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A review by books_baking_brews
Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward
5.0
Men We Reaped is Ward’s coming-of-age memoir, detailing her early life in a poverty-stricken, small town in Mississippi. While Ward has certainly accomplished many accolades in life, this is not the feel-good story of how she would eventually come to win a National Book Award. Her story goes back and forth in time, all the while circling a four-year period, where she lost five men in her life in as many years.
I’ve read a couple of Ward’s novels, and she brings the same beautiful lyricism to her own story as she does to her fictional characters’ stories. I’m not a fan of rating memoirs, but I’d highly recommend this one. And, if you get a chance, after you read this book, read her subsequent Vanity Fair article, On Witness and Respair, where she describes her process of grief after losing her husband due to Covid. Reading the book and the article back to back was like some sort of tragic bookend, and momentarily left me at a loss for words.
I’ve read a couple of Ward’s novels, and she brings the same beautiful lyricism to her own story as she does to her fictional characters’ stories. I’m not a fan of rating memoirs, but I’d highly recommend this one. And, if you get a chance, after you read this book, read her subsequent Vanity Fair article, On Witness and Respair, where she describes her process of grief after losing her husband due to Covid. Reading the book and the article back to back was like some sort of tragic bookend, and momentarily left me at a loss for words.