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A review by miss_merna
Jubilee by Margaret Walker
4.0
By now, I've read plenty of books set in antebellum south, and although this novel does not score as high as kindred or incidents in the life of a slave girl, it's still fairly good. It's the only one that I've read which captures the antebellum era, civil war, and the reconstruction period.
My favourite aspect of the novel was the portrayal of the reconstruction era. The reconstruction period was truly a period of lost hopes and dreams. It seemed as if United States may have been able to achieve equality for the newly freed slaves, especially with the radical republicans in power, but hatred and intolerance was too powerful and too much of a barrier. I always found the reconstruction period to be quite a tragic period in American history because civil rights was almost close to being obtained 90 years earlier. Although this book ends up in a happy note, it war far from so for many who lived during those times. It must have felt overwhelming to be given your rights (vote, hold office, fair trail), and then for it to be taken away once more, and then be plunged back into another period of torment and terror, but KKK and lynching this time around instead of slavery.
Although I like how the story was laid out and told, I felt quite detached from the main character. The story follows the Character of Vyry, who was born to a slave mistress and a white planter. She was too amiable and pleasant of a character for me to dislike, however, I still found her character to be sort of plain. She never fully seemed to open up. In my opinion, the character came off as reserved. However, the story does not always focus on Vyry. It sometimes switches perspectives between the overseer, or her mistress or some other character.
The other characters were engaging, however, the author never manages to capture the character's personality in a way that makes them stand out. For instance, Vyry's father is kind, but he comes off as uncaring and uninterested in his daughter, and we are never given the full scope of why this is so. I think it's just assumed that since he's a planter, he would never show much care for his illegitimate daughter, but you would think since he's much kinder than his wife or other planters that it would also be reflected in the way he treats his daughter. Yet he he treats her almost as if she's insignificant and sees her merely as a useful slave. He's not harsh, he just doesn't notice or pay attention to her.
Nonetheless, she does manages to capture the historical aspect, which I greatly enjoyed.
My favourite aspect of the novel was the portrayal of the reconstruction era. The reconstruction period was truly a period of lost hopes and dreams. It seemed as if United States may have been able to achieve equality for the newly freed slaves, especially with the radical republicans in power, but hatred and intolerance was too powerful and too much of a barrier. I always found the reconstruction period to be quite a tragic period in American history because civil rights was almost close to being obtained 90 years earlier. Although this book ends up in a happy note, it war far from so for many who lived during those times. It must have felt overwhelming to be given your rights (vote, hold office, fair trail), and then for it to be taken away once more, and then be plunged back into another period of torment and terror, but KKK and lynching this time around instead of slavery.
Although I like how the story was laid out and told, I felt quite detached from the main character. The story follows the Character of Vyry, who was born to a slave mistress and a white planter. She was too amiable and pleasant of a character for me to dislike, however, I still found her character to be sort of plain. She never fully seemed to open up. In my opinion, the character came off as reserved. However, the story does not always focus on Vyry. It sometimes switches perspectives between the overseer, or her mistress or some other character.
The other characters were engaging, however, the author never manages to capture the character's personality in a way that makes them stand out. For instance, Vyry's father is kind, but he comes off as uncaring and uninterested in his daughter, and we are never given the full scope of why this is so. I think it's just assumed that since he's a planter, he would never show much care for his illegitimate daughter, but you would think since he's much kinder than his wife or other planters that it would also be reflected in the way he treats his daughter. Yet he he treats her almost as if she's insignificant and sees her merely as a useful slave. He's not harsh, he just doesn't notice or pay attention to her.
Nonetheless, she does manages to capture the historical aspect, which I greatly enjoyed.