. What follows is a detailed exploration of Kunta's experience in the colonies and the experiences of those that are a part of his lineage.
What Worked: This book took me a long time to read. Not only because of it's length, but also the content of the narrative. There were sections of this book that literally turned my stomach and made me feel extremely uncomfortable. However, it was these details that made me really pause and think about what my ancestors experienced at the hands of a system designed to not only break them, but also steal any hope they had. As dark as these descriptions came, I was glad that Haley included them to drive people to truly understand the dark sides of not only chattel slavery, but also the middle passage. It's hard to not acknowledge the amount of people who didn't even make it across the Atlantic. I also enjoyed the interweaving of historical events through the main narrative. Major events such as the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, slave rebellions, the Emancipation are all covered and discussed by characters. This definitely made the story more robust and although not necessarily real, it was interesting seeing how enslaved people may have reacted to the news of these events.
What Didn't Work Unfortunately, I do believe that we see Haley's writings decline a little as we get into further discussions of Kinte's descendants. The details that are captured in the first half of the book do not hold up in the second half of the book making it feel rushed. The robust descriptions and emotional tensions that are experienced with Kinte are lost as we explore more about Kizzy, George, and Tom. This doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy it, but I did notice a difference and a shift in characters. A great portion of this shift has been attributed, by past reviewers, to the accusations and confirmations of plagiarism of the book The African by Harold Courlander. While I have not read that book in particular, it would make sense that the passages related to Kunta Kinte were strikingly different from those of his descendants. There was also a section that detailed the "research" that Haley did for this book and it made me cringe knowing the true story behind his family.
Overall, I truly am glad that I read this book. I've been meaning to pick it up for years and I've never truly invested the time to pick it up until now. It took me about two weeks to finish it and while it was heartbreaking to learn about the plagiarism and lies that tarnished the legacy of this novel, I can't deny the impact that it had on the Black community and the renewed interest that it created in genealogy. So many of us cannot trace our genealogy because of slavery. This book gave people hope and I can't deny how meaningful that has been.
Roots: The Saga of an American Family is everything that I love about family sagas; those books that explore the genealogy of a family generation after generation. This story in particular begins with Kunta Kinte as he lives a complicated, yet free life on the River Gambia in Juffure. Unfortunately, after being warned so many times about the possibility of being captured, Kunta finds himself amongst the many that are stolen from their land and forced to take a brutal, dehumanizing, dangerous, inhuman, and tragic journey across the Atlantic ocean to the coast of America. What follows is a detailed exploration of Kunta's experience in the colonies and the experiences of those that are a part of his lineage.
What Worked: This book took me a long time to read. Not only because of it's length, but also the content of the narrative. There were sections of this book that literally turned my stomach and made me feel extremely uncomfortable. However, it was these details that made me really pause and think about what my ancestors experienced at the hands of a system designed to not only break them, but also steal any hope they had. As dark as these descriptions came, I was glad that Haley included them to drive people to truly understand the dark sides of not only chattel slavery, but also the middle passage. It's hard to not acknowledge the amount of people who didn't even make it across the Atlantic. I also enjoyed the interweaving of historical events through the main narrative. Major events such as the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, slave rebellions, the Emancipation are all covered and discussed by characters. This definitely made the story more robust and although not necessarily real, it was interesting seeing how enslaved people may have reacted to the news of these events.
What Didn't Work Unfortunately, I do believe that we see Haley's writings decline a little as we get into further discussions of Kinte's descendants. The details that are captured in the first half of the book do not hold up in the second half of the book making it feel rushed. The robust descriptions and emotional tensions that are experienced with Kinte are lost as we explore more about Kizzy, George, and Tom. This doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy it, but I did notice a difference and a shift in characters. A great portion of this shift has been attributed, by past reviewers, to the accusations and confirmations of plagiarism of the book The African by Harold Courlander. While I have not read that book in particular, it would make sense that the passages related to Kunta Kinte were strikingly different from those of his descendants. There was also a section that detailed the "research" that Haley did for this book and it made me cringe knowing the true story behind his family.
Overall, I truly am glad that I read this book. I've been meaning to pick it up for years and I've never truly invested the time to pick it up until now. It took me about two weeks to finish it and while it was heartbreaking to learn about the plagiarism and lies that tarnished the legacy of this novel, I can't deny the impact that it had on the Black community and the renewed interest that it created in genealogy. So many of us cannot trace our genealogy because of slavery. This book gave people hope and I can't deny how meaningful that has been.
I've wanted to read this one since I was a girl and watched the mini-series on television night by night with my family. Feet tucked up in my nightgown with still-wet hair ready to fall into bed immediately afterwards, I was swept into the story immediately. I listened to the 30 hour tome instead.
I've sat on a review for weeks simply because there really aren't words adequate to describe the audacity of enslavement, the beauty of familial ties that can be traced back to the origins of a family far, far ago thanks to oral tradition, or of the simple fact that if we don't know from where we come, how will we ever know where we are headed?
I would read/listen to this one again. I want to rewatch the series. This is a story for everyone.
*William Wallis is supposedly a distant relative of my family's according to my grandfather who did his own extensive research into our familial history when he retired.
I've sat on a review for weeks simply because there really aren't words adequate to describe the audacity of enslavement, the beauty of familial ties that can be traced back to the origins of a family far, far ago thanks to oral tradition, or of the simple fact that if we don't know from where we come, how will we ever know where we are headed?
I would read/listen to this one again. I want to rewatch the series. This is a story for everyone.
*William Wallis is supposedly a distant relative of my family's according to my grandfather who did his own extensive research into our familial history when he retired.
This was an excellent book and I'm glad I took the time to read it. While sometimes slow, I think the pace of the book's events only added to the understanding of what it must have been like for this family, living in a time of slavery and then intense discrimination. The time that Haley took in the first couple 100's pages of the novel to describe life in Africa for Kunta made it all the more heart wrenching when he was captured and forced to travel to America. The only thing I wish the author had done differently was spend more time telling us about his own journey to Africa to learn about his family's history.
An interesting read. The scenes of violence and sexual abuse that were perpetrated on slaves are pretty graphic. That aside, it is an inspiring saga of a family overcoming severe obstacles to eventually achieve "the American Dream". It covers several generations beginning with the slave Kunta kente down to Alex Haley's modern day family. Interesting if you like genealogies, (though it was disappointing to learn that Alex Haley embellished a lot of the facts in this supposedly true story).
Deep in his heart, he knew he would never see his home again, and he could feel something precious and irretrievable dying inside of him forever. But hope remained alive.
I don't want to talk about it. I don't think I can talk about it. I didn't love every inch of this book but the parts of it I did love and the parts of it that were really well-observed and well-written will stick with me for a long time. I have a crying headache lol.
I do have to say, I think the notion of questioning how pinpoint accurate the research that Haley did into his family and history... it's completely missing the point. Who cares? This is about ancestral memory, the atrocity of slavery, the strength of family and the resilience of human beings. Anyway, listened to the audiobook as read by Avery Brooks and it was great. I gotta go take an aspirin.
“Is this how you repay my goodness--with badness?” cried the boy.
“Of course,” said the crocodile out of the corner of his mouth. “That is the way of the world.”
I really enjoyed the first half of this book; the part focused on Kunta Kinte. It was fascinating. Alex Haley paints an amazing picture of life in Africa during the 1760's and I truly enjoyed reading it. He speaks about Kunta Kinte's kidnapping and shipment to America in a heartbreaking way, and overall I learned more details about slavery than I did in school. There were a lot of details of the everyday life of slaves that I just didn't know. So in that regard, I'm really glad I read the book.
However, it is tough to fit 200 years of family history into 800 pages, and I felt like the end of the book was rushed. I had so much invested in Haley's ancestors, and then it felt so rushed that it sort of disconnected me from the story's end.
However, it is tough to fit 200 years of family history into 800 pages, and I felt like the end of the book was rushed. I had so much invested in Haley's ancestors, and then it felt so rushed that it sort of disconnected me from the story's end.