Reviews with content warning for Miscarriage - The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois

Reviews tagging 'Miscarriage'

The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

34 reviews

lilcookie's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I have no doubt the writing of this book was Jeffers' labor - of love, of loss, of sifting through the ugly/beautiful/mundane lives of Black, Indigenous, and White folks starting with the colonization of Creek and Cherokee. It's clear how much she loves tangling and disentangling families - one of the most striking parts of this book was how Jeffers was able to continually embed the ways relationship ties can be bound and severed. I was also struck by the way she described sexual abuse and assault against Black girls and women. It was heartbreaking and poignant, though at times I wished for her to follow the thread a bit more. I also appreciated the way she wove in historic events and familiar institutions for Black folks (churches, HBCUs) into the story of these interconnected families. In short, Jeffers has done something remarkable with this book.

That being said, I had qualms. It was a humungous undertaking to write about this family from its relative beginning to the 21st century, and especially big when you consider the time skips and revelations. I commend Jeffers for bringing in the details at every stage and I enjoyed some of the writing that reflected every period. I /learned/ a lot through the book. However, those choices also resulted in me getting lost in the broader narrative, especially after having Ailey as the primary narrator (and using "I") for a while then switching back to the omniscient perspective. I found myself playing catch-up, and at times feeling a little frustrated without a family tree and with a focus on broader events. I appreciated that Jeffers made family was implicated in broader Black US history, but I feel like we didn't get to see the arc pay off within the family itself at the cost of these connections and perhaps a true timeline of a life. The eras alone were cool to see but also....I could've left more space for the familial processing of the gravity of what happened. That frustration boiled over a bit at the end when Ailey's

dissertation project was happening and she connected the family dots. The time for the family to react (and how they did) was rushed. THAT'S what I wanted more than hearing about the technical aspects of Routledge College! I wanted more conversations about the sexual violence the sisters experienced, Mama reflecting on herself, AILEY REFLECTING ON IT ALL AS SHE DID AT THE BEGINNING. Those teen chapters were among some of the best I've seen written, yet as a PhD exploring adult it's as if she lost that ability?

I also wanted Jeffers to push further when making mention of colorism. There was definite implicit critique, but the lack of explicit critique that the characters needed - I also think there's more to unpack for all of the men being the primary examples of being "white-passing" and the way that informed their romantic relationships.

As you can tell by the review, this book brings up so many thoughts for me, and for that, I'm grateful. There was so much that I wanted and I have to remind myself, so much that Jeffers wanted to give.
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dragongirl271's review

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challenging dark emotional funny inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

erebus53's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This is a book I was recommended by a member of an online book club. I really had no idea what it would be about and sometimes I like to go into things with no preconceptions. The focus of this book is telling an intergenerational story of a family. It is fiction, but has the feel of several intergenerational narratives I have liked, such as Wild Swans. The focus of the narrative is Feminist and is an account of the history of Black Americans in the South (specifically Georgia).

Having read Kindred by Octavia E. Butler, 12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, and Legendborn by Tracy Deonn, a lot of the plot points of this book were familiar. If you haven't learned much about the Antebellum South, this could be quite rough going. As a historian (main character) Ailey Pearl Garfield is often shaken, and moved to tears, by the accounts she unearths about happenings in her family's past.

This story is nuanced, and the characters feel like people rather than archetypes. Weaving a history filled with trauma would be pretty much impossible without some levity and there is a lot of dialogue that lightens the mood. Some of the humour is utterly hilarious and there are often call-backs to information about minor characters that pepper the backstory with shared in-jokes and form a real sense of this family inhabiting a rich world and community. There are a couple of LGBT characters in the story, and a family history of Dyslexia which becomes apparent as Ailey digs deeper into her family's story.

I could write an entire page to describe the content warnings... but I won't. Let's just say that Racism is the tip of a horrible, bloody iceberg, and that genocide, sexual abuse, physical abuse, suicide, drug addiction, miscarriage, gaslighting and oppression of various forms are all in this book. It's a big book.. there are a lot of words.. and not all of it is pretty.

The Audiobook is beautifully narrated by 3 different voice talents, and the story spans several different timelines, so if you are "reading" by Audiobook it's a good idea to download the supplemental material that lists the genealogy of the family, so you don't get lost.

Thoroughly recommend this book. I found myself really excited by some revelations near the end and more than once I got body chills and frisson from emotionally resonant bits. This would be a great bookclub read if you have people who read at about the same pace, and don't mind tomes that exceed 800 pages.

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cuddlygryphon's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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syellico's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book is an undertaking. I read it with a group over 3 months as a slow and steady which I know affected my experience. Prolonging some of the absolutely horrible subject matter probably made it an even more difficult read than it is.
In the end, I was just ready to be done and I probably missed some impact because of it.
For me, it was just too long and I never was able to completely keep track of the multitude of characters. Major trigger warnings abound.

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annie26's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

There are books and there are BOOKS, this one falls into the latter category. There are few books that you read in life where you know that you won’t be the same upon finishing it. You know that it’ll permeate your mind, your thoughts , your whole being and that is what Jefferson’s exploration of the history of America through the intergenerational story of Ailey’s family story. This is a very hard book to read at times but I’m so grateful for it. I’m so filled with gratitude for the stories of black people everywhere, for the stories of native Americans and for the stories of my own ancestors. What a beautiful saga of a story. An instant forever fave.

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