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tristanemurray 's review for:
The Book of Lost Friends
by Lisa Wingate
Following two different timelines, Lisa Wingate’s historical fiction takes a look at the generational impacts of slavery, but that’s about all it does. Hannie grew up on the Gossett plantation as a sharecropper in the Reconstruction Era South. Benedetta Silva is a modern-day teacher at the school in the town that originally held the Gossett plantation.
Hannie’s storyline follows a quest with the Gossett daughters to set things right in the will of Mr. Gossett, which would have benefits for both Hannie and the daughters. This journey takes them all throughout the South, where they brush with death more times than a reader can count.
Benedetta’s path is one of a new teacher at an underfunded school who is unable to form meaningful connections with her students. In an attempt to link with her students, she sends them on a mission to discover their own personal histories, many of which intertwine with that of the original inhabitants of the Gossett plantation. During this process, she inevitably meets one of the Gossett men and forms a relationship with him, despite knowing the history of his family.
This book was unbelievably, painfully slow. Even when the action struck, it was not enough to pull me in. It honestly felt like this book capitalized off the stories of enslaved people and their “lost” families without engaging in an appropriate discourse about this harsh side of U.S. history. It included excerpts from a real newspaper during this era in which formerly enslaved people wrote to seek out the members of their families which had been separated from them (i.e., “lost”). However, these excerpts seemed to serve little purpose in the overall dialogue, except for the fact that Hannie and the Gossett daughters began it.
Overall, I don’t think I would recommend this book. The storyline failed to take off and the character arcs weren’t impressive enough to keep me engaged.
Hannie’s storyline follows a quest with the Gossett daughters to set things right in the will of Mr. Gossett, which would have benefits for both Hannie and the daughters. This journey takes them all throughout the South, where they brush with death more times than a reader can count.
Benedetta’s path is one of a new teacher at an underfunded school who is unable to form meaningful connections with her students. In an attempt to link with her students, she sends them on a mission to discover their own personal histories, many of which intertwine with that of the original inhabitants of the Gossett plantation. During this process, she inevitably meets one of the Gossett men and forms a relationship with him, despite knowing the history of his family.
This book was unbelievably, painfully slow. Even when the action struck, it was not enough to pull me in. It honestly felt like this book capitalized off the stories of enslaved people and their “lost” families without engaging in an appropriate discourse about this harsh side of U.S. history. It included excerpts from a real newspaper during this era in which formerly enslaved people wrote to seek out the members of their families which had been separated from them (i.e., “lost”). However, these excerpts seemed to serve little purpose in the overall dialogue, except for the fact that Hannie and the Gossett daughters began it.
Overall, I don’t think I would recommend this book. The storyline failed to take off and the character arcs weren’t impressive enough to keep me engaged.