A review by readingoverbreathing
Jubilee by Margaret Walker

4.0

". . . you can lick the whole whole world with a loving heart!"

What a journey this book was! I had not heard of this until coming across it on the ZORA canon list, and, honestly, I feel that as a whole it's truly proof of how the common canon continues to disregard works by Black women writers. This book reminded me so much of [b:Gone with the Wind|18405|Gone with the Wind|Margaret Mitchell|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1551144577l/18405._SY75_.jpg|3358283] in that it follows the cycle of a southern woman's life from the Antebellum period all the way through Restoration, but instead of documenting the woes of a white woman, you get the true grit of Vyry, who may in my mind now be one of the most memorable characters I've ever read.

I love a good sprawling southern read, and it's been so long since I've had one, so this truly was such a treat, and one I'm so glad I was able to discover. It's well-written, well-researched, and the characters are all just so vividly brilliant, from Big Missy to little Minna. Margaret Walker is a masterful novelist, and one who surely deserves more credit in mainstream literature. If you liked [b:Their Eyes Were Watching God|37415|Their Eyes Were Watching God|Zora Neale Hurston|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1368072803l/37415._SY75_.jpg|1643555] or have been searching for a less problematic Gone with the Wind, then this is surely it, although I hesitate to even make these kinds of comparisons because I want this to stand on its own as it so deserves. Cannot recommend to my southern lit-loving friends enough.