Rewarding
5 stars
It is hard work at times. There are some very very harrowing parts, but it is a beautiful, absorbing honourable book.
Hardcover, 464 pages
Published May 4, 2021 by Harper.
5 stars
(4 reviews)
Review of 'The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
3.5 stars. This novel had a great heart, and I was inspired by its characters, but it tried too hard to check every box of the experience of Black women in America — including sororities at HBCUs, the Muscogee Nation in Florida, encountering white history school classmates who want to talk about the “good” slave owners, urban gentrification, Southern food culture, and hair textures — such that some of the plot points seemed artificially shoehorned in. As an audio book listener, I also found it difficult to follow the relationships of all the families as the book flipped back and forth through time (a character chart is available from the publisher). However, I appreciated the book’s epic scope and the way it tied the historical plot lines together in the present day. I’d recommend it, but wish it had had a stronger editor to trim out some of the more …
3.5 stars. This novel had a great heart, and I was inspired by its characters, but it tried too hard to check every box of the experience of Black women in America — including sororities at HBCUs, the Muscogee Nation in Florida, encountering white history school classmates who want to talk about the “good” slave owners, urban gentrification, Southern food culture, and hair textures — such that some of the plot points seemed artificially shoehorned in. As an audio book listener, I also found it difficult to follow the relationships of all the families as the book flipped back and forth through time (a character chart is available from the publisher). However, I appreciated the book’s epic scope and the way it tied the historical plot lines together in the present day. I’d recommend it, but wish it had had a stronger editor to trim out some of the more artificial plot points and slim down the length (the audio book is 30 hours).
