Men We Reaped: A Memoir
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Men We Reaped: A Memoir Paperback – September 16, 2014
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Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
In four years, five young men dear to Ward died of various causes, from drug overdose to accident to suicide, but the underlying cause of their deaths was a self-destructive spiral born of hopelessness. Surrounded by so much death and sorrow, Ward closely examined the heartbreakingly relentless deathsof her young relatives and friends growing up in the small town of DeLisle, Mississippi, with few job prospects and little to engage their time and talents other than selling and using drugs and alcohol. She herself had partially escaped, going on to college in Michigan and California; but the pull of close family ties and a deep appreciation of southern culture lured her back each summer. Ward, author of Salvage the Bones (2011), lovingly profiles each of those she lost, including a brother, a cousin, and close friends, and their tragic ends as she weaves her family history and details her own difficulties of breaking away from home and the desperate need to do so. This is beautifully written homage, with a pathos and understanding that come from being a part of the culture described. --Vanessa Bush
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Review
"An important, and perhaps even essential, book." —San Francisco Chronicle
"[Ward] chronicles our American story in language that is raw, beautiful and dangerous… [Her] singular voice and her full embrace of her anger and sorrow set this work apart from those that have trodden similar ground." —The New York Times Book Review
"Heart-wrenching… A brilliant book about beauty and death… at once a coming-of-age story and a kind of mourning song… filled [with] intimate and familial moments, each described with the passion and precision of the polished novelist Ward has become… Ward is one of those rare writers who’s traveled across America’s deepening class rift with her sense of truth intact." —Los Angeles Times
"A memoir that is as searing as her fiction, as poignant and as timely... in a country that is supposed to be post racial but still seems hell-bent on the epidemic destruction of young black men." —Edwidge Danticat, The Progressive
More About the Author
Jesmyn Ward is a former Stegner fellow at Stanford and Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi. Her novels, Where the Line Bleeds and Salvage the Bones, are both set on the Mississippi coast where she grew up. Bloomsbury will publish her memoir about an epidemic of deaths of young black men in her community. She is an Assistant Professor at the University of South Alabama.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
42 of 44 people found the following review helpful
By
Silver's Reviews
on September 17, 2013
Format: Hardcover
2 Comments
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MEN WE REAPED is very well written and in a style that feels as if the author is right there with you having a conversation. The prose is beautiful, and the descriptions are vivid and make the scenes come alive.
The author revealed her life very eloquently even though her life growing up wasn't very eloquent. Jesmyn had to suffer through a premature birth, a father who wasn't true to her mother, a dog mauling, poverty, drugs, drinking, and deaths of loved ones.
The book was enlightening as well as heartbreaking to hear the narration of her life and her family's struggles.
I normally do not read memoirs, but I am glad I read this book. It is an eye opener. Thanks for writing this book, Ms. Ward.
This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation by the publisher in return for an honest review
The author revealed her life very eloquently even though her life growing up wasn't very eloquent. Jesmyn had to suffer through a premature birth, a father who wasn't true to her mother, a dog mauling, poverty, drugs, drinking, and deaths of loved ones.
The book was enlightening as well as heartbreaking to hear the narration of her life and her family's struggles.
I normally do not read memoirs, but I am glad I read this book. It is an eye opener. Thanks for writing this book, Ms. Ward.
This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation by the publisher in return for an honest review
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
By
Alicia
on December 21, 2013
Format: Hardcover
1 Comment
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Jesmyn is in such a unique situation to give a nuanced and thoughtful window into this crisis, but I felt she never got there. She never followed the "why" trail all the way back and never made us care about the young men. Yes, their lives were bleak, and I loved some of her points about what it is that makes and shapes young disadvantaged black men, but I never felt she truly got to the heart of the matter. And if anyone could have gotten there, it's her. Lovely writing but I came away feeling I was missing something.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By
Matthew Fried
on December 19, 2013
Format: Hardcover
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I purchased Men We Reaped after a riveting hour-long interview Jesmyn Ward gave to NPR radio stung me with anticipation.
The book changed my life.
Ward takes you back and forth through time seamlessly, on a journey to uncover meaning behind the deaths of five men in her life. Along the way I played devil's advocate in my head. As the answers begin to appear through the Louisiana fog, I looked for 'holes' in the theory. I found no valid reasons why a critic might dismiss her case.
That's just one of the themes. There are others, but simply listing them here in a sentence would be an injustice. Ward weaves them into the memoir using the very personal thread of her own life story. Technically, the writing is a virtuoso; I found myself re-reading paragraphs and wondering, 'How did she just do that?' Emotionally, it is raw electricity.
Simply put, everyone needs to read this book. It is too important not to.
The book changed my life.
Ward takes you back and forth through time seamlessly, on a journey to uncover meaning behind the deaths of five men in her life. Along the way I played devil's advocate in my head. As the answers begin to appear through the Louisiana fog, I looked for 'holes' in the theory. I found no valid reasons why a critic might dismiss her case.
That's just one of the themes. There are others, but simply listing them here in a sentence would be an injustice. Ward weaves them into the memoir using the very personal thread of her own life story. Technically, the writing is a virtuoso; I found myself re-reading paragraphs and wondering, 'How did she just do that?' Emotionally, it is raw electricity.
Simply put, everyone needs to read this book. It is too important not to.
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13 of 16 people found the following review helpful
By
Sharon A Byron
on November 30, 2013
Format: Hardcover
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I bought this book because our local newspaper ran a favorable article on the author. Additionally the idea for the memoir was interesting. However its execution was disappointing. I felt like I never got to know these men. There is no chronological progression of time making it difficult to form a picture of these men as they progressed from boyhood to early adulthood. I wanted to know more about their makeup...their character, their hopes and dream, their struggles....the basic details of a life. Instead I came away with the impression of young men who liked to drive around, take drugs, and drink. So if the author wanted me to feel compassion for these young men and their life difficulties. she failed and in the end short-changed the memories of her friends.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By
Boyd Gatlin
on November 3, 2013
Format: Kindle Edition
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The author's powers of description are strongly engaging, and the stories she tells of life on the Mississippi Gulf Coast are fascinating, if somewhat depressing. Her narrative, however, is occasionally disjointed so that the reader struggles to keep track of chronology. Being a Mississippian, I was especially drawn to her stories of love and tragic loss and and her intimate descriptions of those parts of the lives of Black Southerners not usually seen by White people.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By
carey porter
on October 30, 2013
Format: Kindle Edition
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Immensely moving and insightful. We are defined by those we have lost. So few understand the struggles of living with loss or the hardships of poverty and racism.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By
Janet B. Cook
on October 23, 2013
Format: Hardcover
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Every now and then I read a book that educates me in ways no other book has; Men We Reaped is one of those books. It should be required reading for anyone who wants to begin to understand race relations in the U.S. What a treasure. Thank you Ms. Ward.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By
Lisa Fontes
on January 23, 2014
Format: Hardcover
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Everyone I know loves Salvage the Bones, Ward's most recent book before this one. I heard an interview with the author on the radio and could not wait to buy this book. It has a great title. It was disappointing, however. Too much reading about people (including the author) getting high and smoking and drinking. Okay, so they got together and drank and smoked again and again and again. What is the reason for repeating that scene so often? Racism, poverty, substance abuse, death. Tragic stories. The book is missing transcendence, a thread, something to hold it together. Just before this I read Brother I'm Dying by Edwidge Danticat and it's like night and day. Two memoirs which include a lot of suffering--but Danticat's somehow successfully touches on the larger themes. I am still looking forward to reading Salvage the Bones.
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