It is easy to see that Honorée Fanonne Jeffers’s debut novel is the work of a poet. The canvas was big and this was a family saga with all the heart breaking intensity one would expect, executed with skill and precision. A powerful and gripping novel and a hugely impressive debut.

Enlightening read

The Love Songs of W.E.B. du Bois is a historical fiction novel that chronicles African American family history from the Creek and African ancestors to the 21st century generation. This is a well researched and enlightening read I mostly enjoyed. This is not a short book and gives you lots of details of every day lives. While I enjoyed getting to know Ailey and her family history, I found some chapters unnecessary and lengthy.

Many thanks to the publisher for my review copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book comes with a sticker on the front page announcing that the book had been chosen as part of the Oprah book Club in the USA where it had been very. well received . I read on Kindle and was initially rather daunted by the expected read time of 19 hours which would make this one of the longest novels I have read . It is testament to the extraordinary writing that. I didn't end up swamped buy the book , yes it is long and I my. opinion probably too long but it is so exquisitely written and its content so meaningful and topical that I felt my time spent reading was well spent .
I particularly liked the sections set in more modern times and felt these were the best written and the most immersive and believable. . I found some of the historical sections rather confusing and lost the relationship links which were ultimately some of the most important parts of the story which. explained the tangled web of black and white relationships .
The author r has a clear voice and the book is easy to read and enjoyable , it does touch on some sensitive topics such as racial tension and slavery but the author manages to do this in a way that does not feel like you are being lectured to
I was unaware of the writings of W E B Du Bois which were used to join the sections together . I have benefited from knowing more about his writings , however there were occasions when I couldn't see what the links had in common with that section and why they had been used then and not somewhere else in the book , because of this I didn't find the quotes added much to me reading .
I would recommend the. book to those who enjoy multigenerational novels and to those who wanted to know more about the lives of black people particularly women in the USA from the time of slavery to modern times

I won’t lie, the number of pages scared me a bit, but in the end it didn’t feel as long as it is. Totally absorbing and compelling, I was sad to finish it.

An intense, multi-generational family drama sprinkled through with work by W.E.B. Du Bois. Interesting, emotional and ambitious. It really needs to be read. (Copy received via Netgalley in return for an honest review)

I was stunned to discover this book was a debut. It’s subtle and nuanced and impeccably researched but it’s the scope that makes it seems as if this writer must surely have been building up their storytelling muscles over a lifetime.
It’s long at 800 odd pages and it will demand a lot of you as a reader. It’s a complex and complicated story about a Black American family told through multiple generations and many perspectives. Set in the south and with a storyline shifting from past to present and back again, Ailey Garfield goes in search of the truth about her family’s history. Her ancestors are indigenous, Black and white and the truth is painful. The book explores what it is to be a woman, to be Black, to be repressed, to be enslaved, to be abused, to suffer loss and grief and trauma and also what it is to have hope, to be resilient, to have faith, to love and to have your spirit soar.
It will make you angry and make you weep. But it’s also lyrical and profound and one of the best books I have read in ages.

Disappointing. Accustomed though I am to books that are nominated for multiple prizes failing to live up to expectations, I had held out hope that this one would buck the trend. Sadly, it was not to be. I was surprised that a poet-turned-prose writer would be so overly prolific with their words - this novel was about 500 pages too long. The bare bones of the family history traced down the generations from the original Native Peoples, through the start of colonization and slavery, to the present day lives of one African American family, was interesting, but way too heavily weighted with the story of the narrator, present-day Ailey. Not only did the author give far too much detail about the minutiae of her life, but she was not the most sympathetic of characters. Admittedly, there is a space for the narrative of African Americans who were important players in the transition era from slavery to the mid-twentieth century, most especially those who paved the way for university-educated professionals, but I must admit I found it all a bit "bourgie" - possibly self-referenced in the running argument Ailey's friend David has with Uncle Root, over the merits of Booker T. Washington versus W.E.B. Dubois.
Neither did Jeffers do much to discuss feminism, either in the African American community itself, or in the wider context, which I found particularly disappointing - Ailey's experiences with men were often illogical and contrary to the character, which rather spoiled the story. It made me long for the passionate prose of Alice Walker or Zora Neale Hurston, or the powerful (and much shorter) works of Yaa Gyasi. or the superb P. Djeli Clark,whose Ring shout said in a mere 1oo pages what Jeffers failed to do here.
My thanks to Netgalley for giving me the ARC of this book in return for an honest review.

This big, messy, long novel captured both my imagination and my heart. It’s an amazing history and insight into slavery and the generations of a family beaten down but with a constant shining spirit that raises them up over and over again.
There is so much in the novel and so many characters, it’s hard for me to say who I liked the most - the fragile Lydia, wise uncle Root or ass-kicking Ailey.
I will definitely be reading this book again.

The Love Songs of W.E.B.Du Bois is an utterly absorbing and scholarly work of historical fiction. It is centred around Ailey Garfield who is born into a mixed race family in 1973. Although she is brought up in a northern US state she spends every summer in Chicasetta, Georgia where her mother's family have lived for generations.
It is only through sheer determination and constant study that Ailey becomes one of the first black students to be awarded a Masters from a Southern University. For her doctorate paper she chooses to write the history of the Pinchard family which is effectively the story of her Chicasetta-based ancestors.
This storyline allows Honoree Jeffers to take her reader back and forwards through time over a period of 250 years. The result is a sweeping panorama of a novel that succeeds in being enjoyable, educational ,moving and profoundly shocking all at the same time.
Jeffers' authorship is quite simply spellbinding as she vividly evokes characters and settings that stay long in the mind. I had to constantly remind myself this is a work of fiction. Ailey, Dear Pearl, Uncle Root, Lydia and Aggie - not to mention the child-molesting monster that was Samuel Pinchard - all appear so real.
I'm quite certain this authenticity arises as a result of the 10 years of research and background reading that Jeffers undertook before committing "Songs" to paper. At 800 pages this book requires not only stamina from its reader but also demands concentration to grapple with the numerous characters and time-travelling. But the reward comes in acquiring a new and deeper understanding of the issues around colour and ethnicity in America.
This reviewer read "Songs" twice in succession - it's that good! A very special novel.

4.5 rounded up. As the author says at the end: "This is a Black feminist novel. I’m unapologetic about that." I read this 816-page long book over the month of January, on my Kindle. I did not know what to expect; I requested it on NetGalley after seeing glowing reviews on Bookstagram. I don't think a short caption can make this book justice.

This multi-generational story about life in the US for a family of Black people, with Native American ancestry, is fascinating.

The start of the book takes place in the 1700s. It reads like poetry and describes a Creek community and their displacement: "The love of our land was a fever that would not be chilled. It called white man after white man to our place, which they labeled a “frontier.”

It then goes on to follow the lives of African people enslaved on a plantation, and their descendants who become free and try to make a life for themselves in a still very much racist society, even in the 2000s.

This was not my first book about slavery and its ramifications. Yet this is one of the most riveting, honest and well-written accounts I have read in my entire life. It is a piece of historical fiction, yet you can tell that the author has thoroughly researched race relations to present us with a credible and moving piece of literature.

This has to become a classic. This has to be put in every library and every school.

There are horrible passages, of course. Please check the trigger warnings; but dehumanisation, rape, brutality, addiction, religious bigotry, and so much more are expected when looking at US history.

I don't want to reveal too much about the actual plot, but I will say that normally, I always have 1 or 2 favourite characters. Here I could mention more than 5.

If you are intimidated by the size, do still pick it up and read another book in parallel. Don't rush reading this. My only gripe was that there may have been too many characters to keep track of sometimes. I think I also was able to process the contents of the book better as I had a solid understanding of American history thanks to my degree; and it may be a bit too long for some.

Regardless, this will remain one of my favourite books of 2022 and I am so grateful to NetGalley and 4th Estate Books for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

A beautifully written book by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers. It's not often that you want a 800 page novel to be longer, but The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois is a special book. It follows one family through the generations from the 1700s to 2007, with the past interlaced with the modern storyline, with themes of race, feminism and slavery. Some parts are hard to read and there are a few trigger warnings to be aware of. I definitely think it will be one of my top reads of 2022.

I absolutely loved this book. The mix of Native American history with African American history weaved through the narrative is so eye-opening. The voices of the female characters are really Distinctive and strong and I really cared about the characters and their stories. There was a lightness of touch and despite it being a long book I felt bereft when I finished it - I wanted to read more.

This book isn’t an easy read, partly for the subject matter and partly the length, some 800 pages. Ailey’s story takes us from the time the Creek people, indigenous inhabitants of Georgia, were infiltrated by white men from overseas to late 20th century and the inequalities still endured by black people in America. It was sometimes difficult to follow the family connections through time but certainly made for a thought provoking read. It gives a much more complex view of the interaction between people of different origins, and the mixing and feelings that were experienced by them. A very interesting, well written book, if a little too long at times.

I wanted so much to love this book but ultimately found it to be about 300 pages too long. It was difficult to keep track of all the characters and the story tended to ramble on and on. Having recently read Homegoing by Ya Gyasi, the comparison was inevitable. Reading this book actually made me appreciate Homegoing even more. It conveyed so much history while still remaining brief and never getting boring. Overall, I would have enjoyed The Love Songs of WEB Du Bois far more if was shorter and tighter.

An evocative and truly though-provoking work of art. I’m still stunned, and putting my thoughts into words is trickier than I expected. The narrative was so nuanced, and I feel ill need to dip back in again and again to truly appreciate the power of this novel. Everyone should read this book for a dose of empathy.

It was a privilege to be offered this ARC. Thank you to NetGalley and Fourth Estate and Willian Collins for this.

Absolutely stunning! A breathtaking and ambitious debut novel that chronicles the journey of multiple generations of one American family, from the centuries of the colonial slave trade through the Civil War to our own tumultuous era, by prize-winning poet Honorée Fanonne Jeffers.

The great scholar, W. E. B. Du Bois, once wrote about the Problem of race in America, and what he called ‘Double Consciousness,’ a sensitivity that every African American possesses in order to survive. Since childhood, Ailey Pearl Garfield has understood Du Bois's words all too well.

Ailey grows up in the north in the City but spends summers in the small Georgia town of Chicasetta, where her mother's family has lived since their ancestors arrived from Africa in bondage. From an early age, Ailey fights a battle for belonging that's made all the more difficult by a hovering trauma, as well as the whispers of women – her mother, Belle, her sister, Lydia, and a maternal line reaching back two centuries – that urge her to succeed in their stead.

To come to terms with her own identity, Ailey embarks on a journey through her family's past, uncovering the shocking tales of generations of ancestors – Indigenous, Black, and white – in the deep South. In doing so she must learn to embrace her full heritage, a legacy of oppression and resistance, bondage and independence, cruelty and resilience that is the story – and the song – of America itself.

An intimate yet sweeping novel with all the dazzling force of Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing and Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing, The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois is unforgettable debut that is set to be one of the most talked about books of the year.

Reading through other people’s reviews, I saw a gal named Rebecca M wrote: “This book needs to be read by everyone but I would not recommend it to anyone.” and, honestly, that kind of sums it up for me!?

At over 800 pages long, this is not for the faint of heart. It’s clearly a lifetime’s work and I applaud Jeffers for the bewildering scale of it all. I have no idea how she managed to construct this world; I could barely keep track of what was happening from page to page. That was one of my main problems, actually - that within a paragraph, you would grow deeply attached to what seemed like a key player, only for them to die, then for the era and narrator both to change completely, over and over again. I feel like we could have lost about 2-300 pages of this book, and it would be a lot more accessible to a wider audience. But on the flip side - there is *so* much history here, really uncomfortable, cruel, difficult to read history. And who am I to demand that any of that be edited out?! I’m aware that I’m being contradictory, but I don’t know how else to sum up my feelings about this behemoth of a tome! Really wonderful, read it.. but don’t read it. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Weighing in at 800 pages, undertaking to read 'The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois' is quite a time commitment - and that may put some readers off. To be honest, it did me, but having heard so much positivity about the novel I decided it might be worth it. And on balance I think it was. Yes, I could have read three average length novels in the same time, but I would say this is probably better than two thirds of novels, so the maths works out. If you can read it in good sized chunks it's probably best - so try to select a time when you have more reading time - a holiday for example.

With some long novels - and indeed, with plenty of average or short ones - there is the frustration of feeling it could have been shorter. That's not the case here - I can't obviously see what I would cut out, and the style is not overly wordy at all. Maybe right at the end some of the parts where the main character is discovering the factual history behind the sections that have already been told as fictionalised narrative earlier in the book seem a bit redundant. But that's a very small portion of the whole.

For those who don't know (and I didn't myself until I read this) W.E.B. Du Bois was a Black American academic in the 20th century, one of the founders of the National Association of the Advancement of Coloured People. He is a peripheral figure in the novel that bears his name, which is focussed instead on several interlinked families from the small Georgia community of Chicasetta. Whilst the novel takes in a wide range of family members in its ambitious scope, the central character to whom it returns is Ailey, born in the 1970s in Washington DC but who retains strong links with her southern US hometown. The story follows Ailey through her adolescence right through to her thirties, where she eventually becomes a historian and traces her family right back to time white people first arrived in Georgia.

The sections based in more recent history - which follow Ailey, but also the story of her mother and beloved older sister - are interspersed with stories about their more distant ancestors. Ailey's family is a mixture of Black, white and Native American peoples. It's not a happy history as you would expect - the Creek indigenous people have their land stolen by settlers as if they didn't exist, whilst her Black ancestors were enslaved and raped by the white ones. Even in the more modern times, the characters are still affected by racism in their daily lives.

When I was younger and less aware, I often felt baffled why so many authors of non-white ethnicities wrote about race. I understand now - and this book is very good at making a white person understand this - that never having to think about race is part of white privilege. As a white person in country where my own race and culture are the majority ones ,my ethnicity has never caused me any issues and as such it's not been something I've had to think about. Whereas when your race causes you constant problems and affects every aspect of your daily life, its inevitable it is going to figure largely in any fiction you write.

One thing that really hit me in this novel was how the characters did not undertake journeys by car at night as it was simply too dangerous - not because they might crash, but because their skin colour might lead to their being attacked. Something that wouldn't even cross my mind as a white person, that I take for granted, but is a genuine risk for people of other races. Such a simple thing, but what an impediment to being able to live your life! How insane that we live in a world where someone has to fear for their life simply because their skin happens to be one colour or another. And much as I'd like to say it's all history, in the last couple of years alone Black people have been murdered for undertaking such innocent every day activities as going for a jog or sleeping in their own bed.

The novel is very well written - it's always easy to read despite its very long length, and it isn't over wordy. It interests me that Jeffers is a poet because I wouldn't describe her style as particularly poetic or 'flowery'. That is a compliment from me - I tend to dislike novels that are 'poetical' in style. I do like her turn of phrase and the way she chooses what to include or exclude, which draws you straight into the story. Her dialogue is very good - and good dialogue is always important to keep a story moving along. The characters are likeable and well rounded - I particularly liked Ailey's older sister Lydia, and her wise but funny great-uncle 'Root'.

Jeffers should be praised for her ambition in taking on such a big topic and doing so with such broad scope. People sometimes talk about the 'Great American Novel' - defined by Wikipedia as a novel that embodies the essence of America. I think there is a strong argument for this novel to be described as such. I'd certainly read another novel by her - although I wonder if this will be one of those novels that is so large and so complete that it will be her only one. My only reason for a four star rating is that I still prefer shorter and more punchy novels - but if I were rating on quality of writing alone, I would give it five.

I'm glad I read this book! It was quite hard work at times; the book is long and, at least at first, a bit confusing with changes of narrator and era but it was quite moving at times and gave me a better insight into the heritage and everyday experience of Native Americans and African Americans.

This book really does deserve all the plaudits and praise coming its way, I have found it an epic, important and engaging read - packed full of drama, character, history and education.

The central character, Ailey Pearl Garfield holds the story together, although we not only follow her life in the present but her history, and the history of her family right back to slavery. I was gripped by the different time frames, and the movement from one to the other was smooth and careful. The characters are believable and well formed, the story beautifully crafted and ambitious in its scope.

If you choose one book to read this year, make it this one. Writing in January 2022, I'm already pretty certain this is going to be at or near the top of my 2022 reads.