Reviews with content warning for Slavery - Don't Cry for Me: A Novel

Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

Don't Cry for Me: A Novel by Daniel Black

20 reviews

nad_books623's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This story is something that a lot of Black families can connect with. The story reminds me of my grandfathers childhood and possibly what some of my distant relatives experienced. There were moments that it was difficult for me to read but the story was well written and too compelling. I had to give it a day, but this book is staying with me.

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oxfordcommaon's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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jedore's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

“Knowledge is a funny thing, Isaac. It informs by exposing. It shows you precisely how much you don’t know.”

I was pulled into this story from the Author’s note at the very beginning. Like the author, my father passed without ever admitting, let alone apologizing, for his major emotional shortcomings. Writing this book was a way for Daniel Black to heal the gaping wounds this leaves behind.

I don’t like to compare the pain of two different people. Pain is pain and no one deserves to have their pain diminished. But, I have to say what Isaac, the gay son who is the recipient of his father’s deathbed letters, went through is FAR worse than what I went through.

On top of a typical dysfunctional family, he has the added horrors of the impact of slavery and being black in the U.S., being gay in a subculture that considers it an abhorrence, and the lack of love, tenderness and communication when it was needed most. I honestly don’t know if I would be able to climb out of a hole that deep.

Reading the imagined letters that the reformed father wrote to Isaac was definitely a soothing salve. Many of the things he conveyed explained some of the characteristics and behaviors of my own father (and other men I know and love), so it was helpful for me personally as well.

That being said, I still find it difficult to excuse my middle class white father for his emotional neglect. A black man of the same generation is a whole other story.

I highly recommend this book to anyone with daddy issues stemming from a hyper-stern and inexpressive father born in the early to mid-1900s, as well as anyone walking the path toward anti-racism. It’s a very quick, deeply emotional, and insightful read.

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hayleyvharrington's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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ladygetslit's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

+ flawed character who does work on himself to be better, exploration of Black history, shows how masculinity ruins itself sometimes

- frame narrative that limits itself, homophobia, more “tell” than “show”

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cc_shelflove's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Receiving something like this from your dead parent would honestly be a gift. Told in letters written to his son, Jacob asks Isaac for amends after he failed as a father and ostracized his son for being gay. The letters read like a memoir, so I often forgot I was reading a piece of fiction. Don’t Cry for Me was very educational in that it explored both generational and racial differences. There are so many stories about the past that we forget to ask our loved ones while they are alive. Once they are gone, the questions seem to flow more freely. I wasn’t on the edge of my seat, and I think the book would have been better if it included Isaac’s reactions to the letters. Overall, a strongly worded novel.

If you liked this book, check out Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood.

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ethan_bridgesgarcia's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

“Live your life freely, Isaac. Rise above our history and be your unapologetic self.”

What a roller coaster of emotions! This book has all the feels. I don’t know how many time I had to put this book down because of the sole fact that I related so much with the son and how he was treated by his father. The amount of hardships and struggles Jacob went through not just as a man but as a Black man struggling in a world that was already made hard for him by history but to have a gay son as well.

Many of the words Jacob said to Isaac my own father/mother has said to me. I don’t know if it’s a Southern thing but the fact that many of the gay men, or supposed gay men, in this story were called “funny,” only cemented how ignorant some people can be. Upon my own liberation from the closet, my mother asked me if I was funny… and it was the single most hardest silence I’ve ever felt. But for her to dismiss my answer only hurt more. My own father didn’t speak to me for 2 weeks. But now, nearly 10 years later, I’m married, my family has an amazing relationship with me and my husband. But still I would recommend this to any parent struggling with their kid’s sexuality.

This book Daniel Black has brought forth to the world had me in a whirlwind of tears and laughter and anger. In the particular scene of a friend suffering from AIDS comes to visit Isaac but Jacob stops to inform him that his son had moved away. I ugly cried for 20 minutes. The fact that Jacob was disgusted by how the young man looked, with sores and emaciated look to him. Jacob’s only thought was that his son would never sink that low to get the “gay disease.”

This book is possibly my favorite book I’ve read all year and I will recommend it to anyone. Just make sure you have tissues. In fact, make it a crying towel. There’s a lot of tears to be shed.

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