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A review by mariahistryingtoread
Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" by Zora Neale Hurston
3.0
This was an interesting read and I appreciate that this mans' story was able to be told because I think that it was important not just from a larger, historical perspective, but for Oluale Kossola's sake as well.
However, I really don't think there was enough information here for a book. The actual account is 96 pages and the rest of the book is a ton of extraneous material to pad it. There are two introductions, an editor's note, several of Kossola's stories, and an afterword. What's worse is that if you read the first introduction, it essentially renders the rest of the book redundant because it gives you a broad overview.
And again, I do believe that this story should be told but there aren't a ton of details or a distinctive point of view provided that make it stand out once you've read the general summary of it. Obviously this is someone's personal story of a truly dark period in their life as well as our history so I don't expect nor want embellishment. But, Kossola's is not much of a storyteller and Zora Neale Hurston writes it just as he says it while providing very little context. It reads like an interview you'd see in a newspaper. Hurston visited Kossola over the course of several months, and while she makes it clear he didn't always want to speak to her and he had every right to safeguard his deeper thoughts (also it had been a long time he could genuinely have not remembered some things either way) I had this feeling of 'this is all she got after x amount of time?'
I think the real issue is that because it's a book I had certain expectations. I truly believe though that this would have been better suited as an online article or as part of a compilation of tales similar to this one. As a standalone it just doesn't measure up.
However, I really don't think there was enough information here for a book. The actual account is 96 pages and the rest of the book is a ton of extraneous material to pad it. There are two introductions, an editor's note, several of Kossola's stories, and an afterword. What's worse is that if you read the first introduction, it essentially renders the rest of the book redundant because it gives you a broad overview.
And again, I do believe that this story should be told but there aren't a ton of details or a distinctive point of view provided that make it stand out once you've read the general summary of it. Obviously this is someone's personal story of a truly dark period in their life as well as our history so I don't expect nor want embellishment. But, Kossola's is not much of a storyteller and Zora Neale Hurston writes it just as he says it while providing very little context. It reads like an interview you'd see in a newspaper. Hurston visited Kossola over the course of several months, and while she makes it clear he didn't always want to speak to her and he had every right to safeguard his deeper thoughts (also it had been a long time he could genuinely have not remembered some things either way) I had this feeling of 'this is all she got after x amount of time?'
I think the real issue is that because it's a book I had certain expectations. I truly believe though that this would have been better suited as an online article or as part of a compilation of tales similar to this one. As a standalone it just doesn't measure up.