A review by megansnextread
Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward

dark emotional informative medium-paced

5.0

In just five short and difficult years, Ward lost five young men in her life, including her brother. This memoir details her hometown life in the deep south of rural and poor Mississippi town. She tells of the families in this town who often experienced the loss of fathers, the fracturing of families. How this cycle, seemed never-ending that the loss would have no end in sight. 

 

I thought Ward's writing was incredible in this memoir. I am absolutely going to pick up more works from her. The way the story was told was also incredible to me. In between chapters were about her life growing up in Mississippi and the other chapters were about the friends and brother she lost. 

 

I found this book so important in connecting the dots between systematic racism, lower-class towns, and the breaking up of families. Ward's own parents got divorced when she was young, she saw many families who lost their fathers to drugs, prison or separated. 

 

Of course I related to much to the words the author spoke on grief. I cannot image going year after year of losing loved ones in my life. It was hard enough having to experience it myself in one with the loss of my mother and friend within one year. 

 

When grief compounds into your life it feels so weighty, like you will never escape it. "But this grief, for all its awful weight, insists that he matters. What we carry of Roger and Demond and C. J. and Ronald says that they matter." These stories matter and I am so thankful Ward wrote down this one for me to consume. 

 

I hope you will pick this book up.