A book so wonderfully well written you might not wish to read it
Bewertet mit 5 Sternen
You may not wish to read it because it will come to you. You will begin the journey in Fanteland, now Ghana, where Effia will not receive any love but from her father while she grows up. “For each scar on Effia’s body, there was a companion scar on Baaba’s, but that didn’t stop mother from beating daughter, father from beating mother.” p 5 You will wish to just shake mother Baaba, comfort little Effia – and then, author Yaa Gyasi will reveal the full story, the story of two sisters, one mother, the fire and the storytelling.
You may not wish to read it because you will be heartwrecked when you learn about the slave business, how villages in Africa will rob other villages to sell their people to the white slave traders. „…the methods of gathering slaves had become so reckless, that many of the tribes had taken to marking their children’s faces so that they would be distinguishable.“ p 64
You may wish to put the book down when when you learn what Ness and Sam did for their son, “Jo”, Kojo. Yes, we probably all saw or read “Gone with the Wind” or “North and South”, even in Germany, without the same history as the United States, but, as I come to realize, that is all from a “white” point of view. Other, new stories such a “The Color Purple” or “Ten Years a Slave” only relate to one period and type of situation. Yaa Gysi does it all, starting around 1760-something, back in Ghana.
Do not read it if you wonder you can bear what family obligations might demand from you like from Quey, who obeyed, or – from James, his son. You read how children inherit their parents’ fear or how parents strive hard to not repeat their parents’ faults.
You may not wish to read how laws that were meant to make people’s lives safe and sure just provided the contrary, like “Jo” Kojo and Anna and the „Fugitive Slave Act“ or H and the cons, free, but still working like slaves in the coal mines.
And it goes on as the centuries pass, it continues while you see the recurring motives of fire and water, of traditions that hurt or hold, of love that hurts or holds, of laws that hurt or hold, of brooms that will keep places clean or just wipe away what was there, of fire that warms or hurts, of stones that connect or keep apart.
This is probably one of the best books I ever read – in its structure, language, concept, message, characters.
6 stars out of 5.