The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois
A Novel
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3.6 • 888 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
A Kirkus "Best Book of the 21st Century"
An instant New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today Bestseller • AN OPRAH BOOK CLUB SELECTION • ONE OF THE ATLANTIC'S "GREAT AMERICAN NOVELS" • BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2021 • WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR FICTION
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: New York Times • Time • Washington Post • Oprah Daily • People • Boston Globe • BookPage • Booklist • Kirkus • Atlanta Journal-Constitution • Chicago Public Library
Finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel • Longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction • Finalist for the Kirkus Prize for Fiction • Nominee for the NAACP Image Award
"Epic. . . . I was just enraptured by the lineage and the story of this modern African-American family. . . . I’ve never read anything quite like it. It just consumed me." —Oprah Winfrey
The NAACP Image Award-winning poet makes her fiction debut with this magisterial epic—an intimate yet sweeping novel with all the luminescence and force of Homegoing; Sing, Unburied, Sing; and The Water Dancer—that chronicles the journey of one American family, from the centuries of the colonial slave trade through the Civil War to our own tumultuous era.
The great scholar, W. E. B. Du Bois, once wrote about the Problem of race in America, and what he called “Double Consciousness,” a sensitivity that every African American possesses in order to survive. Since childhood, Ailey Pearl Garfield has understood Du Bois’s words all too well. Bearing the names of two formidable Black Americans—the revered choreographer Alvin Ailey and her great grandmother Pearl, the descendant of enslaved Georgians and tenant farmers—Ailey carries Du Bois’s Problem on her shoulders.
Ailey is reared in the north in the City but spends summers in the small Georgia town of Chicasetta, where her mother’s family has lived since their ancestors arrived from Africa in bondage. From an early age, Ailey fights a battle for belonging that’s made all the more difficult by a hovering trauma, as well as the whispers of women—her mother, Belle, her sister, Lydia, and a maternal line reaching back two centuries—that urge Ailey to succeed in their stead.
To come to terms with her own identity, Ailey embarks on a journey through her family’s past, uncovering the shocking tales of generations of ancestors—Indigenous, Black, and white—in the deep South. In doing so Ailey must learn to embrace her full heritage, a legacy of oppression and resistance, bondage and independence, cruelty and resilience that is the story—and the song—of America itself.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Experience the history of America—and the country’s legacy of racism—through one family’s powerful saga. For as long as she can remember, Ailey Pearl Garfield and her older sisters have left the city during summer vacation to spend time with their country relatives in Georgia. As Ailey grows up, she begins to notice the dark undercurrents of those idyllic visits, eventually coming to terms with a legacy of secrets, violence, and shame that have shaped her family. In her debut novel, acclaimed poet Honorée Fanonne Jeffers weaves together past and present storylines into an epic (800+ pages!) we got so thoroughly drawn into that we hated to put it down for even a minute. Spanning from the beginning of the slave trade to the first Obama campaign, Jeffers’ book follows multiple generations of Ailey’s family, exploring their dramas, strength, and love. From Ailey’s earliest childhood memories to the fascinating and sometimes tragic lives of her ancestors, The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois alternates between moments of terror and spiritual triumph. This unforgettable, uniquely American saga isn’t just the story of one family—it’s the story of how our country was created, and its sins and salvations ever since.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Poet Jeffers (The Age of Phyllis) debuts with a staggering and ambitious saga exploring African American history. Ailey Pearl Garfield, the youngest daughter of Geoff Garfield, a light-skinned Washington, D.C., physician, and Belle Driskell Garfield, a Southern school teacher, reckons with ancestral trauma while growing up in the 1980s and '90s. Throughout, historical sketches (or "songs") link Ailey to her ancestors: Creeks, enslaved Africans, and early Scot slave owners. Ailey follows in the footsteps of her parents, attending the southern HBCU where they met and married as undergraduates before moving north to the "City," where Geoff attended medical school at Mecca University (a thinly veiled Howard). W.E.B. Du Bois's theories emerge in epigraphs throughout and are sagaciously reflected in the plot, as the accounts of Ailey's college life correspond to the "talented tenth." Later, tragedy unfolds as Lydia, Ailey's oldest sister who is haunted by childhood sexual abuse, succumbs to crack addiction. The multigenerational story bursts open when Ailey unearths some unknown family history during her graduate studies, as well as secrets of the Black female founder of her family's alma mater. Themes of family, class, higher education, feminism, and colorism yield many rich layers. Readers will be floored.
Customer Reviews
Be patient
I gave 4 stars because the novel started off a bit dry; however, once the author started explaining and providing stories on individuals who contribution to our understanding the history of African, indigenous, and black American women , the novel took off and never looked back!
Wonderful Read
First book in many years that held my attention (by it’s historical detail) and fed my spirit ( with characters that had purpose in the story telling). Thank You
Beautifully told story of family in all its complications.
So much to recommend about This novel, but it is 2:00 AM and I am steeped in the richness of these people and the shared history that binds them. Never a false note in this love song. So rich it’s worth a second read .