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A review by alexreadsall
Blonde Roots by Bernardine Evaristo
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
Bernadine Evaristo is a genius. I love her mind and her writing so much. Blonde Roots is her debut and even in this you can see how good she is going to be.
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This book explores the idea of power and what absolute power can do. Blonde Roots asks the question ‘what would have happened if the African peoples had come to enslave white Europeans instead?’ And what an exploration it was.
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I don’t really know how to talk about this book. In a lot of weird ways I loved it because of Bernadine Evaristo’s pure writing ability. She has such a way with words and characters that it’s hard not to love what she writes. But it wasn’t an easy read in a lot of different ways. The horrors that happen to the whyte slaves inflicted by their blak masters are graphic and she just lays it all out without apology.
⠀
I have to admit I had a hard time remembering that our main character was whyte. I had to consciously remind myself that this was a fictional made up history and that everything was flipped. Which might have been part of Evaristo’s point. That absolute power over others will eventually and always lead to the same horrific results. Regardless of race.
⠀
I’m not a scholar, I’m not even a college graduate so I’m not sure if I have the language to talk about this book. But it made an impact and I think that what Evaristo did was incredible. It didn’t change how I feel about history and it didn’t give me sympathy for white people but it did help me to explore how power works.
⠀
Here’s the deal I will read anything that Bernadine Evaristo has written or will write. I’m glad I read it because it’s such a unique idea, taking a race of people who historically have always had the power and taken whatever they wanted and taking that power away from them in the most horrible way possible. It’s clever and at times darkly funny and the way she takes every aspect of that awful time in history and made it about whytes was brilliant.
⠀
I guess all of this is to say I liked the book with caveats. And I would love more people to read it so I can chat with others about it. If you have read it please let me know so we can chat!!
⠀
This book explores the idea of power and what absolute power can do. Blonde Roots asks the question ‘what would have happened if the African peoples had come to enslave white Europeans instead?’ And what an exploration it was.
⠀
I don’t really know how to talk about this book. In a lot of weird ways I loved it because of Bernadine Evaristo’s pure writing ability. She has such a way with words and characters that it’s hard not to love what she writes. But it wasn’t an easy read in a lot of different ways. The horrors that happen to the whyte slaves inflicted by their blak masters are graphic and she just lays it all out without apology.
⠀
I have to admit I had a hard time remembering that our main character was whyte. I had to consciously remind myself that this was a fictional made up history and that everything was flipped. Which might have been part of Evaristo’s point. That absolute power over others will eventually and always lead to the same horrific results. Regardless of race.
⠀
I’m not a scholar, I’m not even a college graduate so I’m not sure if I have the language to talk about this book. But it made an impact and I think that what Evaristo did was incredible. It didn’t change how I feel about history and it didn’t give me sympathy for white people but it did help me to explore how power works.
⠀
Here’s the deal I will read anything that Bernadine Evaristo has written or will write. I’m glad I read it because it’s such a unique idea, taking a race of people who historically have always had the power and taken whatever they wanted and taking that power away from them in the most horrible way possible. It’s clever and at times darkly funny and the way she takes every aspect of that awful time in history and made it about whytes was brilliant.
⠀
I guess all of this is to say I liked the book with caveats. And I would love more people to read it so I can chat with others about it. If you have read it please let me know so we can chat!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Violence, and Racism