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3.48 AVERAGE
3.48 AVERAGE
First line: “Philadelphia and Jubilee!” August said when Hattie told him what she wanted to name their twins. “You cain’t give them babies no crazy names like that!”
TTH tells the story of Hattie, a young black woman who moves with her mother and sisters from Georgia to Philadelphia in the early 1920s, part of the Great Migration, trying to escape the flagrant racism of the South and find a better life in the “New Jerusalem” of the North. Each chapter deals with a different child (or children) of Hattie and their personal struggle to find their place in a world that doesn’t care about them. In the opening chapter, Hattie is a child bride trying to save her sick babies. Their deaths change Hattie. They harden her, and their absence is felt in all of the other chapters. The final chapter, or 12th tribe, is Hattie’s granddaughter that comes to live with her because her mother is mentally ill. By this time Hattie is an old woman, but she hasn’t softened and her children are still fighting against the force of her will.
I didn’t love this book. It was very bleak. I don’t know that anyone in the book was happy. Life was hard for the characters, and they often make bad choices in a bad situation. It’s grim and gritty and real. One daughter gives up on herself and life and basically allows herself to wallow in poverty and waste away from tuberculosis in an apartment that sounds only a little better than a flop house, where the only piece of furniture is a bed.
The way the book is structured the reader sees just a slice of each child’s life before switching to another one. It makes it hard to engage with any one character. Hattie is a constant, but she is a difficult presence. But Mathis’s writing is strong, and when I found my interest waning, the writing was able to pull me back in. It wasn’t a matter of something happening. There would be a turn of phrase or an image that popped for me, and I was back. One thing that surprised me is how little of an impact the Civil Rights Movement makes on the novel. It is almost a footnote.
Some quotes:
“There are a lot of bars, more than I would have imagined, open at eight o’clock in the morning. I went to a few and felt like I was stepping into all of the sadness in the world.” “There were so many other things that she wanted to say, but she only had a chalkboard and she lacked courage.”
TTH tells the story of Hattie, a young black woman who moves with her mother and sisters from Georgia to Philadelphia in the early 1920s, part of the Great Migration, trying to escape the flagrant racism of the South and find a better life in the “New Jerusalem” of the North. Each chapter deals with a different child (or children) of Hattie and their personal struggle to find their place in a world that doesn’t care about them. In the opening chapter, Hattie is a child bride trying to save her sick babies. Their deaths change Hattie. They harden her, and their absence is felt in all of the other chapters. The final chapter, or 12th tribe, is Hattie’s granddaughter that comes to live with her because her mother is mentally ill. By this time Hattie is an old woman, but she hasn’t softened and her children are still fighting against the force of her will.
I didn’t love this book. It was very bleak. I don’t know that anyone in the book was happy. Life was hard for the characters, and they often make bad choices in a bad situation. It’s grim and gritty and real. One daughter gives up on herself and life and basically allows herself to wallow in poverty and waste away from tuberculosis in an apartment that sounds only a little better than a flop house, where the only piece of furniture is a bed.
The way the book is structured the reader sees just a slice of each child’s life before switching to another one. It makes it hard to engage with any one character. Hattie is a constant, but she is a difficult presence. But Mathis’s writing is strong, and when I found my interest waning, the writing was able to pull me back in. It wasn’t a matter of something happening. There would be a turn of phrase or an image that popped for me, and I was back. One thing that surprised me is how little of an impact the Civil Rights Movement makes on the novel. It is almost a footnote.
Some quotes:
“There are a lot of bars, more than I would have imagined, open at eight o’clock in the morning. I went to a few and felt like I was stepping into all of the sadness in the world.” “There were so many other things that she wanted to say, but she only had a chalkboard and she lacked courage.”
Zwölf Leben – das von Hattie und ihren elf Kindern, in Episoden von Ayana Mathis erzählt. Mit Philadelphia & Jubilee wird Hattie - fast noch ein Mädchen – von der Realität des Lebens eingeholt. Eine schwere Lungenentzündung nimmt ihr die geliebten Zwillinge. Weitere Schicksalsschläge werden folgen. Wie etwa der von Six, der nach einem Unfall entstellt im Schoße der Kirche seinen Platz findet. Oder Ella, der sie ein besseres Leben bei ihrer reichen Schwester ermöglichen will. Und auch Alice, die versucht über eine günstige Heirat den erbärmlichen Zuständen zu entfliehen. Die Geschichte der Familie über das 20. Jahrhundert, vor der Südstaatenhärte der Jim Crow Laws. Auch die Geschichte einer Frau, die sich mehr vom Leben erhofft hatte, gelegentliche Ausbrüche wagt und doch wieder zurückkehrt zu ihren Wurzeln.
Die erzählten Episoden sind durch die Familienbande miteinander verwoben, erzählen aber jedoch gänzlich verschiedene Leben. Für mich am interessantesten waren dabei die kleinen aber doch tief gehenden Einschübe über die Diskriminierung der Schwarzen. Vor allen Hatties erstes Erlebnis auf dem Bahnhof, als all das, was sie kannte plötzlich in Frage gestellt wurde und sie sah, dass man Schwarze auch ganz anders behandeln kann. Auch die Episode um Ella, die ein besseres Leben haben soll, fand ich sehr beeindruckend, wie Hattie zerrissen wird zwischen ihren Wünschen und den Zukunftsmöglichkeiten des Kindes. Ein sehr inhaltsstarker Roman, der viele Facetten des Lebens abbildet und mit Hattie eine starke Protagonistin hat, die auch mal schwach wird.
Die erzählten Episoden sind durch die Familienbande miteinander verwoben, erzählen aber jedoch gänzlich verschiedene Leben. Für mich am interessantesten waren dabei die kleinen aber doch tief gehenden Einschübe über die Diskriminierung der Schwarzen. Vor allen Hatties erstes Erlebnis auf dem Bahnhof, als all das, was sie kannte plötzlich in Frage gestellt wurde und sie sah, dass man Schwarze auch ganz anders behandeln kann. Auch die Episode um Ella, die ein besseres Leben haben soll, fand ich sehr beeindruckend, wie Hattie zerrissen wird zwischen ihren Wünschen und den Zukunftsmöglichkeiten des Kindes. Ein sehr inhaltsstarker Roman, der viele Facetten des Lebens abbildet und mit Hattie eine starke Protagonistin hat, die auch mal schwach wird.
received this ARC last September (2012) free from the publisher as a gift for Mocha Girls Read Book Club 1st Anniversary. They sent us printed manuscript copies of the book bond and with a clear plastic cover. Then less than a month later it is announced as Oprah's book club pick. I was shocked when I heard this. I was thrilled to see a book I have in ARC form is on her list. But I never got to it for whatever reason.
This book is written unlike most books. It centers around Hattie Shepherd, a young mother of many children. Each chapter is written by and about her children in their unique voice. Their stories tell you about their issues, problems and difficulties as well as their relationship with Hattie and their Father.
I thought the book was well written and it painted the bleak picture of Hattie and her children's situation clearly as time went on. As a debut author Ayana Mathis did a great job expressing the despair Hattie goes through as see watches her new born twins suffer in the first chapter.
Then why am I giving it such low stars? Well it is the ending and the lack of conclusion. The chapters are told by her children at different time periods but nothing gets resolved. Nothing is told to the read about anyone after the chapter ends. I was invested throughout the book with each and every single person but when I finished the book I got no conclusions at all as to what happened to them through out the decades. The children grow up, leave and make their own way. Done! That did not settle with me at all. I need something to help me understand why they are all going though this and what is the purpose. Don't just drop me off and forget about me. I need some time of closure.
Without telling you any spoilers the ending felt like it was a beginning of a new chapter in Hattie's voice. I was so expecting that but nothing.
NOTHING!
This book is written unlike most books. It centers around Hattie Shepherd, a young mother of many children. Each chapter is written by and about her children in their unique voice. Their stories tell you about their issues, problems and difficulties as well as their relationship with Hattie and their Father.
I thought the book was well written and it painted the bleak picture of Hattie and her children's situation clearly as time went on. As a debut author Ayana Mathis did a great job expressing the despair Hattie goes through as see watches her new born twins suffer in the first chapter.
Then why am I giving it such low stars? Well it is the ending and the lack of conclusion. The chapters are told by her children at different time periods but nothing gets resolved. Nothing is told to the read about anyone after the chapter ends. I was invested throughout the book with each and every single person but when I finished the book I got no conclusions at all as to what happened to them through out the decades. The children grow up, leave and make their own way. Done! That did not settle with me at all. I need something to help me understand why they are all going though this and what is the purpose. Don't just drop me off and forget about me. I need some time of closure.
Without telling you any spoilers the ending felt like it was a beginning of a new chapter in Hattie's voice. I was so expecting that but nothing.
NOTHING!
I read this book for a book club, and I am really happy that I did. The reader follows Hattie’s life journey, from the time she migrated from Georgia to Philadelphia in 1923, with her mother and sister at the age of 15. The writer dedicates an interesting chapter, to each of the twelve children, that Hattie bore. I really enjoyed this book, it had me hanging on every word, right up until, the very end.
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
DAMN. can the Shepherds catch a break?
in preparation to write a family story of my own, i have decided to read family sagas for inspiration, first Pachinko, now this. The Twelve Tribes of Hattie follows the eponymous Hattie and her 11 children (plus one grandchild.) like Pachinko, this book centers around a woman, her offspring, and the ramifications that woman's decisions had on her children's lives.
just two years after moving to Philadelphia from Georgia with her mother and two sisters, Hattie finds herself broke in an apartment with two sick babies. her twins die of pneumonia, an event which stays with her forever. her grief hardens her, so she raises her other nine children without any tenderness. her love manifests in the ways that she sacrifies for them, and tries her best to raise them with what little she has. she makes a lot of mistakes though, and all of her children come our with scars (mental, physical, emotional.)
i really enjoyed this book! because each chapter focused on a different child and situation, it felt like a quick read. i loved the figurative language, the different stylistic choices (some chapters being in first person with others being in third, the structure of the Franklin chapter, etc), and how we got different perspectives on certain situations and characters.
neither Hattie nor any of her child have happy or pleasant lives — i would say the chapters that ended on a more hopeful note, all things considered, were "Bell" and "Sala" — but i didn't find this to be too Much. maybe because these traumatic things happened to different people, rather one person getting the brunt of the suffering? i liked the diversity of experiences even within a singular family: one child struggling with repressed sexuality, another who escapes poverty by marrying a rich man but is trapped by her own mind and trauma, a soldier looking back on his mistakes while he lives the horror of the Vietnam War. one of my favorite chapters was "Six," because it felt almost like i different genre, with Six feeling literally like he got possessed.
this was an ambitious text, and while some chapters were better than others, i did enjoy the book overall. 3.75!
in preparation to write a family story of my own, i have decided to read family sagas for inspiration, first Pachinko, now this. The Twelve Tribes of Hattie follows the eponymous Hattie and her 11 children (plus one grandchild.) like Pachinko, this book centers around a woman, her offspring, and the ramifications that woman's decisions had on her children's lives.
just two years after moving to Philadelphia from Georgia with her mother and two sisters, Hattie finds herself broke in an apartment with two sick babies. her twins die of pneumonia, an event which stays with her forever. her grief hardens her, so she raises her other nine children without any tenderness. her love manifests in the ways that she sacrifies for them, and tries her best to raise them with what little she has. she makes a lot of mistakes though, and all of her children come our with scars (mental, physical, emotional.)
i really enjoyed this book! because each chapter focused on a different child and situation, it felt like a quick read. i loved the figurative language, the different stylistic choices (some chapters being in first person with others being in third, the structure of the Franklin chapter, etc), and how we got different perspectives on certain situations and characters.
neither Hattie nor any of her child have happy or pleasant lives — i would say the chapters that ended on a more hopeful note, all things considered, were "Bell" and "Sala" — but i didn't find this to be too Much. maybe because these traumatic things happened to different people, rather one person getting the brunt of the suffering? i liked the diversity of experiences even within a singular family: one child struggling with repressed sexuality, another who escapes poverty by marrying a rich man but is trapped by her own mind and trauma, a soldier looking back on his mistakes while he lives the horror of the Vietnam War. one of my favorite chapters was "Six," because it felt almost like i different genre, with Six feeling literally like he got possessed.
this was an ambitious text, and while some chapters were better than others, i did enjoy the book overall. 3.75!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, War
Minor: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Infertility, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization
3.5
Really enjoyed the story arc all through this book but felt like the character development and story development for each of the kids was a little stunted. Not necessarily a complaint (leave them wanting more?), just that I did want more!
There were some particularly heartbreaking scenes, especially in Hattie’s later years and Sala’s younger years. Would recommend.
Really enjoyed the story arc all through this book but felt like the character development and story development for each of the kids was a little stunted. Not necessarily a complaint (leave them wanting more?), just that I did want more!
There were some particularly heartbreaking scenes, especially in Hattie’s later years and Sala’s younger years. Would recommend.
slow-paced
I enjoyed the writing in this book so much that I wish it was broken into separate books. Each of the chapters is about one of Hattie's children. But one chapter is not enough. Mathis makes you fall in love with each character, only to never write of them again except in passing. I nice read all the same.
This is really a collection of short stories, as every chapter deals with one or two of the eponymous Hattie's children and Hattie is often the only link, which makes all the different parts quite disconnected and thus not really a novel in my opinion. And as with most short story collections, there were some good stories and some not so good ones. Especially the last 4 or so weren't much to my liking. I also wish at least one of the children turned out alright - instead, they all lead miserable, depressing lives. Too much of that can be a drag, and in this case also a bit unrealistic.