Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" by Zora Neale Hurston

13 reviews

labricoleuse's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

This is a fascinating piece of ethnographic history. I’m glad I listened to the audiobook because I get why it is important to write an oral history in the dialect as spoken but I think it would have been difficult to understand. Hearing it was clearer I think. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, and Deportation

tey_lynn's review against another edition

dark emotional funny informative reflective sad fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Slavery, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Xenophobia

fkshg8465's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

Upgrading to a five. The book itself wasn’t especially compelling, but I could feel it changing me on some celular level to read it. I don’t know if that makes sense to anyone else.

The depth of his loneliness almost broke me, but it took me some time to get there. He’s so matter of fact in his telling, but then again, I wish I could’ve heard his actual voice. That would’ve made a huge difference in how I imbibed this book.

My only fear from this experience is that there will be others out there who read it and walk away thinking and saying, pointing to his words, that not all slave masters were horrible people. That is a lie I’d hate to see perpetuated, because no matter how kind they might’ve been, they still only had slaves because they lacked respect for the dignity of these African lives and refused them any agency.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, and Colonisation

zoenelson's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

Zora Neale Hurston provides us with an account of one of the last slaves brought to the United States through a participant-observer methodology. She provides Cujo's story through his own narrative. 

As readers, we confront uncomfortable truths about U.S. history and are forced to dismantle the falsehoods we've been deceived into believing. In my mind, Cudjo's story puts words and history to the collective trauma of millions of Africans forced into slavery in the U.S.

Besides Cudjo's words, I loved the editor's notes. She provided important context and a wealth of original thought to this story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery and Trafficking

Moderate: Child death, Death, Racism, Violence, and Grief

kwilson2512's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Racism, Slavery, and Grief

scrubsandbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective

4.0

Zero sugarcoating history, just the way I like it. ZNH's conversation with Kossolo is set in a way that lets him tell his story in all its entirety, dialect and all. The narration for the audiobook felt like I was talking to him directly. It was rough to get through a lot of parts because of the themes but that is the nature of the entire story. Discomfort ought to be expected, and it is important for readers to deal with the discomfort. A definite recommend for anyone looking to pick up an important non-fiction for Black History Month.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Racism, Slavery, Violence, and Grief

tinyflame4's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Slavery, and Trafficking

Moderate: Violence, Grief, Murder, and Colonisation

Minor: Animal death, Racism, and Kidnapping

pinkalpaca's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, and Murder

seph268's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Slavery, Blood, Trafficking, and Grief

crazytourists_books's review against another edition

dark informative sad medium-paced

3.0

Is it the content I expected? No. 
Is this an extremely important book for the African-American history? Yes.
Did I struggle to read it? Yes. 
Did my heart ache for this man (and  the thousands of others, men, women, children, like him)? Of course. 
Did I like it? Unfortunately not.
Would I recommend it? Yes, it's historical, and/or laographical value is huge. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Hate crime, Slavery, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail