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A review by sarahcoller
Clotel: Or, the President's Daughter by William Wells Brown, William W. Brown
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Clotel has been dubbed the first novel published by an African American. I don't think I'd necessarily call it a novel as there's no real running plot throughout. It's really more of a mix of stories along with anecdotal information. He says it best at the end when he speaks of narratives. These are narratives written into story form and collected loosely with the thread of some characters being possible descendants of Thomas Jefferson running throughout. As a piece of literature, it wasn't particularly well-written. As a piece of history, it's invaluable.
These stories were so hard to read and imagine. I have shied away from reading hard things like this concerning cultural atrocities (holocaust, slavery days, child trafficking, etc.) for a long time. As a young mother and mother of young children, I didn't feel emotionally stable enough to read about these issues without it affecting the kind of peaceful mother I wanted to be. As that time of life wraps up, I'm finding that I can better face some of these horrific things. I think it's very important to keep the knowledge of this history alive. Both to give remembrance to those who suffered it and to arm ourselves with understanding as to how we can keep it from happening again.
These stories were so hard to read and imagine. I have shied away from reading hard things like this concerning cultural atrocities (holocaust, slavery days, child trafficking, etc.) for a long time. As a young mother and mother of young children, I didn't feel emotionally stable enough to read about these issues without it affecting the kind of peaceful mother I wanted to be. As that time of life wraps up, I'm finding that I can better face some of these horrific things. I think it's very important to keep the knowledge of this history alive. Both to give remembrance to those who suffered it and to arm ourselves with understanding as to how we can keep it from happening again.