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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
I loved this story! Loved a lot, really. I felt all the injustice in the writing, I was angry with everything that was happening to Roy and Celestial.
The sad thing about all this book is that, despite is a fictional book, it's a real story for a lot of people...
The sad thing about all this book is that, despite is a fictional book, it's a real story for a lot of people...
A heart-wrenching topic to read, especially early on through the letters between Roy and Georgia/Celestial. With a title like ‘An America Marriage’ I had some false hope for happiness but that’s not marriage. “How you feel love and understand love are two different things” and oh boy does Tayari Jones beautifully display just how love can be understood differently, as much as you wish to be on the same page as the others in it.
Roy and Celestial are married for 1 yr when the drive from Atlanta to Louisiana to visit Roy’s parents (Big Roy and Olive). Dre is their best friend. Celestial has known him her whole life and Roy met him at Spelman.
This was a good, compact story that I read quickly. It's not fundamental that a book is 'compact' but I think that other writers might have embellished this with a thousand more chapters and this felt like the bare bones of the story, only the essential.
It was interesting to read about how an unlawful arrest and imprisionment affected an up-and-coming young couple in the American south.
This is an interesting take on marriage and what it takes to make one work, especially when life has different plans for how your lives will unfold.
I haven’t devoured a book like this in a long time.
I breezed right through this book. It's a very potent, heartbreaking story that sheds light on what probably many black men go through in our American culture. The thought of having a life, and then someone taking it away from you for no reason, and how a human even begins to navigate that... Jones beautifully writes this story without making it a lecture or lesson. It's all about this man (Roy), this woman (Celestial), everyone around them, and how their lives change forever when Roy ends up in jail despite being innocent.
There are letters written to and from Roy and his wife, Celestial, while he's in jail. The letters are my favorite part of the book. They were so well written and purposeful. There was so much said without being said. The time between responses glared through the book and the growing distance was felt. After that, characters become extremely frustrating to deal with when it comes to Roy's new life. I wanted to shake them and yell at them in his defense. But I think that was part of the point.
I will say that the one thing I did actually get frustrated with, outside of the natural ebb and flow of the story, was the character Celestial at times. Although her career was a big part of her life, there were moments that the definition of her came down to two men. I struggled with believing and understanding that this is just who the character was. I understood (as best as I could), the situation she was in, but there was something off about her. It was reiterated time and time again that Celestial could not belong to anyone, but it didn't always feel that way. I wish we got to spend a little more time with her outside of Roy and Andre. Again, how everything leads her back to the subject of Roy makes sense because of the guilt and this sudden change in life, but I just can't put my finger on what was missing about her...
Overall, the different perspectives are fascinating. The theme of "letting go" and just finding the best for yourself becomes more and more apparent as the story goes on even though each and every character tries to fight it.
I'll be thinking of this story for a long time. And I'll be thinking of the characters in it as if they are real people, wondering how they're doing.
There are letters written to and from Roy and his wife, Celestial, while he's in jail. The letters are my favorite part of the book. They were so well written and purposeful. There was so much said without being said. The time between responses glared through the book and the growing distance was felt. After that, characters become extremely frustrating to deal with when it comes to Roy's new life. I wanted to shake them and yell at them in his defense. But I think that was part of the point.
I will say that the one thing I did actually get frustrated with, outside of the natural ebb and flow of the story, was the character Celestial at times. Although her career was a big part of her life, there were moments that the definition of her came down to two men. I struggled with believing and understanding that this is just who the character was. I understood (as best as I could), the situation she was in, but there was something off about her. It was reiterated time and time again that Celestial could not belong to anyone, but it didn't always feel that way. I wish we got to spend a little more time with her outside of Roy and Andre. Again, how everything leads her back to the subject of Roy makes sense because of the guilt and this sudden change in life, but I just can't put my finger on what was missing about her...
Overall, the different perspectives are fascinating. The theme of "letting go" and just finding the best for yourself becomes more and more apparent as the story goes on even though each and every character tries to fight it.
I'll be thinking of this story for a long time. And I'll be thinking of the characters in it as if they are real people, wondering how they're doing.
Stunningly written, gripping, heartbreaking, made me see the conflict of race in America in a new light. A beautifully difficult story that is worth the read.
I listened to the audiobook of this one, and finished it in one lazy day. Great story told from multiple POVs (heads up for you 2019 Popsugar participants). Overview: tragedy strikes newlyweds Roy and Celestial, in what is an all too familiar occurrence in America. At no fault of their own, their picture perfect life is set on a different course and brings up a number of interesting questions, and how false imprisonment punishes more than just the accused. I don’t know if I would have done what Celestial did, but at the same time - she and Roy are both in a very hard situation and marriages have dissolved before far less trying circumstances. At the core of this book is the very real social issue concerning African Americans being unjustly accused and incarcerated at a higher rate than other groups of people. The ending isn’t the happy ending the reader hopes for, but it is a happy ending none the less.