Long Way from Home

Rating:
Summary: We continue to be oppressed, but it used to be worse
Review: "A Long Way From Home" is the second novel that I've read by this author. I was very curious about her ability to write a convincing story of this nature, regardless of the fact that she claims to be a decendant of James Madison's slave family. It certainly was a departure from "Big Girls Don't Cry", but well worth the time. I thought the book gave the reader a fairly realistic picture of the life and times of pre-Civil War slavery. Ms Briscoe reveals the horror of slavery adequately without excess. Any African American of southern ancestry is acquainted with what we, as a people, endured. I particularly liked the way the author continued to tell the story after the ending of slavery, showing you how this event affected both races in their daily lives. It was very sad that Susan had to allow her marriage and motherly roles to be so compromised, but, indeed this was done or one paid a cruel price. The book held my interest from beginning to end. I definitely recommend this author if you want your reading to be worthwhile.

Rating:
Summary: The different variables of the word "slavery".
Review: A LONG WAY FROM HOME caught my interest because it read like threee different stories surrounding three generations of women who lived on the same plantation, yet saw their world in three different ways. Suzie is a slave and she can't see any other life outside of working for white people, and why should she when she was born the daughter of slaves and was raised that way. Her perception is that blacks are safer having masters. Her daughter Clara run on a slightly different track. Having a mother who lives in the big house is a pretty big deal, and when that house is occupied by the former president James Madison, then life can be tolerated. It's also not her fault that she was also born of fair skin and long hair. She sees slavery from the perception of someone who has never had to work the fields or lives in the rundown houses her friend's parents have to. She actually wonder why they don't just move to better quarters. Later on, we meet Clara's daughter Susan, and her lifestyle is taken when she is sold to a family in another state, a life that become more complicated when she suspects that the head of the household might be her father. Susan becomes the caretaker of the grandchildren living there and sees her role in life ever diminishing, until she meet a free black man, papers and all. It's then she opens her eyes and focuses on her role in this world as a black women with her mother's features, especially with slavery about to be abolished and her charges not willing to let her go. Books that use slavery as a focus point are not my cup of tea and I usually let them pass, however, this novel reads very smoothly and showcases three women at different points of life during a very turbulant timeframe, all wanting to do one thing-survive the best way they know how. Excellent!

Rating:
Summary: A long ways from "Big Girls Don't Cry".
Review: I thought the book to be an excellent and uplifting read. I was a little disappointed with "Big Girls Don't Cry." That particular book was definately not one of her best pieces of work. "A Long Ways From Home" reminded me of a Black version of "Gone With The Wind", only this time from a slaves perspective. Not many black authors write from a historical perspective. Connie Briscoe paid tribute to her ancestors by detailing the harshness and brutatily that slaves often endured. A key point that was referenced in the book was the differences in mentality between the house slaves and the field hands. The lighter skinned house slaves were preferred over the darker skinned field hands. House slaves often emulated their white masters as thinking themselves superior simply because of their skin color. The author mentioned at the end of the book that part of the story was fact and fiction. She had to put herself in her great-great-great aunt and grandmother's position and write based on how they must've felt growing up in those turbulent and rough times. I enojoyed this book immensley, and I look forward to reading more of Ms. Briscoe's work.