Jubilee

by Margaret Walker

book data

349 ratings, 3.97 average rating, 63 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		31%
4		38%
3		24%
2		3%
1		0%

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published

January 1st 1984 by Bantam (first published 1967)

details

Paperback, 432 pages

isbn

0553273833 (isbn13: 9780553273830)

description

This stunningly different Civil War novel boasts a heroine to rival Scarlett O'Hara. Daughter of the white plantation owner and his beloved blac…more

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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 509)

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Dec 16, 2009

Jasmin Reed rated it:

(review of isbn 0395924952)

Read in February, 2006

A book written about a young female slave, tells how her family came to be and how hard it was to survive before, during and after the civil war. Vyry the daughter of a rich plantaion owner is born into slavery only because of her mother. She is brought into the big house only to be sent to the kitchen after "big missy" almost kills her. As time goes by she learns more about the horrors of being a slave. When the war comes Vyry watches as the family her father had is destroyed after th...more

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Mar 10, 2010

Gracie rated it:

(review of isbn 0395924952)

Written from the point of view and vernacular of a slave right before, during, and after the Civil War, this book is a phenomenal example of historical fiction. It is Gone With the Wind from the other side. A strong and amazing heroine, a series of hardships that we, in modern america, can't even imagine, and the overcoming of obstacles to make oneself more, better. Based on Margaret Walker's (the author) great grandmother's story, this book has a ring of truth and history and pride. Don't m...more

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Jul 27, 2009

Jo rated it:

(review of isbn 0395924952)

I read this book so long ago that I had to refer to other reviewers just to remember the details. What I did remember for myself was that it was a seminal book for me about the Civil War era. Probably more so than Gone with the Wind because it was written by a former slaves great great great granddaughter and she had the family history to refer to for her story.
I remembered the title of this book for over 3o years. I need to reread it and learn all over again about the injustice to and ...more

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Jan 28, 2009

Ruth rated it:

(review of isbn 0395924952)

bookshelves: southern

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 02, 2008

Bonnie rated it:

(review of isbn 0395924952)

bookshelves: bonnies-favorites, historical-fiction

Read in April, 2008

recommends it for: historical fiction lovers!

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Mar 20, 2008

Ebookwormy rated it:

(review of isbn 0395924952)

bookshelves: 1-character-forming, carp-500, world--africa

Read in February, 2008

This book was a "this is why i read" experience for me. Excellent character development and plot. Some topics are painful to read (slavery, violence, racism, etc.) though tastefully addressed. The spiritual content was inspiring, as the main character seeks Jesus to help her overcome the pain she and her family are experiencing.

There is also something unique for women here too. Vyry is a strong woman facing difficult, even impossible circumstances. She is criticize by both...more

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Sep 27, 2007

Christy rated it:

(review of isbn 0395924952)

bookshelves: african-american-lit-and-history, readinglist1

Read in January, 2008

Margaret Walker's novel Jubilee (1966), based on the life story of her great-grandmother, follows Vyry (This name is short for Elvira, which I only mention because her name puzzled me for 75% of the book until her full name was revealed.) from her birth as a slave in pre-Civil War Georgia through the Civil War and into the Reconstruction era in Georgia and Alabama.

Walker uses Vyry to represent African American experience in the generation or two before the twentieth century begins: ...more Margaret Walker's novel Jubilee (1966), based on the life story of her great-grandmother, follows Vyry (This name is short for Elvira, which I only mention because her name puzzled me for 75% of the book until her full name was revealed.) from her birth as a slave in pre-Civil War Georgia through the Civil War and into the Reconstruction era in Georgia and Alabama.

Walker uses Vyry to represent African American experience in the generation or two before the twentieth century begins: Vyry is a slave (generally treated relatively well because she is a house slave); she tries to run away and is beaten and left for dead; she watches her master's family die during the Civil War; she stays with the remnants after the war as long as she can; she marries and moves away from Georgia when the last of the master's family leaves; they get flooded; they get caught by the trap of sharecropping; they have their home burned down by the Klan; they finally find a nice home; and her son Jim is able to go away to school, to Selma, gesturing toward the future of the race in the final pages of the book.

However, Walker's attempt at such wide coverage falls flat. This is perhaps in part because there is little of Vyry's internal state throughout the book. Walker maintains a focus on external occurrences instead of providing a more personal sense of how this feels for Vyry. The distance that this creates between reader and character is exacerbated when, in the middle section of the book that covers the Civil War years, Vyry is all but forgotten as Walker details the experiences of the Dutton family (for whom Vyry is a slave) and their losses during the war.

One way in which the broad scope of the novel does work is in its sympathetic coverage of the Dutton family during the war. While this coverage is a distraction from Vyry's experience, which is otherwise the focus of the book, it does make it possible to see white Southerners as human and not as the monsters that it would be all too easy to portray them as. Human and even well-intentioned though they may be, they are tremendously flawed, and Walker's novel is very clear about both elements.

Ultimately, Walker's novel tells a story of hope. Despite the hardships of slavery, the war, and reconstruction, Vyry ends this story looking forward in love and anticipation of better days to come. Vyry is not a separatist but instead argues for a larger sense of community.

She says at one point, "I couldn't tell you the name of the man what whipped me, and if I could it wouldn't make no difference. I honestly believes that if airy one of them peoples what treated me like dirt when I was a slave would come to my door in the morning hungry, I would feed em. God knows I ain't got no hate in my heart for nobody. If I is and doesn't know it, I prays to God to take it out. I ain't got no time to be hating. I believes in God and I believes in trying to love and help everybody, and I knows that humble is the way. I doesn't care what you calls me, that's my doctrine and I'm gwine to preach it to my childrens, every living one I got or ever hopes to have" (485).

This generosity is moving and admirable. But is it an appropriate political response to violence, hatred, and disenfranchisement? Given the conflicts of the time period of the novel's narrative (Reconstruction, Jim Crow) and the conflicts of the time period of the publication of the novel (segregation, bussing, Civil Rights), it seems far too simple. Just be nice to people and they'll be nice to you sounds nice enough, but, as Randall points out, not everyone lives by that philosophy and thus there has to be more to the movement for freedom and equality than hope and niceness.(less)

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Aug 25, 2008

Mitch rated it:

Read in January, 1977

recommended to Mitch by: My Mom

I read this book when I was 11. It had a profound impact on me, and lead me on a lifelong study of the Civil War. It was also responsible for my eventual History Minor in college.

Walker must have been influenced by "Gone With The Wind," as the story structure parallels that novel, but told from the view of an enslaved woman whose mother was made pregnant by the plantation "master."

From reading this book, and then reading GWTW, I came to realize the r...more

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Jul 05, 2008

Margi rated it:

(review of isbn 0395924952)

Jubilee holds the true story of Vyry, the daughter of a plantation owner and his slave mistress. What made this book one of my new favorites is how well written it is...a combination of history that I never knew and this personal story of a great heroine. Vyry is like no other. She refuses to judge or hate but remains strong in the face of injustice. She loves, works, experiences loss, works, loves, experiences inhumanity over and over again. This book rivals Uncle Tom's Cabin for me...but allow...more

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May 19, 2009

Debbie rated it:

(review of isbn 0395924952)

Read in January, 2009

It was easy to get very involved with these characters. It gave me a more personal look at the treatment of slaves and the civil war movement from a slave's perspective. You learn from Vyrie that when you love people, ignorance and judgment are removed.

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Apr 30, 2009

Wendy W added it (review of isbn 0395924952)

Read in January, 1986

I read this book in high school over 20 years ago! The whipping scenes , and what they did to the skin on her back, will stay with you forever, as they have with me.

The book which began the genre.

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Jul 22, 2008

Sharon rated it:

(review of isbn 0395924952)

bookshelves: classics, cultural, emotional--but-a-good-read, moving

Oh.... LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this book. Very well written and could closely be analogous to Uncle Tom's Cabin. However, it is more about the human spirit, regret and of course--- the awful slave movement that swept the British as well as the Americans.
By reading this book, you will be able to identify with Vyry, the main character as she grows from a child, to an adult. I find it interesting that Dr. Walker heard this story as a child from her grandmother and went on to be the voice of Vy...more

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Feb 05, 2010

Babydoll rated it:

(review of isbn 0395924952)

Read in March, 2010

This was an excellent novel that author Margaret Walker developed depicting the pre and post antebellum life of a mulatto woman living in the South. Walker does an amazing job presenting the reader with the main character Vyry, who is born a slave and eventually experiences freedom after the conclusion of the Civil War. Vyry is shown as a strong willed woman with unwavering integrity, faith, and ambition. This book is definitely a classic within African American literature, which continues to re...more

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Aug 26, 2009

Barbara Short rated it:

(review of isbn 1673521959)

Read in January, 2005

Gripping, inspiring...makes me look at slavery in a whole new light. Well-written and haunting in parts. Yet it left me feeling happier and more grateful for what I have.

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Oct 16, 2009

Carly marked it as to-read (review of isbn 0395924952)

bookshelves: to-read

I haven't read this but it was discussed at Wild City Books n' Movies in 2k3 . . .

http://wildcity.proboards.com/index.cgi?...

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Apr 24, 2009

Laura rated it:

(review of isbn 0395924952)

This book is amazing. Can't recommend it enough. It's a true story of a girl born into slavery and is a young adult at the end of the Civil War. So well written.

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Mar 07, 2010

Alex rated it:

(review of isbn 0395924952)

it tells the story of a Strong black women during her life as a slave and after. It is good, tho in some ways it is like....shall i say...typical slave story.

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Jun 22, 2009

Beth rated it:

(review of isbn 0395924952)

Read in June, 2009

Well written book set during and after the Civil War. Written from the slaves viewpoint. Very poignant and at times heartbreaking. Highly recommended.

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Apr 14, 2009

Maggie rated it:

(review of isbn 0395924952)

A wonderful, well-told story. It opened my eyes just a little bit more. (Something I'm always searching for)

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