Customer Reviews

The River Where Blood Is Born (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's a women's thing, it's an African-American thing, and this nice Jewish boy couIdn't put it down. The novel may favorable be compared with the works of Toni Morrison and Chinua Achebe, yet has its own wonderful voice. I work in a bookstore, managing the fiction dep't. I watch a lot of stuff go by, read some of it, and I haven't seen anything as good as The River Where Blood is Born in years. As soon as I read it, I told our buyers' office to order plenty, because I could easily sell it to customers. I pledged to sell 100 in six months, which would put it in NYT bestseller range for our store. I've sold 75 in five weeks and have no intention of slowing down. Our customers love it. This novel is what fiction is supposed to be: engaging, thought-provoking, and wise: the sort of book one can't help but finish as soon as possible. The author clearly put her heart and soul into it. I am usually annoyed by novels with too many narrators, but this worked perfectly for me. Each one was convincing and distinct from the previous one. Fiction should be about something important while entertaining the reader. This novel succeeds wildly on both accounts. It explores identity, it doesn't lend itself to easy answers and yet it tells interesting, funny, raunchy, frightening and beautiful stories with seemingly perfect ease. The author spent twenty-one years perfecting this book, and it shows on every page.

I borrowed this book from a friend and didn't want to return it. It was terrific! It traces the history of nine generations of women from Africa, to the Caribbean, to America and back to Africa again. The characters are vividly portrayed and believable. The story is readable and the connections between the female characters are fascinating. African folklore and myth are incorporated into the book in a fascinating and relevant manner. My only gripe is a minor one -- some of the women's story lines weren't as fully developed as I would have liked. But that did not in anyway detract from the power of the narrative.

Intense storytelling! You need to pay attention to keep up, there are lots of characters and lineage to follow. It's worth it! Entertaining! Enlightening! I read it three months ago and I intend to take it on the plane as I leave the country (long flight) ...and read it again. Slower...to digest more fully, what my heart/soul starved for. Again, a D E E P drink of water!I'd love to meet this author and have a roundtable.

I feel so strongly about the power of this book that I do not even know where to begin. I read it for the first time as a Senior in highschool. I am now a Junior at Spelman College and have since read many more books by far more famous authors and I must say that none of them have come close to the lyrical beauty, and magically woven story of The River Where Blood is Born. It is the most prized book in my collection, and if I could give it ten stars I would. It is the story of nine generations of women whose ancestry begins in Africa. The author traces the lineage from before the slave trade, through abolition, the turbulent civil rights and 70s era, on to present day. The beauty is that through such an expansive period of time the story maintains it's connectiveness from the first ancestor to the last offspring such that the reader has a lasting sense of where it all began. It is not just a book for women nor for African-Americans. It is a book for anyone who has ever wished to understand and feel a connection to their past. For the patient and open minded reader it will prove to be a most rewarding experience. I hope you decide to read it, there is no doubt you will enjoy!

Sandra Jackson-Opoku has created a tour-de-force of epic proportions. She manages to weave in the history, gender, class and geographic elements of humanity within the African diaspora. This must read covers several countries, time periods and personalities with a hint of the supernatural using folklore and material culture. Through the allegory of Anasi the spider, Opoku moves the reader through time and space. I loved this book tremendously and encourage all people to read it. This is definately what good reading is all about! Moreover, like Alma this is what most people are in search of a place and space where they fit, belong and are welcomed.

Rivers is not a linear read. It is the sort of fiction that you have to pay close attention, so you want get lost. I would suggest you familarize yourself with Anase, the Akan Trickster Spider & the Yoruba water orishas(Yemoja & Oshun).

This excerpt made brought laughter:

"Oh, so he's getting a divorce?"

"No such luck. He wants to have us all. Girl, I wish I'd never gotten myself mixed up with these tropical types. I should have found me a nice, chitlin' eating brother from the West Side somewhere. Do you know that all the men in my life have been from another place? I don't even know what it's like to have a regular Black American boyfriend."

"Really? That would be like going through life without greens and cornbread. How come?"

"I don't know." Alama laid the bottle gently against her chest, like she was burping a baby. "Probably a flaw in my makeup. Like the brother who can't interest himself in anything but a white woman. I've always been attracted to Black men from other places. The Caribbean, Europe, Africa. Seems like I'm wearing a sign that says All aliens, please apply here. I've even had an Australian aborigine."

I did not particularly like the main character, Allie Mae aka Alma. I thought she was very smart woman when came to books, but incredibly stupid when it came to men. I had very little sympathy for her.

I have known some African American folks who seem to have this desperate need to connect with Africa and go home. I always figured it was some sort of inadequacy and character flaw. I have always found such people to be very sad and highly annoying. So I really could not relate to her quest for her so-called authentic African identity.

Alma is the last leg of this two hundred-year-old odyssey and the ancestors are very in tune with what their children are doing. They are disappointed because they have been forgotten and not catered to. In Gregory Townes book, The Tribe, the statement that touched me the most "the dead knows what the living are doing" really resonated with me in this book.

The journey of the first African in Alma's line started in the African interior to the African shores, across the Atlantic to a Caribbean island, and finally US mainland.

She uses African folklore, specifically the Akan(Ghana) Trickster spider, Anase to help tell the story. Anase is in a sort of battle with the Yoruba(Nigeria & Benin) water mamas, the Orishas. Anase is weaving his web in order to trick them.

The Orishas and the ancestors, water mamas, visits Alma in her dreams to plant the idea of African travel into her consciousness. Alma is the only one of the ancestor's children that has a passion for Africa. It has taken them 200 years to get one of their children to come back home. Alma is the child.

Another excerpt that made me laugh:

"I stood there stewing, trying hard to hold my temper. And I noticed the walk before I noticed the man. Off in the distance. Though I never studied on it before, I realized that there was a certain way that African American men move that sets them apart. A syncopated swagger, with a dip of bravado in it. As if offering the world an unspoken challenge: I dare you to mess with me. Cool as I am.."

I never did warm up to Allie Mae aka Alama, but her man, Kwesi touched my spirit. I found this book to be very fascinating, different and well written. I highly recommend.

Ms. Jackson-Opoku's novel is a wonderful weaving of history and women's lives in the temporal and spiritual worlds. Once I accepted Anansi as a figure beyond the children's book, I was hooked. The characters are so familiar that you want to invite them into your own life, then you realize, they're already there.

I was awestruck by the battles that the river mother and the sea mother had, and since I am involved with IFA, I knew who these powerhouses were!!! Thanks to Sandra for bringing the ancestors to life, it was a bit tedious, only because it was a lot to digest!!! Thank her for me!!!