This epic tale of the Bell family spans three generations. The Bells are from Charleston, South Carolina in the time leading up to the Civil War. One side of the Bell family is progressive and believes in the emancipation of slaves, the other side of the family treats their slaves horribly and are incredibly racist. The story of this family starts in Charleston during the revolutionary war when the British controlled the city, then the time period between the revolutionary war and the civil war while racial tensions ran high, and finally the Civil war.
The focus is on the more progressive side of the Bell family. They free their slaves, treat them well, and one of the family members ends up travelling eastern USA to speak out against slavery. This makes no friends in Charleston, including with the other side of her family, and makes returning to Charleston hard for her.
This book has a lot of Charleston history in it, much of it I was not aware of. However because of this history, there were problems with pacing of the novel sometimes. Jakes would start talking about generals and presidents and governors which had nothing to do with the characters for a full chapter, taking you away from the characters he was trying to get you invested in. Because of this, the 530 page book took me 3 weeks to read, which is a pretty long time for me.
First Line: "One night in early November 1779, he dreamed a terrifying dream."
Rating:
(3.5/5)
No comments:
Post a Comment