Liked it. A tad overhyped, tbh. But I’ll sleep on it and let it percolate before codifying a review.

the promised review:
This is the story of a complicated family, very much, to my mind, embodying a quintessential contemporary black culture. We begin all the way back, briefly, to their ancestors' enslavement, and proceed to establish the generations of come. The book dwells primarily with Ailey Pearl Garfield, though it is so long that it actually takes a while to get a bead on her. And just when we do, the narrative structure can pull us away, reinforcing that Ailey is a product of her direct rearing as well as the past. We spend time with her mother only after we see what kind of person Ailey grows to be, for instance. We know more about her mother's mother than she herself. And just when you have a grip on it, the book proceeds to draw a more complex web that makes the themes, characters, and family very contemporary, as mentioned.

Interestingly, though the book tackles some really oppressive and dark themes, its arrangement is its biggest strength, even as it causes the larger story to be somewhat opaque until a significant portion in. As far as I can tell the themes cascade. Especially when important. When underage and pedophilic physical and emotional abuse comes up for one family member, we then proceed through the web of the family further to see its roots and its contemporary nature. When Ailey sees the ramifications of marriage and tying herself to a man has gotten her mother and her grandmother--we proceed, again, to see the history behind that decision and witness the lack of agency the women had in making that choice. Consciously or otherwise, depending on the time period. By the end, this is the most compelling aspect of the book. The nuance and complexity are presented in an easily digestible manner and are built up methodically and slowly.

The pacing and the way in which many of the themes are not being struck as a chord until later was the number one challenging aspect of the book. To begin to see dividends from time and effort, you have to be around 400+ pages in the book. You just have to trust that you will get there--unless you enjoy the prose very much and it doesn't become a slog. Some of the time periods were exactly the style I like: lyrical, complex sentence structure, and high degrees of specificity. Probably because those aspects are very indicative of historical fiction. Whereas the contemporary prose, the "primary" narrative, is Hemingwayesque, but lacking the punch of full stop arrests and descriptive, evocative specificity that I, myself, prefer. On audio, the simple prose feels called out. And, later, when Ailey is more grown, they don't reflect her intellectual level. They only skate when she is a child and teenager.

The book does succeed at what it's trying to do, which is very ambitious. It's accessible and deceptively easy to consume, while being nuanced and layered, and not too overwhelming with the very heavy subject matter it endeavors to portray in a similarly nuanced but realistic and unflinching manner. The arrangement is by far the most impressive aspect. But if you can't get on with the narrative voice of the text, I imagine this book will feel interminable and opaque, and you'll have to force yourself through. In which case, do as I did and pick up the audiobook so you can still consume this accomplishment of a book.