I read this on audiobook but I wasn't a huge fan of the main narrator. I was reading this heavy book while doing heavy (read - depressing) archival work so that may have coloured my experience of it.

The writing was okay. I loved the historical fiction aspect, examining the reconstruction era in the US South. It's always neat to make connections to other media I've consumed. Zeal reminded me of Sinners a bit.

I did not vibe with most of the characters. I wanted to connect with them. I enjoy messy lives but there was something missing for me to put up with it. Harrison being described as a African with a big **** made my skin itch. It made me think of 1700s-1800s White travel literature that described Black people in very sexual ways.

There were points where I had warm feelings for Tirzah but not after they moved to Kansas. She babied Free in a way that reminds me when mothers cry for their "good sons" who rape, rob, and murder other people. I'm not a mother - but where is the line when you stop babying your child and realize you raised a lump of a man. I do get the trauma aspect of it, but Free acted that way because the women in his life let him get away with doing whatever he wanted.

I honestly think the book could have ended in the past. When Jerkins tried to bridge it back to the present there was a disconnect for me. Only towards the very end of the book did I see any value in trying to link the two time periods together. It read like two separate books at one point. I enjoying seeing the migration of characters but we didn't need Oliver or Ardelia for that.