User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
To say that I am astounded by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers ambitious and epic novel, a family drama, would be an understatement, it is demanding, challenging and requires commitment from the reader for this is a long, well researched book that proves to be extraordinarily rewarding. I found this to be an intense and profoundly moving family history. Interspersed with the work of scholar WEB Dubois in the narrative, this is a richly detailed story of the complicated multigenerational heritage of a Black American family through the centuries of a troubling, turbulent, and all too real American history that includes slavery.
This is not just a purely intellectual exercise but is underpinned with an understanding this knowledge impacts not just the mind but the entire body, how the real lived repercussions of that history is experienced by actual people, the pain, horror, trauma, joy and heartbreak. In a storyline that shifts from the past and present, Ailey Pearl Garfield goes in search of her family, a sense of belonging and her identity, an all encompassing history of incredible resilience and survival in the face of unbearable repression, grief, loss, abuse and other life challenges. The sheer scope of this novel is remarkable, in terms of education, learning, of what it is to be a woman, of American history and its songs, and how Ailey honours her ancestors.
This is a subtly nuanced, intelligent read which packs an emotional punch, a must read that I find hard to do justice to. Cannot recommend this highly enough, particularly to anyone who has any interest in American history. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.
Rating: really liked it
Outstanding, brilliant, epic, intimate!!!
No need to reinvent- previously great words written —
Ron Charles, (professional reviewer for a reason), from the Washington Post said it best….
“It is, indeed, a mountain to climb, but the journey is engrossing, and the view from the summit will transform your experience of America”.
It’s impossible to finish this novel without having fallen in love with Ailey Pearl Garfield—your heart break for her sister, Lydia, feel a personal sense of pride for having committed to reading this, and feel blown away by debut author Honoree Fanonne Jeffers.
“The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois” is a treasured experience —
The characters emphasize many facets of real life heartbreak and beautiful complexities.
Mixed-race family, Black feminism, friends, coming-of-age, love, passion, sexuality, wellness, abuse, rape, grief, loss, death, education, history…
enraptured in delicious storytelling.
Welcome to America. 🇺🇸
“And when we call for education we mean real education. We believe in work. We ourselves are workers, but work is not necessarily education. Education is the development of power and ideal. We want our children trained as intelligent human beings should be, and we will fight for all time against any proposal to educate black boys and girls simply as servants and underlings, or simply for the use of other people. They have a right to know, to think, to aspire”.
….W. E. B. Du Bois, “The Niagara Movement Address”
Rating: really liked it
Whatever must be said to get you to heft this daunting debut novel by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, I’ll say, because “The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois” is the kind of book that comes around only once a decade. Yes, at roughly 800 pages, it is, indeed, a mountain to climb, but the journey is engrossing, and the view from the summit will transform your understanding of America.
A poet whose most recent collection, “The Age of Phillis,” was longlisted for a National Book Award, Jeffers has poured a lifetime of experience and research into this epic about the travails of a Black family. As any honest record of several centuries must, Jeffers’s story traverses a geography of unspeakable horror, but it eventually arrives at a place of hard-won peace.
One of the many marvels of “The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois” is the protean quality of Jeffers’s voice. Sweeping back and forth across the years, her narration shifts nimbly to reflect the tenor of the times — from the shared legends of tribal people to the candid realism of the modern era. At the opening, set deep in the mists of history, we’re met with. . . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...
Rating: really liked it
“When we speak about history, we speak about somebody’s life.”
The past woven with the present spanning generations, into one story of one black family, this is a stunning reflection of our history telling of the burdens and strength of women, black and Native American . It’s enlightening and moving, and it shook me to the core at times with so many incidents of sexual abuse not just of black women, but of children.
It’s history we have to know about and remember, and it’s brought to life by remarkable characters who will leave an indelible mark in your mind and heart . An extraordinary book.
I received a copy of this book from HarperCollins through Edelweiss.
Rating: really liked it
The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois is a powerful intergenerational, feminist, and womanist novel. Honorée Jeffers tells the racial and class history of this country through this book, not with a lot of facts and dates although they are there you are not inundated with it. But she tells this history through the human relationships of her characters past and present. The novel spans from the pre-slavery era of the 1700s to the late 20th Century covering themes such as: racism, colorism, feminism, classism, and intergenerational trauma.
The novel is centered around the character of Ailey Garfield, a young Black girl who grows up in a Northern city with her two sisters Lydia and Coco. Her parents, Geoff and Belle, come from two very different worlds. Geoff comes from a Northern light-skinned, siddity Black family, who in many cases could pass for white. Belle’s family, which the novel is centered around, is a Southern dark-skinned, down-to-earth Black family from a town called Chicasetta, GA.
There are certainly echoes of The Color Purple in this novel; it is referenced a few times. Chicasetta reminds Ailey of the town that Celie and Nettie lived in, and yet you see common themes that both Walker’s and Jeffers’s novels share, such as the power of female relationships and sexual assault within families.
Another body of work that is referenced and quoted in the novel, and should be evident in the title, is the writings of the scholar W. E. B. Du Bois. Although Du Bois never actually appears as a character in this novel, outside of Uncle Roots' memory of the scholar, you can tell Du Bois’s scholarship, especially The Souls of Black Folk and Black Reconstruction in America 1860-1880, inspired some of the themes of Jeffers’s novel. This is especially evident in the sections of the book focusing on Ailey’s Black and white ancestors. There are specific white family members who represent the white planter class and the poor white working class that Du Bois writes about in
BRIA, Jeffers like Du Bois shows how racial resentment developed in the white working class characters against the Black characters. Outside of themes, the character that embodies Du Bois is Uncle Root. Root, Ailey’s great uncle, is a devotee of Du Bois who worked as a history professor and will become an important force in Ailey’s personal and professional career.
The most important and pivotal characters in this novel are Black women. Characters like Belle, Lydia, Aggie, Eliza Two, Dr. Oludara, and of course Ailey. Some of these characters get to tell their stories of achievement, trauma, and relations with low-down men. I loved the character of Ailey. In her grad school days she represents every Black person who attended a PWI and has been subjected to white nonsense and casual racism. What’s special about Ailey is that she confronts these uncomfortable situations with humor and charm. I especially loved her in the moments she stood up for herself and her family, there were times when I yelled out “Go get ‘em girl”. There were also times I got frustrated with her, especially as it relates to some of men she got involved with. What I loved the most about Ailey was the connection she had with her ancestors: her occasional dreams of the long-haired lady, her devotion to her maternal side of the family, especially as it relates to her constant travelling down South to visit and spend time with her elderly relatives, but it also extends to what becomes her pinnacle moment which is the unearthing of her roots. She even makes some discoveries that her elders in Chicasetta do not know about. Anyone who has done genealogy can relate to how gratifying an experience it is to discover the ancestors who have essentially been searching and hoping for someone to find them.
Love Songs is a very engaging and beautifully written book. Don’t be intimidated by its size because when you read it you won’t be able to stop and won’t be able to get it out of your mind. Even when it ends you will be wondering what happens next. I for one wanted to know more about Ailey and the future contributions she was going to make to her world. Lovers of American history will enjoy how Jeffers weaves history in this family’s story, especially as it relates to Ailey’s ancestors consisting of indigenous people, Black enslaved, Black freedmen and freedwomen, white elites, poor whites, and the constant power dynamics and class struggles that intersect between them. W. E. B. Du Bois would certainly be proud of this work. At the end of this novel, the reader may come to the realization that Ailey is not only an heir of her ancestors but is also an intellectual heir of Du Bois. But she is not alone, Honorée Jeffers by writing this magnificent book is also an heir of Du Bois in the ways she weaves his writings in every part of her work. Do yourself a favor, pick up this book, read it, and enjoy the ride.
Thanks to NetGalley, Harper, and Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, for a free ARC copy in exchange for an honest review. This book will be released on August 24, 2021.Review was first posted here: https://medium.com/ballasts-for-the-m...
Rating: really liked it
4.5⭐️
“We are the earth, the land. The tongue that speaks and trips on the names of the dead as it dares to tell these stories of a woman’s line. Her people and her dirt, her trees, her water.”The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers is a sweeping multigenerational saga that delves deep into the roots, the land , the ancestry and legacy of a mixed race African American family . The narrative switches between the past in the "Song" segments of the novel and the present day story narrated by Ailey Pearl Garfield .While the past segments span generations of her mother's family in Chicasetta in present day Georgia, the present day narrative starts with Ailey the youngest child of a doctor and a school teacher with two older sisters being raised in the 'city'.
When Ailey as an adult embarks on researching her family's history, her lineage is traced to its indigenous roots in the Creek village and the land which was taken from its indigenous owners only to be allotted to settlers who bring with them slave labor from Africa to work the plantations they build on the very same land in pre-Civil War America.
This is a lengthy read and to be honest I was intimidated by the sheer volume of this book which is why I had put it aside in favor of other books . But I was pleasantly surprised at how engaging this novel was and the amazing journey this story takes us on spanning decades of the history of a nation and its people . Ailey's personal experiences with abuse, loss, grief and search for her own purpose in life and a place in her own family connects with the stories of those who came before her -racially diverse generations of grandparents, aunts, uncles , cousins and extended family. While Ailey's research takes her through a history of slavery and oppression, trauma and abuse, the present day narrative delves into issues pertaining to feminism, education, racial identity , shared trauma, sexual identity and substance abuse.
Compelling and immersive, emotional and informative , The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois is an experience that I would definitely recommend.
Rating: really liked it
Brilliant. Truly blown away by this novel, even more so knowing that it's a debut! I feel like Ailey and her family are real people. The amount of detail in this novel to bring so many threads together and create a tapestry of this family's lineage is masterful. I will seek out whatever Jeffers writes next, and will definitely go back and read some of her poetry now too (I also loved her piece about Phillis Wheatley in The Fire This Time).
Don't let this novel's length intimidate you! I sped through this because it was so immersive and unputdownable. I particularly loved the opening and closing sections. Going back and reading the opening pages after having finished the novel was such a unique experience, because she literally lays the whole story out for you from the get go, but over 800 pages you get to really experience it and then the words in the beginning take on so much more meaning.
Lots to unpack in this novel about history, how we tell it, who tells it. About class and race and colorism and colonialism and feminism and more. How she managed to touch on all of these things, while still crafting a compelling story that is highly readable and engaging is beyond me. It feels like the makings of a modern classic.
I am sure I will ponder this one for a long time to come. These are characters that will stick with you, a story that will make you reconsider how you perceive history (or deconstruct how it has been taught to you), and make you want to learn more about your ancestors!
Rating: really liked it
[4.5] What do you say about a novel that somehow encompasses the history of the US -the real history - the theft of Native Americans' land, Black people sold as animals, white slave-owners and of all of their ancestors interrelated? Jeffers focuses on a few families over several centuries in this epic novel. There are times when historic details bogs down the narrative - but it is worth it. A magnificent novel.
Rating: really liked it
DNF. There may be a decent novel buried in here somewhere, but this is at least 500 pages too long. Let’s hope Jeffers gets a serviceable editor for her next effort.
Rating: really liked it
4.5
This story takes you back and forth between present day and the beginning of American history and the tribal ages..
As written in the Washington post:
“
Jeffers uses that oracular narrator to carry us swiftly through the foundational sins of North America. “The original transgression of this land,” she writes, “was not slavery. It was greed, and it could not be contained.” Though the European immigrants “had been oppressed in their own land by their own king . . . they resurrected this misery and passed it on.” Kidnapped Africans are hauled across the ocean, while the natives who live here are shoved off or murdered.”
Very interesting history …though I was way more interested in the present day story!
Could this novel have been shortened? I believe so, at times the old history bogged down the story for me and that is why it took so long for me to read this.
I will forever remember Uncle Root!
Rating: really liked it
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Where to even begin with this over 800 page tome? Just take a look at the literary prizes for which it’s been nominated.
It took me about a month to slowly read through and savor the story- or should I say storylines because, while our main character is Ailey, and what a fine, strong, lovable main character she is, the book goes back in time for generations, two centuries, in fact, exploring her roots. The setting is the Deep South, and the ancestors are Indigenous, Black, and white.
What we have here is an epic, complex story that was never difficult to read. The writing is silky smooth, not a spare word, and there’s a family tree to help with remembering the progeny and relationships of the characters.
This is a story of inter-generational pain, abuse, trauma, horror, sadness, and grief, while also being a story of resilience, healing, and education. I am in awe of this book and the sheer talent and hard work by the author in creating it. This is a story that could have been told over multiple installments, and yet, it was delivered as one packaged, sturdy whole, without losing an ounce of interest on the part of the reader, and with complete investment in Ailey and her family. I’ll never forget the experience.
I received a gifted copy.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
Rating: really liked it
This book is heavy! Both physically and metaphorically. There’s a lot of trauma packed into these 797 pages. 😬 Told on several different timelines, this follows a family from its beginnings. Slavery was such a horrific time in our worlds history, yet monsters still prey in our present day as well. 😢 Trigger warnings: drug use, suicide attempt, sexual abuse- be warned this is definitely not a light read!
Rating: really liked it
Every once in a while I read a book that is so beautifully written and so deeply moving and engaging that I feel the need to give it more than the 5 stars allowed on GR. The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois is one of those books. I listened to the audiobook which was a fabulous experience. I don't think it's possible for me to do justice to this masterpiece with a review. The best thing I can do is highly recommend that you start to read or listen to this book. You will very quickly become deeply engaged in the lives of the many finely wrought characters.
Don't be put off by the length of this book. After 30 hours of listening I was disappointed when it ended.
Rating: really liked it
Giveaway Win!
Y'all!!!! WE DID IT!!!
We finished this book!
Yall I started this book back in December and I was enjoying it and I thought imma be finished with this book by the end of the month......
....And then my life kind of collapsed around me and I fell into a horrible reading slump that's lasted on and off for....well until like 3 weeks ago. I was going through Black trauma, so reading Black trauma was not a good idea. I needed to put this book down and return to it at the right time.
The Love Songs of W E B Du Bois is an authentically Black book. I'm sure white folks can read this and enjoy it but this book ain't for them. If you're a Black woman from the south, you feel this book on a deep level. I missed my mom, my aunt and grandmother soo much while I was reading this book. Ailey's family reminded me of my own family. Both in our similar cultural background(Native, Black, and Irish) and in how many stories we shared.
As much as I loved this book, I will say to my fellow Black people. You don't have to read this if the cold hard trauma of slavery and present day racism is too much. We carry that trauma in our bones and we don't need to experience it again. But if you feel like you can handle it please pick it up. Books like this are more important than ever, given how things here in the U.S. are going(Texas wants to stop teaching about slavery). If things keep going the way I fear they are going, even more Black history will be lost forever. We as Black people already don't know our full history because of white people and they are once again coming for us.
This book has many content warnings: Child Rape, Rape, Torture, Racism, and graphic depictions of slavery.
Black people take care of your self and please make sure you collect and pass on your family history.
I Highly Recommend This!
Rating: really liked it
Let me start off by saying WOW.
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois has rightfully taken it's place in my top 10 books for 2021. I'll never say that something is impossible, because there are truly people in this world crazy enough to conquer and deliver such madness. Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, made a conscious decision to put down her poetry pen and give the world an 800 page novel. 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.
The narrator, Ailey Garfield, starts off as a young girl telling all that she remembers growing up in her family. She, along with her sisters, spends her summers in Chicasetta, Georgia with her mother's side of the family. Where during each visit she experiences something worth repeating. There's something beautiful about being a city girl spending your summers in the country. 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. But make no mistake, this novel is not full of bliss, love, sunshine and rainbows. Jeffers gives us a history lesson on a Black family's lineage dating back to slavery. And, baby the truth is just as ugly as you can imagine. 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.
There are plenty of moments that will have you laugh, cuss, cry, and plain old throw the book across the room. 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.
Family 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.
I encourage everyone to add this to your TBR this summer, you won't be disappointed.
