Overview: 3.5/5 stars

This book talks about difficult themes in the history of Africa and then US, centered around discrimination and exploitation. The book follows a variety if people along the last three centuries that dealt with various elements of discrimination, with slavery being a central theme.

While the topic in interesting, the writing style felt mostly flat to me. The characters were human, but it felt most of them were objects of their own lives instead of subjects. It seems they suffered not only from the outside world but also a lack of inner development. That was true not only of the characters that had limited to no agency, but also of the ones that had freedom and took revolutionary actions: they all felt limited and fairly unengaging.

From the more academic perspective, it gives glimpses of philosophical debates in the history of African Americans. This was the but I personally enjoyed the most.

All in all, an okay book about an interesting and well-researched topic.

  • alex [they, il]
    2·
    11 months ago

    I love that we had such different experiences!

    My review for it was super super short but here it is:

    This novel is possibly my favourite read of 2023 so far, because it is incredibly good and also, I must say, because I am a huge sucker for multi-generational timelines.

    I didn’t mind the object characters too much because I was more interested in what happened to them than to who they were anyway, but I absolutely understand your opinion :)

    • Eq0@literature.cafeOP
      1·
      11 months ago

      Thanks for your point of view! Always fun to see other perspectives.

      I haven’t read many multi-generational books, and I often felt the characters being flat on the page, so maybe it’s my own shortcoming.