The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois in Big Book Summer Reading Challenge 2022

Mar 10, 2022 Kate rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2022-read

This amazing novel took me a while to get through because, at times, it was so difficult to read. This is a multifamily, multigenerational saga told mostly through Ailey as she grows into adulthood. It revolves around a family home in fictional Chicasetta, Georgia which initially was the home to Native Americans who were pushed out by a white man who won it in a lottery and transformed it into a cotton plantation. Now in the 2010s, Ailey's great uncle lives in the house where his ancestors were ...more

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Feb 03, 2022 Karen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: oprah-bookclub-reads, very-best-of-2022, black-history-month

I'm starting off Black History Month with a powerful book. Just finished this morning and I already know I will be thinking about the many characters that come alive in this novel for along time.
I will not give a synopsis here I will just urge you to take the time and dive into this epic story!!! Yes it's 797 pages and you will be flipping back at the family tree often as I did. But it's so worth it! This should be required reading in schools but sadly in today's environment it would probably be ...more

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Jan 31, 2022 Deb rated it it was amazing

This is one of those books you just can't put down. You want to turn page after page. But I did put it down even though I wanted to keep going at a fast pace. I wanted to take my time. I wanted to take in Ailey's life - the heartbreak, the fear, the guilt and the courage. We meet Ailey as a little girl and follow her through her ever changing life. We are also taken back to the very beginning of Ailey's family and in alternating chapters we are taken back into history to see the horrors of slave ...more

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Jan 17, 2022 Heidi'sbooks added it

I almost quit reading this book multiple times because it is very graphic and it's too much. Every male in this book (besides Root) is either an abuser or a adulterer, including W. E. B. Dubois with his mistress. There are rapes and graphic child sexual assaults. One after the other. Once you devote yourself to an 800 page book, you're invested in it. So, reading with my sister, I decided to finish. The last 100 pages are good.

Anyway, every possible theme for black women is included in this tome I almost quit reading this book multiple times because it is very graphic and it's too much. Every male in this book (besides Root) is either an abuser or a adulterer, including W. E. B. Dubois with his mistress. There are rapes and graphic child sexual assaults. One after the other. Once you devote yourself to an 800 page book, you're invested in it. So, reading with my sister, I decided to finish. The last 100 pages are good.

Anyway, every possible theme for black women is included in this tome. The arguments between Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Dubois are discussed; colorism--in fact a light skinned black doctor is among the worst of the child sexual abusers; anger among black women, marriage between Creek and African Americans; White masters and slave women and their children; and more Child Sexual assaults and the long term results of that in families; middle class black women vs. poor black men. Drug addiction.

Themes: Violence begets violence. Starting with the violent slave masters and carrying on down through the generations, violence is a result of the history of slavery. Black women are the backbone and strength of the black family. Education and its importance and how racism hinders the black student. History's importance and black women coming to grips with the history of slavery/racism/violence and how that has shaped their lives. Drug addiction and abuse and the destruction of a person trying to cover the pain of child sexual abuse.

When people say this book is epic, I agree. It starts with the Creek owning the land before Oglethorpe started the colony of Georgia. It follows the lineage of the land through the centuries and the people who live on the land. It moves to the white plantation owner and his slaves and lineage. It continues with the sharecroppers and their descendants. The land is its own character with the red mound of dirt and the tree enduring through all the generations.

There is a token white wife in a biracial marriage who spouts all the cliches. The biracial marriage is looked at negatively. There is a "white trash" family with their lineage explained.

In most literature when there are bad characters, there's usually another character that's good to serve as a foil or contrast. In the first 650 pages I didn't think there were any families to look up to. Certainly not the slave owner monster. But in fact, it was also a pretty hopeless look at the black family. All the men had mistresses or were child molesters. At the black church, the young men would assault women going to the outhouse. I didn't think that was realistic. Root was the only good male character in the book. Certainly there had to be some intact families where the husband was faithful to his wife.

In the end of the book, there is hope with the main character turning her life around. ...more

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Jul 06, 2022 Barb rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, book-club

4.5 * This book really spoke to me, and I am so glad I read it. Although it was long, I moved right through it as the plotline was compelling and I was eager to know more about each character as they were introduced. I think I enjoyed the structure the most. I really admire the way Jeffers wove the historical story into the current day narrative. Some may find the number of characters and the multiple names for the same person confusing, but I found it captivating. The story was alive! The reaso ...more

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