Book Review The Twelve Tribes of Hattie {living outside the stacks}

Author: Ayana Mathis

Genre: African American Fiction

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.

Publication Date: 8 October 2013

Format: Kindle Edition

Pages: 304

ABOUT THE BOOK {from the back of the book}

In 1923, fifteen-year-old Hattie Shepherd, swept up by the tides of the Great Migration, flees Georgia and heads north. Full of hope, she settles in Philadelphia to build a better life. Instead she marries a man who will bring her nothing but disappointment, and watches helplessly as her firstborn twins are lost to an illness that a few pennies could have prevented. Hattie gives birth to nine more children, whom she raises with grit, mettle, and not an ounce of the tenderness they crave. She vows to prepare them to meet a world that will not be kind. Their lives, captured here in twelve luminous threads, tell the story of a mother’s monumental courage—and a nation’s tumultuous journey.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ayana Mathis is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and is a recipient of the Michener-Copernicus Fellowship. The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is her first novel.

MY OPINION

This was not one of my favorite novels. As I stated below, I tend to stay away from Oprah Book Club picks, but I chose to read this book anyway. So let me start with what I did like about the novel before I go into what I didn’t like…

The characters are well developed and sympathetic. Even Hattie. Without giving too much of her story away, I can see how the early trauma that she suffered impacted her life and the life that she created for her family. Sorrow and disappointment can do that to you. When she was young, she saw a life full of hope and promise, and it was sucked out of her by her husband, her kids, the “stuckness” of her situation. I saw Hattie as a woman who was bound by the restrictions of poverty and gender.

I don’t think her kids were abused (although, in today’s world, it would be described as emotional abuse), I think they were just raised how black kids were raised back in the day – “seen and not heard”, “stay in a child’s place”, etc. Parents simply didn’t talk to their kids the way they do now. And the impact was devastating. Although, there is a discussion in the chapter about Belle where she says something about people getting to the point where they stop blaming their parents and start accepting responsibility for their own lives.

The parts of the novel that bothered me most were the parts that dealt with faith and the church. I know that there are some bad preachers out there, I just find it, I don’t know, ummmm, disheartening when that story line is repeatedly played out. I’d just like to read one novel in which the preacher is moral, ethical, and God-fearing, instead of just in it for the women and the money. And, yes, I do recognize that it’s my faith that prevented me from totally enjoying this book.

MY FAVORITE QUOTE

They didn’t understand that all the love she had was taken up with feeding them and clothing them and preparing them to meet the world. The world would not love them; the world would not be kind.

Page 290

PURCHASING OPTION

This book contains childhood death, violence, and sexual content.

THE BOOK GIRL MAGIC READING CHALLENGE

THEME: BLACK HISTORY BESTSELLER

The February theme for the Book Girl Magic Reading Challenge {#BGRChallenge} is Black History Bestseller. I remember this book being mentioned as a selection for Oprah’s Book Club a few years back. Generally, I tend to steer clear of her choices because they tend to be a little too abstract (read ancestors’ spirit speaking)  for my taste. However, from reading the description of the book, I didn’t think this one would fall into that category, so I added it to my TBR shelf. There were some anti-faith moments in the novel (the chapter on Six and his “ministry” and the whole end of the novel), which only cements my belief that Oprah picks are not for me.

To see my #BGRChallenge Bookshelf, click here.

Looking for some recommendations? Check out my recommended reading shelf.

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Have you read this book? What are your thoughts? Let’s discuss…

Daenel T {Living Outside the Stacks}

 

 

 

 

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