Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Coming of Age in Mississippi
Book Review: Sheer Genius
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is one of the best memoirs I have ever had the pleasure of reading, if not the best. Moody has got a whole lot of what I can only refer to as intestinal fortitude. Her bravery in writing this account of her life growing up in a racist Mississippi is reminiscent of the mother who demanded an open casket at her son's funeral (Emmett Till). Both women were concerned with making the world look at its own ugliness.
What I truly appreciate is that Moody is mad, and this comes out continually through her prose, but she DOES NOT SENTIMENTALIZE.
She has a way with words and emotions that will put you on the scene and her relation of her time in college and in the Black Movement are particularly poignant. When you read this work, you too, will be mad--and if you are anything like me, you will find yourself in wonder of how such conditions could have existed only 40-50 years ago. This autobiography, sets in stone if you will, the account of blatant and brutal murders and abuses that took place against blacks everyday in the South. You will come away from this work with an education and perhaps a heavy heart...but the close of the book does allow for one thing: a glimmer of hope.
This memoir should be compulsory reading for every American citizen. It gives us all the information our American history books conveniently left out.
Buy this one!
Book Review: Important background on the African American experience
Summary: 5 Stars
I could hardly put this book down. Gives the reader an understanding of the attitude of cold, dead hatred and cruelty that white people in America are famous for in their relations with African Americans. This amazing Jim Crow era pre-civil rights to civil rights autobiography gives a clearer idea of how whites in The South systematically traumatized generations of African Americans. An example of how a race blessed with power can go CRAZY-SICK with it and fatefully damage another far less fortunate race. Reminds me that this was only 40 to 50 years ago. Explains the present day fear, anxiety, poverty, shame, cultural confusion, lack of lingering African culture/connection that still haunts the lives of the masses of Black African Americans to this day. Easy to read. Realistic, gripping, beautiful, and warm... It is now my all time favorite book. A precious classic. Thank you Anne Moody {tears}. I am Black African myself, but directly from the motherland (Igbo tribe, Nigeria, West Africa). I am deeply touched by the terror we have been forced to go through as a peoples. This is really beyond words... There should be MEMORIALS IN THE SOUTH dedicated to honoring and remembering the masses of lives and African cultures and languages that were lost to hatred and wickedness. As a Christian woman saved in Jesus I am led to pray and count on God for an answer... Not my will, but Your will Heavenly Father... Off to listen to CeCe Winans "Throne Room" CD... Book Review: Absolutely Wonderful
Summary: 5 Stars
I am reading this book as part of a History assignment for my American history class and I have to say I love this book. Not only is it very detailed and insightful of the life during these times and what Ms Moody experienced, but it also enjoyable reading. It keeps you wanting to read more and is quite funny at times. A very involved and riviting book. This is a book that I will keep even after class ends and read again. My husband and son already are waiting in line to read it. A very well done book on a very tough subject. Well done Ms Moody. Book Review: Many emotions
Summary: 3 Stars
The beginning of the book was strange to me. Once I got into the flow of the writing I started to enjoy it. Once Essie/Anne hits the movements though, she comes off as a zealot and expects everyone to feel and do the same as she does. There are many emotions in this book. The last part of the book was a bit tedious and repititious, then hits a crescendo, and then falls flat. I was disappointed with the way Anne Moody ends the book, but it's still a good read.Book Review: Will we ever overcome?
Summary: 5 Stars
Great detail of the rural south, and how someone came of age during the Civil Rights time. Gripping story of a young woman and her life experiences during that time. I don't know if I could have been so strong during that period, that I am grateful that there were others like her who stood up for our race to make things happen. However, now in this day and age, I don't really see much of a change or difference in the treatment that we as minority people see. Yes, things have definitely changed, but racism is on a whole different level these days because of technology. There shouldn't be a time in our life now that there are still "firsts" for blacks, and yet we still see it. I know that there have been vast improvements, and I am extremely grateful for the people who have sacrificed their lives for minorities of every race, but racism is still strong to this day and age. In the last sentences of this book, she asks the question, will we overcome someday? And responds, "I wonder." Which is deep because I still wonder if we have overcome as well.