Reviews

The Interesting Narrative and Other Writings by Olaudah Equiano, Vincent Carretta

fridapalmars's review against another edition

adventurous informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

nathanjhunt's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

4.0

My 15th book finished in 2023.

For the most part, this was incredibly interesting, insightful and sad. But it was hugely bogged down in the middle by chapters of religious nonsense. We get it, you found god.

Other than that, it was an enjoyable read.

ciaraisabookworm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

maink's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

4.0

rosethebean's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

2.0

stazja_'s review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

2.0

dannymason_1's review against another edition

4.0

I expected this to be an interesting (sorry) read as a piece of history and it was, but more than that it was genuinely enjoyable, despite the topic. Equiano tells much of his narrative like an adventure story and plays with those tropes, bringing the reader in with his descriptions of the places he travels to and the things he sees. He then uses this framework to delve into the horrors of slavery and appeal to the reader, who at the time he was trying to convince that slavery needed to be abolished.

It's not as hard-hitting as a lot of stories of slavery that we're now used to and if it was released today I'm sure there'd be debates around whether the author should be toning things down to find middle-ground with a white readership, but for its time and place this was clearly an effective strategy and it still makes for a fascinating read.

leanbean1's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

3.0

bookish_skies's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

3.5

psantic's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative inspiring reflective slow-paced