erdufylla 's review for:

Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley

4.0

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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.