Rebel Yell

Complex and Engaging

This story is multifaceted and complex, but engaging on all levels. It is a story about family as a woman looks back upon the life that she had with her first husband in order to understand how the man that she loved turned into a man that she barely understood when he died while at the same time valuing the second life that she has constructed with a son and a new husband. The focus of the book however is on the evolving issue of race in the American south as the narrator traces her own history and the history of her first husband's family through three very different generations, eventually leading to an understanding of the relationship between the activism of the Civil Rights generation and contemporary black conservatism.

This books ties together many strings into a story that is both engaging on an emotional level as one of heartbreak and renewal, but also on a political and intellectual level, examining the current state of race in America. I recommend it to anyone who has an interest in either of these topics or someone who simply enjoys a thought provoking read.

Couldn't Finish It

I really hate not finishing a book that I've started. If it wasn't for that, I would probably never have made it past the first 50 pages. As it was, I kept trying and trying to get through this book, and finally gave up about 175 pages in. For those of you who know me, it's extremely rare for me to not finish a book!

Part of the hard part for me was the culture and lifestyle that was described is very different from how I was raised. So I had a really hard time understanding some of the things that were discussed. For example, I had a hard time understanding why certain things were so insulting to some of the characters. Maybe if it was written in a way that I could see where they were coming from, it would have been interesting to learn about a culture different from mine. That's something that I would enjoy! Instead, the way that it was written was very confusing.

I also just kept waiting for there to be a real story, and I never found one! I know that it's about Abel Jr, or Abel III, not sure which. They called him by both, so who knows! He died and his ex-wife is thinking about his life. But beyond that, I couldn't find a story. The author just kept jumping from one thing to another, and from one time frame to another, with no real connections in-between. I never really felt like I was getting to know Abel in any way. I mean, yeah, I was hearing details of his life, but I never felt like I was getting to know him personally. Why did he do certain things? How did particular events effect him and make him the man he ended up becoming? I think that the author was trying to tell us those things, but I never felt them. I never felt like I knew Abel at all!

And the tidbits about some of the relationships were vague, odd, and sometimes disturbing. In the center is Abel's son Ajay. Ajay's step-father is having an affair. I keep getting a feeling that his mother hasn't been faithful either, even though at this point that's never actually stated. His step-mother is hitting on him. And his father seems to have been unfaithful to both of his wives, and possibly was gay. Good luck to this kid with those kinds of dysfunctional relationships as his examples!

I truly tried to get into this book and to find something good or interesting about it. Instead, I felt like it was a chore just to try to read another chapter. Unfortunatly, there are too many amazing books out there for me to read, to continue to waste my time on this one.

No text was provided for this review.