"Roots: The Saga of an American Family" is a story that many of us know well. Even if you've read the book or watched the late 70's TV miniseries, listening to the audiobook adaptation narrated by the acclaimed actor Avery Brooks will give you a new appreciation for this fascinating and tragic historical account.
This audiobook has served as an important part of African American history and culture for years. It chronicles the findings of the author upon learning about his roots, which brought him back to Africa, and began with the birth of a baby. Alex remembers when he was a young child and sitting with his grandmother, who told him stories about his family tree; stories that reached back many generations to a time of slavery.
Alex's grandmother referred to the main character in her stories as "The African". It would take Alex doing further research into his family's history to uncover the real name of "The African", which he found out was Kunta Kinte.
Roots: The Saga of an American Family will bring you back to the birth of Kunta Kinte, taking you through the day he was brought to Colonial America on a slave ship. You'll revisit his heartaches and those of his soon-to-be family members and they live their lives as slaves in a new world that's so unfamiliar and so cruel. This audiobook will give you a new respect for African American history, as well as a newfound appreciation for the trials and tribulations they faced during a very dark time in our nation's history.
Alex Haley was an accomplished writer and worked for many publications, including The Reader's Digest. He had the great privilege of interviewing some of the most influential people in our country. His interview with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is said to be the most lengthy interview King ever allowed with anyone. Alex co-wrote The Autobiography of Malcolm X and was a voice against racism until his death in 1992.
"Alex Haley did an incredible job researching his family's lineage which in the book begins in Africa over 250 years ago. He does a fine job writing about each generation's struggle from Kunta Kinte's horrific capture and voyage to America only to have himself be enslaved for the rest of his life, along with his future generations not knowing what lay ahead for themselves. Freedom was always on the back of his family's minds but not knowing when, if ever it would come about, each generation did the best they could under the circumstances. Towards the end of the book, you finally feel the sense that this family finally "made" it, deservedly so. It's a great book in a sense that the author acknowledges that the family that he wrote about was his and that his greatest achievement was him being an author that could take the time and diligence to write this important book to understand and know where he and his family came from."
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Alex (4 out of 5 stars)