Scan barcode
A review by cgcpoems
Negroland by Margo Jefferson
slow-paced
2.0
I’ve only put down a few books in my life in the middle of reading them. Generally, even if a book is terrible, I soldier through on the off-chance that by the end things will be better.
I came incredibly close to giving up on this halfway through, and now that I’ve finished it I think it wouldn’t have mattered if I had. I had a number of issues with the execution of this book, not to mention the fact that it’s labeled a memoir when it’s really a non-focused autobiography that meanders into other subjects. The writing was incredibly stiff, and the author’s tone throughout was off-putting. I didn’t know what to make of this.
There was no flow to this “memoir” told through choppy sections. Why did the author explain to us their use of initials instead of names within the text and not in a note before or after? Things like this made the book unenjoyable, and had me upping the speed on the audiobook just so I could get through it.
I’m glad Jefferson has told her story—the more stories in the world, the better we are for it. But her memoir fell flat, and was wildly disappointing.
I came incredibly close to giving up on this halfway through, and now that I’ve finished it I think it wouldn’t have mattered if I had. I had a number of issues with the execution of this book, not to mention the fact that it’s labeled a memoir when it’s really a non-focused autobiography that meanders into other subjects. The writing was incredibly stiff, and the author’s tone throughout was off-putting. I didn’t know what to make of this.
There was no flow to this “memoir” told through choppy sections. Why did the author explain to us their use of initials instead of names within the text and not in a note before or after? Things like this made the book unenjoyable, and had me upping the speed on the audiobook just so I could get through it.
I’m glad Jefferson has told her story—the more stories in the world, the better we are for it. But her memoir fell flat, and was wildly disappointing.