Title: Some Sing, Some Cry
Author: Ntozake Shange, Ifa Bayeza
Page Count: 568 Pages
Where I received: Purchased from Bookoutlet
Actual Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
This was such a great book for me to read. This book follows seven generations of a Black American family dealing with issues of slavery, the Reconstruction, WWI, the Depression, WWII, the Vietnam War, and then the 21st Century.
This is a lyrical novel which I loved. This novel tells the story of American music and our connection to it. Music has been a part of our culture and social events since its invention. As someone that feels very connected to music, I enjoyed the link the Mayfield family had to it.
“Music is just another way of keepin up with livin. Nothin wrong with that!”
The authors drew on many iconic figures. The connection of Bessie Smith and Josephine Baker were my personal favorites. I enjoyed the connection to the actual figures to their fictional characters.
As a daughter, I thought the stories of the relationship between mothers and daughters was well done. I enjoyed how the relationships were messy and at times strained. It was natural and normal. I enjoyed exploring who the effects of slavery and racism effected the different generations. Each one of these ladies had a real thing to cry and be sad about, but everyone tries to figure out how to have something to sing about.
I really liked the fact that this book is actually written by two sisters. They each wrote four of the eight sections of this book. After a while, I could see the difference in tone and type of writing. Although both were enjoyable sometimes the switch was quite jarring.
Links to purchase: Amazon // Barnes & Noble
Award-winning writer Ntozake Shange and real-life sister, award-winning playwright Ifa Bayeza achieve nothing less than a modern classic in this epic story of the Mayfield family. Opening dramatically at Sweet Tamarind, a rice and cotton plantation on an island off South Carolina's coast, we watch as recently emancipated Bette Mayfield says her goodbyes before fleeing for the mainland. With her granddaughter, Eudora, in tow, she heads to Charleston. There, they carve out lives for themselves as fortune-teller and seamstress. Dora will marry, the Mayfield line will grow, and we will follow them on a journey through the watershed events of America's troubled, vibrant history—from Reconstruction to both World Wars, from the Harlem Renaissance to Vietnam and the modern day. Shange and Bayeza give us a monumental story of a family and of America, of songs and why we have to sing them, of home and of heartbreak, of the past and of the future, bright and blazing ahead.
No comments:
Post a Comment