Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Roots: The Saga of an American Family
Book Review: Roots
Summary: 5 Stars
Wow, What a book, this is a gripping book and a must read if you like history. Excellently written. I had been meaning to read it for a long time, then I found it while surfing on Amazon and was amazed how cheap it was. Whether you are Black, White, Yellow, Green.....Whatever your race you will absolutly love this book....Go buy it now before you forget LOL. Ange xBook Review: inspiring and humbling
Summary: 5 Stars
This has to be one of the most powerful books I have ever read. Having been too young to appreciate the Roots mania in the late 1970s, I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked up the book. A holiday in The Gambia a few years ago left me intrigued about the story of Kunte Kinte - and what an amazing story it is. I read the last of its 680 pages yesterday and still cannot stop thinking about it. It's humbling to think what others go through to allow the likes of me to live the comfortable and liberal middle class existence that I do. I would urge anyone thinking of buying this to do so - you will be instantly absorbed, inspired and enlightened.Book Review: Awe inspiring.
Summary: 5 Stars
It's been 20 years since I read Roots, but what a teenager gets from a book is very different from what a middle aged man gets. Alex Haley's work is a masterpiece on so many levels it really is breathtaking. The quality of research and the determination of the man to get to the truth leave me stunned. Excellent story telling combines with wonderful writing to produce a true classic. In many ways this is two books. There's the story of Kunta, the young man torn from his family by sadistic slavers, but who never really gives up his dream of being free again. Alex Haley has drawn on his considerable imagination to create a believable character who the reader can't fail to empathise with. As the story of the family progresses, the book becomes much more a family history, rather than a novel. The book has been crafted with considerable skill, and the shame of Western Europeans and colonial Americans is written large on every page. This is the sort of book which should be required reading for all young people, at once both heartwarming (how people in even the most soul destroying conditions help and support each other) and chilling (man's ever present ability to inflict pain and suffering on his fellow humans). I cried and I laughed, but ultimately I was left feeling ashamed of what white people have done.Book Review: Every person should know this story...
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this book after i was so moved with admoration for the TV series (i watched it on video as i was only born in 1984). I saw a copy in Waterstone's and curiously had a flick through. I couldnt put it down and found myself reading it at home, on the train and even a sneek few pages at work. It is so well written and you will enjoy this book like no other. A must have!Book Review: Freedom
Summary: 5 Stars
Alex Haley's fascinating search for his own human roots is a reconstruction of a nearly superhuman struggle for survival and freedom.The magical evocation of a coming of age in Africa in the 18th century is brutally stopped by a barbarous capture by slave-traders. After the 'whipping' hardship of the transatlantic cross-over follow the harsh labour and living conditions on a cotton field workcamp: 'The life of a field hand was the life of a farm animal ... black people with destroyed minds acted like goats and monkeys.'
All attempts to escape to freedom ('rather die a free man on the run than live out his life as a slave') fail.
The inhuman selling of blacks by the white owners tears all black families apart ('work a thousand years for a white man you still any black').
The struggle to amass enough capital to buy their families free becomes finally superfluous by the victory of the North over the South. The African generation survives till the present day (Alex Haley himself).
The fate inflicted on the author's ancestors is part of 'all of history's incredible atrocities against fellowmen, which seems to be mankind's greatest flaw.'
With Alex Haley, one can only wonder 'that it's possible to be civilized with one another without treating as human beings those whose blood, sweat and mother's milk made possible the life of privilege they had.' But, 'it is the way of the world that goodness is often repaid by badness.'
With this profoundly human and deeply moving book, Alex Haley erected an eternal statue for the African American.
A must read.