A review by serendipitysbooks
Conjure Women by Afia Atakora

challenging emotional reflective slow-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

 
The Conjure Women by Afia Atakora is a much newer book that unfolds in two timelines and tells the story of Rue and her mother May Belle, before, during and after the Civil War. Much of the story is centred on the community turning on Rue when she delivers a baby that people find unnerving and is later unable to cure children who fall ill. Another strand centres on the complicated relationship between Rue and the plantation owner’s daughter, Varina. It’s a very female centred story that examines motherhood, explores the intersection of gender and race, and looks at the concept of privilege and freedom within the plantation system and its aftermath. The writing was powerful and the structure, especially the way the story moved back and forward in time, really held my attention. The struggles and uncertainties of the immediate post-slavery era for Blacks are clearly portrayed. I was interested to learn that this novel is at least partly based on first accounts gathered by the WPA in the 1930s.

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