Men We Reaped: A Memoir in Around the World in 80 Books

May 05, 2015 alana rated it it was amazing

Shelves: females-and-feminists, biography-memoir, southernlit, non-fiction, sept-11, depression, mental-health

I'm finding it hard to articulate my feelings about this book. It's horrible and beautiful at the same time. Jesmyn Ward is a stunning wordsmith, presenting her memories of growing up in rural Mississippi with clarity and realness while conveying tragic loss of life and debilitating circumstances without self-pity but sorrow and anger. By telling the stories of her family and friends, Ward also raises essential questions about race and racism, gender norms and gendered racism, poverty and privil ...more

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Aug 27, 2020 Madeleine rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, bio-memoir, favs

Brilliant, heartbreaking, and beautiful. One of my favorite authors. I read an interview with Ward where she said (paraphrasing) that she had to learn how to not spare her fictional characters from trauma and death, because the world does not spare poor Black Southern communities.

The fact that Ward saw that ‘not sparing’ happen to so many people she loved is fucking heartbreaking.

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Jan 19, 2014 Katie rated it it was ok

Shelves: female-author, kindle, non-fiction, _us-south, memoirs, rural-life

Men We Reaped is a memoir recounting the lives and deaths of several of the author's friends and relatives. Those who died were all young southern black men who died well before their time. The book is both a very personal account and a commentary on the societal problems that caused so many of the author's friends to die so young.

I finished this book a few weeks ago, so it is hard to remember exactly what I thought. The book had such great potential, but I felt it fell a little short. While th ...more

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May 11, 2017 Nikki Morse rated it it was amazing

Shelves: memoir

What an incredible memoir. The details are so rich and illuminating, the people come to life, her grief is so palpable as she struggles to make sense and tell a story hungering to be told. It was a bit confusing but ultimately I loved the pattern of going back and forth we between her history moving forward, and the 4 deaths moving backward, culminating in that of her brother. So powerful.

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Jul 25, 2020 Jody Rowan rated it it was amazing

This memoir is written so beautifully about what is was to live poor and Black and in Mississippi. You can feel how unrelenting the hopelessness is in the community as she recounts how 5 men in her life die. These deaths are excruciating but she somehow communicates that they were almost expected. Heartbreaking into a million pieces.

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