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A review by thndrkat
Queen by David Stevens, Alex Haley
2.0
A five-star, heart-wrenching, eye-opening story that conveys powerfully the traumas that formerly enslaved people and their descendants faced before, during, and after the Civil War. The authors do an amazing job presenting multiple points of view (including male, female, Irish, American, black, white, wealthy, destitute, angry, scheming, hopeful, and hopeless).
But the writing style is dated, melodramatic at times, and can be heavy-handed, especially the romanticized, male-centric sex scenes.
Still, it’s worth reading for the insights that sadly still echo through the United States today. Even though we don’t have slavery, we still have racism, and we as a society still struggle with what to do about irrational, fear-fueled violence.
As the book says about the character Davis, who becomes a labor organizer, “he thought slavery irrational and he could not understand why rational people tolerated it. In this ... he profoundly underestimated the society he was dealing with.”
But the writing style is dated, melodramatic at times, and can be heavy-handed, especially the romanticized, male-centric sex scenes.
Still, it’s worth reading for the insights that sadly still echo through the United States today. Even though we don’t have slavery, we still have racism, and we as a society still struggle with what to do about irrational, fear-fueled violence.
As the book says about the character Davis, who becomes a labor organizer, “he thought slavery irrational and he could not understand why rational people tolerated it. In this ... he profoundly underestimated the society he was dealing with.”