This was an amazing read. I highly recommend it. It is definitely epic--the rich family history intertwine with the main character. I ended up listening to the audiobook, and the narration was great.

I so thoroughly enjoyed the two weeks spent in this book. While I did have to refer back to the family tree pages repeatedly to keep track of who was who, I loved how none of the characters fit a mold. They were all multi faceted and even the villians of the story had redeeming qualities.

The Love Songs of W. E. B. DuBois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers is about growing up and about owning your history - the good, the bad, the beautiful, and the ugly. At over 800 pages, the book takes the time to develop characters and the story of Ailey Pearl Garfield and her family across decades. In that evolution, the book seamlessly embeds history and culture. The story is at the same time deeply personal and historically global.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2022/12/the-love-songs-of-w-e-b-dubois.html

Reviewed for NetGalley.

This multigenerational saga is brilliantly written by Professor Jeffers. Historical narrative meets elements of the campus novel in a unique and skillful manner. Jeffers’ characters are powerfully drawn in ways that add complexity and nuance to the reader’s rendering of them.

It started as a good read but 50% into it i started to get bored. Too slow, wasn't going anywhere, characters were not attaching, too many assholes, i couldn't see myself reading another 300 pages of this.

There are certain books that you read and, early on, you know you’re reading something special. This was one of those books.

The best way that I can describe Honoree Jeffers’ masterful novel “Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois” is it’s a Black family tree come to life.

It tells the multi-generational story and history of a Black family in Georgia with Afro-Indigenous roots. A cool thing is that the narrative alternates between the past and the “present-ish” first-person perspective of Ailey Garfield, a Black Generation X’er coming of age in the 1980s and 90s while navigating her family’s past, her career, love, death, trauma and triumph.

In reading this novel, Ailey’s family (the Garfields, the Pinchards, the Freemans and the Driskells) all became my family too. I could see Pop George, I could hear Uncle Root, I got to know Aggie, I empathized with Lydia and I rooted for Nick. In a way, reading the stories of these families made me reflect on my own family’s journey as I also have many roots in Georgia.

I was also thoroughly impressed by the sheer amount research that clearly went into this novel. Just seeing the contextual knowledge the author had about the Creek tribes of what is now Georgia, the plantations, W.E.B. DuBois, Booker T Washington, Southern politics, and history of Georgia in the 1800s. I kept thinking “How do you write something like this?”

Most importantly, This book reminded me that we are who we are and where we are largely due to who and what came before us. The stories of our families and our ancestors live through us.

Love Songs is a heartfelt, harrowing, yet, warm, witty and engaging novel that I’m glad to have read.

An incredible novel of the history of the people in the South spanning several hundred years. Going back and forth from past to present it is the story of Ailey's family and her ancestors. It's very long but well worth the effort.

Wow. I don't really know what to say. I'm ashamed that it took me so long to get through this book but it was well worth it. I know some are put off by the size, but the stories and characters are so rich and full of depth, all of it was necessary. I loved being transported back and forth between the present and the past along with a coming of age story for Ailey. The stories from the past were hard and triggering at times but I think the balance was enough and appropriate. I can admit that I teared up at the end, Uncle Root felt like family and I was just so happy to see everything come full circle. The art of storytelling is so rich in the black community and just reminded me of my own and how I had wished I'd taken more time to document from my elders. I'd recommend this book to anyone, but it may not be for everyone, if you get what I mean.

A masterpiece! I love when poets wrote novels. An economy of words plus beautiful language makes for enjoyable reading, and this sweeping family saga gave just that.

THE LOVE SONGS OF W.E.B. DU BOIS was a much-anticipated and hyped read for me, which did not disappoint in an way. Honoree Fanonne Jeffers writes with poetic beauty and a captivating voice. I loved the characters in this novel, was blown away by the details and exploration of family, love, and history. This novel will stay with me for a long time -highly recommend this story to all.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC, which I received in exchange for my honest review.

I absolutely loved this one. It was long and took me a bit to get through, but I really loved the poetic story telling, the family dynamics and drama, the strength of the characters, and the resolution at the end. It deserves all the praise it’s received.

I’m judging the L.A. Times 2021 fiction contest. It’d be generous to call what I’m doing upon my first cursory glance—reading. I also don’t take this task lightly. As a fellow writer and lover of words and books, I took this position—in hopes of being a good literary citizen. My heart aches for all the writers who have a debut at this time. What I can share now is the thing that held my attention and got this book from the perspective pile into the read further pile.

I loved everything about this book. There were so many underlinings throughout my copy. Smart honest beautiful. Here’s an example: “When I was able to unstick my tongue, I saved myself.” (159).

This is a master work. Historical fiction, family saga and a lyrical tinge to all of it. I can’t believe that this is the author’s first novel. One of the best of the year.

Simply a masterpiece of a novel! In short, it is a retelling of American History beginning with its indigenous people and the formation of this country and its people illustrated via a myriad of characters and haunting events. This story contains interconnecting pieces, multiple layers, and many themes, ex: race and racism, loss/grief, abuse, colorism, feminism, etc.; but despite the difficult and painful passages, I loved every page. As others have mentioned, this is a lengthy novel but I did not mind its girth. I learned a great deal, highlighting so many outstanding quotes I will eventually revisit. This is phenomenal storytelling. Give it a chance!

Thank you to Net Galley and Harper Collins Publishers for the opportunity to review this novel!

My Thoughts:
This sweeping story about family, history, love, disappointment, dreams deferred and hopes rekindled is as much a story of African American families as The Joy Luck Club was a story of Chinese American families. In other words, this is an American story. Jeffers' is a brilliant storyteller that is able to weave an intimate portrait of this family that becomes an allegory about race in America.

I savored this novel. I took much too long to spend time with this family. I got too invested in Ailey Pearl Garfield, but her shocks and her discoveries became my discoveries. This was a sliding glass door and an open table setting into the generations of ancestors she brought into her house. Please, please, please bring this to the screen.

I don't read many adult fiction, but this is the one this year. This is the short list must read fiction for 2021.

From the Publishers:
“This sweeping, brilliant and beautiful narrative is at once a love song to Black girlhood, family, history, joy, pain…and so much more. In Jeffers' deft hands, the story of race and love in America becomes the great American novel.” —Jacqueline Woodson, author of Red at the Bone and Another Brooklyn

Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize • An Indie Next Pick • A People 5 Best Books of the Summer • A Good Morning America 15 Summer Book Club Picks • An Essence Best Book of the Summer • A Time 11 Best Books of the Month • A Washington Post 10 Books of the Month • A CNN Best Book of the Month • A Ms. Most Anticipated Book of the Year • A Goodreads Most Anticipated Book of the Year • A Book Page Writer to Watch • A USA Today Hottest Summer Book • A Chicago Tribune Summer Must-Read • An Observer Best Summer Book • A Millions Most Anticipated Book • A Ms. Book of the Month • A BiblioLifestyle Most Anticipated Literary Book of the Summer • A Deep South Best Book of the Summer • Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award

The 2020 National Book Award–nominated 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.

This one is absolutely stunning.

Unfortunately, I didn’t realize how long it was and started to loose motivation. It’s a shame because the story is good and so is the writing, it just wasn’t for me.

A dazzling coming-of-age novel exploring the life of a young Black girl growing up in the Southern United States.
Honorée Fannone Jeffers' The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois explores the Black experience in America through the lens of a middle-class girl and her family. Ailey is the youngest of three daughters born to Belle and Geoff Garfield, and we meet her when she is just three years old. Through her first-person account, we watch her mature from naïve child to confident and capable young woman, sharing her joys, sorrows, triumphs and failures along the way.

Although at its heart the novel is a coming-of-age story, that's not apparent until late in the book due to the various narrative techniques the author employs. A large and equally engaging portion of the story is historical fiction, following Ailey's ancestors from village life in Africa to their experiences being enslaved on a Georgia plantation and beyond. These sections have a mythic feel to them, their unnamed narrator weaving the early stories into the type of tale one might spin around a campfire. As the audience, we're aware that we're reading about Ailey's forebears, but their relevance isn't completely clear until the lineage catches up with what she knows of her family tree. Other chapters are relayed from the points of view of Belle and Lydia, Ailey's eldest sister. These third-person accounts fill in gaps in Ailey's knowledge while providing us with a comprehensive understanding of how she grows into the person we know at the book's conclusion. Love Songs contains an enormous cast, but all the characters' voices are unique and authentic — a truly remarkable feat.

Jeffers covers a wide range of topics throughout the novel, taking a finely nuanced approach to many of them. As one might expect, racism is a major theme: Some characters react to casual racism with anger or resentment, while others approach it as an annoyance — a day-to-day common occurrence to be expected and dealt with accordingly. The author also explores colorism within the Black community, where some seem to feel lighter-toned skin is more desirable. Another key theme centers on the sexual abuse of children and the ways such harm can manifest differently in individuals. The author additionally touches on subjects such as Black education, the importance of family (in particular, reverence for one's mother), marital fidelity, drug abuse, sexuality, interracial marriage and a host of other issues, some specific to the Black community, others universal.

I'd generally opine that when a work is this massive — over 800 pages — it perhaps would have been stronger had the author concentrated on fewer topics. But although Love Songs is big, sprawling and multi-faceted, there's not a sentence in it I'd have edited out. It's messy in the same way the experiences of most lives are messy — one goes through phases, finds romance, makes bad choices — but combine to form a whole. Jeffers brilliantly reflects these experiences throughout the novel, but her depiction of Ailey's growth in particular is perfect. That said, the book does require some patience and persistence, especially at first, when the reader has yet to become familiar with the characters (the family tree inserted at the front of the book is very helpful with keeping people straight).

I've found myself thinking about The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois for many days after completing it, and consider it one of the most well-crafted, entertaining novels I've encountered in quite some time. I highly recommend it for readers who appreciate complex, adult themes and enjoy big, meaty generational stories. Book groups who are able to select a novel of its length will find it yields many great topics for discussion as well.

Please allow me to add my voice to the throng of people who are insisting that you get a copy of this book and read it. It’s a sweeping, epic 800 pages honoring Black and Indigenous women throughout American history, and I believe those calling it the next great American novel are on the nose.

The main character of the novel is Ailey Pearl Garfield; it starts when she’s a young child and follows her until she’s in her mid-30s. But it’s about so much more — so many more — than just her. Throughout the novel, we get “song” chapters told in a collective ancestral voice. They tell the story of Ailey’s ancestors, starting with the Muscogee Creek people who originally lived on land that’s now Georgia, then enslaved people, then tenant farmers, to today. We also get sections dedicated to Ailey’s mother and sister. The breadth and depth of the novel is absolutely incredible, and I feel like I came to know all these people so intimately. The focus, throughout, is on the women; those who faced it all and endured.

It’s not always an easy read, nor would I expect it to be. There’s a lot of trauma — both generational and personal — and I encourage you to check trigger warnings. My heart broke for all of these characters; I encourage you to seek out reviews by Black and Indigenous readers for more on the impact and weight of the reading experience.

Could this book have been shorter? Well, probably, but I’m glad it wasn’t. I love books that dive so intimately into all of its characters that you feel you really know them. Even though it was 800 pages, I feel like it could have gone on forever. In fact, I caught myself musing about what would happen next after I’d already finished it, and had to remind myself there was no more!

Finally, I read large swaths of this one via audiobook, and the narration was beautifully done. While the prose is beautiful and transportive, it’s also strong and self-assured enough to translate all of its power when spoken aloud — in keeping with the style and talent of Black storytellers throughout history.

I encourage you to read this one — whether you make your way through it quickly or a bit at a time over a long time, it will be worth it.



CONTENT AND TRIGGER WARNINGS:
Drug addiction and use (graphic); Pedophilia and childhood sexual assault/rape (graphic); Pregnancy, abortion, and miscarriage (moderate); Racism and colorism; Misogyny; Slavery and colonialism; Loss and grief

This is a black feminist treatise in the form of a family saga. It is extremely long and convoluted, but for the most part it held my interest. The modern day story focuses on Ailey Pearl Garfield and traces her life from the age of 3 to her 30s. However, the scope of the book is huge and starts with her African and Native American ancestors. Descriptions of the histories and experiences of these ancestors were interspersed with the Ailey story. Chapters are separated by quotations from the works of W.E.B. Du Bois (and a few other writers). A thread running through all of these histories is the sexual abuse and exploitation of generations of women. There were a lot of predators in the family tree. Do not read this if you are particularly triggered by child molestation. It also deals with drug addiction, male chauvinism and the stratification of African Americans based on skin tone. Ailey’s family came in all colors.

I found the parts of the book set in the past more interesting than the present. The story of life on the plantation was particularly compelling and often difficult to read. “The creatures: the horses, the cattle, the pigs, the chickens, the Negroes. Under the law, Samuel could do as he willed with any of his creatures—even kill—and no one would take him to task. Thus, any little girl he wanted was his to ruin as he saw fit.” An escaped slave later wrote to Samuel: “I forgive you for being the left-handed comrade of the Devil who whispers his desires in the dark and who you follow without hesitation. Truly I forgive you Master though you are a creature worthy of disgust without mitigation. Daily I pray for your ugly, miserable and tarnished soul.”

I got a little bored by Ailey’s coming of age, school angst and sexual exploration. It took a really long time for her to find some focus. It wasn’t until she decided to become an historian like her great uncle Root that I started to like her. I did like her mother Maybelle though. I enjoyed her spirit: “Because I don’t want to have to leave your daddy on his sickbed and come kill somebody’s knucklehead son and then hide the body. But I will. And that’s my right hand slapped by Glory.” Uncle Root was also a very vivid character.

This is quite an ambitious book and I think that the author covered a part of American history from a feminist prospective in a way that was informative, accomplished and entertaining.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

Fantastic book! I read it as background reading for a featured review on BookBrowse so will not be reviewing it myself, but below are links to the review and "beyond the book" article on BookBrowse; and I will be making a point to recommend widely

Review:
https://www.bookbrowse.com/mag/reviews/index.cfm/ref/pr276224

Beyond the Book: W.E.B. Du Bois
https://www.bookbrowse.com/mag/btb/index.cfm/ref/pr276224