But it's SOOOOOO worth it! I was engaged from start to finish ! This book is necessary for the Black community especially, many of our stories get lost and buried.įamily legacies are meant to be remembered and cherished, and with a LOT A BIT or research, many of us can find the truth about where we come from. There are plenty of moments that will have you laugh, cuss, cry, and plain old throw the book across the room. Going back and forth in time, Honorée tells us the story of Ailey's ancestors while Ailey tells the story of her present until the two meet in the middle and connect. And, baby the truth is just as ugly as you can imagine. Jeffers gives us a history lesson on a Black family's lineage dating back to slavery. But make no mistake, this novel is not full of bliss, love, sunshine and rainbows. Sitting on the porch snapping peas and listening to your grandmother tell stories of the past, hanging out by the creek without a care in the world. There's something beautiful about being a city girl spending your summers in the country. Where during each visit she experiences something worth repeating. She, along with her sisters, spends her summers in Chicasetta, Georgia with her mother's side of the family.

The narrator, Ailey Garfield, starts off as a young girl telling all that she remembers growing up in her family. Now in most cases 800 pages can be intimidating, but what Jeffers has done is pull you in and give you the warmest of southern hugs. Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, made a conscious decision to put down her poetry pen and give the world an 800 page novel. I'll never say that something is impossible, because there are truly people in this world crazy enough to conquer and deliver such madness. Du Bois has rightfully taken it's place in my top 10 books for 2021.

The love songs of web dubois goodreads