Roots by Alex Haley (spoilers)

[aurora]

I mentioned in the April thread that I had just finished Alex Haley's Roots. Anybody want to discuss? I actually never saw the miniseries but I assume if you have it's the same story.

I found the book to be really well done and also (as a result) disturbing. I mean, it's about slavery, and early in the book Kunta Kinte is kidnapped away from his family and sold into slavery. Not an uplifting theme, but of course an important one to keep in mind.

One of the things that jumped out at me was the fact that when people were sold away from their families, all of a sudden the family's story just...ended. Because of course that's what would have happened. Kizzy had no idea of what ever happened to Kunta or Bell, and so therefore Alex wouldn't. So heartbreaking.

I found the last few chapters fascinating: where Haley explains how he researched the story (beyond the oral history that was passed down to him) and even went back to Juffure village in Africa and found a griot who knew his family's history, knew about the 17-year-old boy who went to the river to cut some wood and never came back. And how he found it in the first place, by repeating some of the few words of Mandinka that Kunta had taught Kizzy, who in turn taught George, and so on down the line for 7 generations to Haley. Really amazing.