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Jesmyn Ward: Men we reaped (2013)

357 pages

English language

Published Nov. 8, 2013

ISBN:
978-1-4104-6250-3
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OCLC Number:
1001866741

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5 stars (6 reviews)

In five years, Jesmyn Ward lost five young men in her life to drugs, accidents, suicide, and the bad luck that can follow people who live in poverty, particularly black men. But why? As she began to write about living through all the dying, Jesmyn realized the truth -- and it took her breath away. Her brother and her friends all died because of who they were and where they were from, because they lived with a history of racism and economic struggle.

3 editions

Review of 'Men We Reaped' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Wow, what a tough read, especially for a middle aged (ugh!) white American male. I started reading this memoir of growing up Black in Mississippi, then I made the mistake of watching Tales of the Grim Sleeper, then I went back and finished the book and both got me so depressed. I don't know how Black America gets by. Honestly, I don't.

This book wasn't really so much about direct racism. I mean, there was plenty in it, like how she was treated at her nearly all white private school. And about the endemic racism built into the educational system, where everyone just figure Black males were hopeless cases and couldn't seem to wait until they pushed them out of the schools.

But the depressing, grinding, cycle of poverty was pervasive, even if Jesmyn herself seems to have found a way out. Certainly more the exception than the rule. …

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Subjects

  • Large type books
  • African American men
  • African American women authors
  • Rural poor
  • Biography

Places

  • Mississippi