Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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40 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
ONCE UPON A TIME....this is what we read, August 28, 2001
Decades ago, "Drum" and "Mandingo" kicked off a potboiler series revolving around the plantation, slaves and owners at Falconhurst. As shocking today as it was the day it was published, "Mandingo" and the series of books face a new audience and a whole new world in the year 2001. They are full of sex and sin, horror, gruesome torture, injustice and human suffering. They may read like "Valley of the Dolls" and yet the reader has to take a breath and realize these fictionalized accounts of slave life cannot be far off from the truth. Don't allow yourself to fall into three of the usual traps, however. 1. These books were written and received as trashy novels of the higher variety, meaning amidst the sex and sin, there was a message to the story, one would have to be rather dim to miss it. Never are they presented as the complete historical works of the horrors of slavery. 2. These books may included the talk and theory of white supremacy, but neither is glorified nor are the books "tools" of the white man to keep the black man down. Written in the 70's, the books were penned to be exploitive, graphic/trashy bestellers and they were, Mandingo being one of the biggest sellers. They are exploitive, while interesting in many parts, sexually and violently graphic, and would never be published in this day and age. 3. They were written in a time prior to political correctness being attempted into every single piece of literature being written. Yes, Gentle Readers, there was such a time. More (or less) than a dissection of slavery and its origins, this book stands as a mirror into 1970's literature and what we read. No more, no less. For that reason alone, I give the book a 4.
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not too bad, October 1, 2002
There were 3 main books in this series, then quite a few side books. The side books were used to explain what went on during the time. I have read some of these reviews, and some of these people need to get a life. As a 52 year old Black Man, I read these books in 1969-1970 and found them facinating. Slavery was real. Sex during slavery was real. Just because you didn't like it didn't make it not happen. No, this is not a "historical" book, but fiction. Unless you have a time machine and are able to go back and record history, this is as close as you get. Read the WHOLE series and then make up your own mind. If I can Find the whole series, I would buy them.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
a harsh glimpse at a brutal way of life, July 5, 2003
First published in 1959, before the civil rights movement had changed much in the USA, Mandingo is a book that takes a harsh and simplistic view of slavery in the 1830s South. As the author recreates this period, slaves are animals to be bred, worked, and sold as the owners see fit. The N-word is used frequently, and slaves are represented as simple-minded and devoted to their owners. Bored by their rural life, young white men enjoy sex with their female slaves and wagering on fights between their most muscular male slaves. Slave breeding and prices are about the only things that the plantation owners seem to have enough knowledge about and interest to discuss.Hammond Maxwell is 18 years old and an only child. His mother died when he was young, and his father is disabled by rheumatism. He and his father Warren are the only whites on a large Alabama plantation. Since he reached puberty he has had his choice of bedmates from the slaves of the plantation. His father is pressuring Hammond to marry his cousin Blanche who he hasn't seen since she was a baby and who lives on a distant plantation. Although Hammond has had many children by his female slaves, his father is looking for a white child who can be an heir to their plantation, Falconhurst. Blanche's father is eager to arrange a match because he is deep in debt and hopes to secure a "loan" from Hammond in exchange for his parental approval. Hammond, on his side is willing to do his duty to provide his father with progeny, but finds sex with slaves much more satisfying than with his wife. Blanche, neglected by a husband who finds more time for his pure-bred Mandingo fighter than for her, turns to drink and eventually to infidelity to ease her loneliness. The plot is simplistic and the characters two-dimensional. One would hope that the author portrayed them that way intentionally rather than through lack of skill. In either case, the reader gets a glimpse into the dehumanizing effects of slavery on both the owner and the owned. This is a difficult book that gives a harsh glimpse at a brutal way of life.
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