From the Bookshelf of Constant Reader…

Someone Knows My Name

Lawrence Hill

Start date: June 15, 2012

Finish date: June 15, 2012

Discussion: Reading List

Discussion leader: Sherry

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Reading List

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What Members Thought

Jun 04, 2012 Ruth rated it liked it

In general, I prefer finely written, taut, compact literary novels to big sprawling ones. I had to get past that in order to appreciate this book. I certainly learned a lot. It was a riveting, even if sometimes not quite believable, plot. I feel that the writer really did his research. But I also felt as if he was never going to let me forget it. He was going to move his characters through an arc that would make me learn everything that he’d learned or die trying. So while it was all very intere ...more

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Mar 28, 2009 Mary Anne rated it really liked it

Shelves: book-club

This is an excellent book, and well worth reading.
It is the second book I've read in the last 6 months that dealt with slavery during the Revolutionary War period. The first was The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing. Both novels featured Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of the Virginia colony, who promised slaves that they would be made free if they fought with and worked for the British against the rebels. The rebels, of course, were white property owners who were fighting against British ty ...more

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Dec 08, 2008 Rashida rated it it was amazing

Shelves: herstory, favorites, historical-fiction

No book is perfect, but I think this one comes close. I hate to start a review with negatives, but it will probably be easiest that way. Aminata Diallo is exceptional, and so is her story. That's the only thing that nagged about the story. Was she too exceptional? Were some of the circumstances just too unbelievable in terms of miraculous good timing and good connections and just plain historically? More uncomfortably, why was it that Aminata's keen mind was always referred to with such incredul No book is perfect, but I think this one comes close. I hate to start a review with negatives, but it will probably be easiest that way. Aminata Diallo is exceptional, and so is her story. That's the only thing that nagged about the story. Was she too exceptional? Were some of the circumstances just too unbelievable in terms of miraculous good timing and good connections and just plain historically? More uncomfortably, why was it that Aminata's keen mind was always referred to with such incredulity? Why was the spark of intelligence in her eyes so uncommon as to get her different treatment? I can remember only once that a white man in the book does wonder out loud that perhaps with opportunity the other Africans could be just as intelligent as Aminata. It's simply a point that I would have like to have seen more forcefully made.

The thing is, though, Aminata was stolen at age 11 and lived a very long life. It should not need to be said, but slavery was a brutal and vicious system of human oppression. In order for anyone to survive that, it would require exceptional circumstances. Every one who did survive that was uncommon in some way. The sheer numbers of lives extinguished boggles the mind and somehow, it is miraculous that there were not more. So, I am grateful to go Mr. Hill for writing of this particular set of uncommon circumstances in order to illuminate these pivotal but not well known moments of history.

Aminata is the readers's guide through history. She shows us the trek to the coast of Africa, the middle passage, an indigo plantation on South Carolina's Gullah Islands, slavery in the city of Charlestown, the Revolutionary War as experienced by slaves, race relations in Nova Scotia, ex/re-patriotism to Sierra Leone, and the fight for abolition in London. Through all of this, we are shown the pain, love, and even humor of a human life lived in bondage and freedom. Her tragedies become ours and her victories feel sweet.

As suspenseful, tragic, and painful as many of these events were, you don't want to put the book down and abandon Aminata. Her spirit of triumph and courage propel her to freedom and propel us through these pages.

At one point, Aminata muses that while she thought her migrations were extraordinary, the other former slaves she meets while helping with The Book of Negroes have traveled just as far and wide. That was what is so precious about this novel. Yes, she is fiction, but Aminata represents giving a voice to all those people who did live at least parts of her journey. She is a constant reminder to us not to forget the exceptional people who were the victims of slavery. And to always honor our ancestors who survive through us. ...more

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Jul 12, 2009 Loretta rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Absolutely, breathtakingly, wonderful, compelling. I will be recommending this book to every one I know. It tells a particular story about the slave trade that I wasn't aware of - how some 3,000 slaves (former and, sadly, current) were moved to Nova Scotia.

The writing is clear and crisp and Hill has created an unforgettable heroine in Aminata Diallo.

Really loved it. ...more

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Dec 02, 2007 Pam rated it it was amazing

The story (told in first person) of Aminata, born in Africa in the mid 1700's, captured and sold into slavery. Richly detailed and, of course, heartbreaking. But not sentimental, not preachy. ...more

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