Roots by Alex Haley

 

Hello my lovely readers!

I don't think a book has EVER made me as emotional as Roots by Alex Haley. I can't believe it took me this long to read this book. I've had it on my shelf since 2005! Let me tell you how and where I bought it....

BACKGROUND

It was June 2005. I was 15 and embarking on my first ever overseas trip (but second international trip ever) to London, England for a writing trip with Teen Ink's Summer Writing Program.

This was only the second iteration of the program and I, along with 27 other high school ladies, were lucky enough to be selected to go on the trip! I'd applied the year before, but was too young.

Now as a rising junior in high school, I'd be able to hone my creative writing skills and take in the sights of London. It was absolutely divine.

While on our way to our next destination, also known as pounding the London pavement, I laid my eyes on the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. A SIX STORY BORDERS.

 For those of you who don't know, Borders was the better, cleaner version Barnes and Noble. It officially shut its doors in 2011 and I've never been the same since!

There was a SIX-FLOOR Borders in London.  Our group stopped and we were able to look around and buy any books we wanted. I bought six. Roots was one of them.

SUMMARY

Roots tells the multi-generational story of author Alex Haley, tracing all the way back to his ancestor Kunta Kinte in the Juffure village in Gambia.

We see the village life Kunta Kinte enjoyed before he was kidnapped and sold into slavery. We take the harrowing journey across the Atlantic Ocean where so many Africans died from disease, starvation or suicide.

We cheer for Kunta as he tries to escape several times and cry when his spirit is broken through whippings. We see Kunta settle into slave life and produce a family and follow as his offspring makes their own families until we eventually meet the author in the last two chapters.

Roots captivated a nation and changed the way Americans view slavery forever.

MY THOUGHTS

I cried multiple times throughout this book. It evoked so many emotions...anger, sadness, happiness and everything else in between. 

I went into this book thinking that it was fiction or at least a semi-autobiographical fiction story. I had no idea that Haley was trying to pass it off as nonfiction. Then I learned about the criticism of this book, namely the plagiarism of Jubilee by Margaret Walker and The African by Harold Courlander. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Learning about these allegations definitely put a damper on this book, but I still enjoyed it.

It truly changed the landscape in America on how slavery was perceived. This is an important book and I'm a much better person for reading it.