Stand the Storm Book

I didn't really like this book. Some parts were better than others. It reminded me of Lalita Tademy's book. I wonder if this one also is based on a true story? It doesn't flow like a novel does. And the writing patterns were jarring. Like the two sentences that decsribed Gabriel and Mary drowning. The last sentence of the paragraph just said: They Drowned. I almost missed it completely. I guess it was an interesting tale of the Civil War as told from the perspective of this family but again, there were some unsettled things. Like why did Gabriel always distrust Delia so much? Where did that come from? And the preference Annie gave to hr son - his being the lord and master of everything. Was this about how men subjugated women even in the midst of discussing the race issues? This is why it kind of felt like an essay about a specific family drawn from historical documents - there was no real narrative flow or closure on the personality quirks. No connection between taking the girls to school and then just drowning on the way back. And the old plantation owner gets the tore back (no severnce). I thought it was interesting that Delia ended up kind of saving them all. So although the book was about being black, there was a huge undercurrent about black women and their life, and how they actually supported the superiority of men over them. I liked the ray of hope at the end - everyone going south to help educate all of their people. The way to catch up to the other race.

On Breena Clarke's website the description of the book (probably written by the publisher) talks about the tragic denouement - I didn't find it tragic as much as surprising, and then hopeful in the way that they found a way to turn their situation into a positive one. If it was supposed to be tragic it should have been written better.