Roots: The Saga of an American Family

Roots: The Saga of an American Family
by Alex Haley

Roots: The Saga of an American Family
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Book Summary Information

Author: Alex Haley
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2007-05-22
ISBN: 1593154496
Number of pages: 912
Publisher: Vanguard Press
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Book Reviews of Roots: The Saga of an American Family

Book Review: Unabridged audio book is wonderful
Summary: 5 Stars

I listened to the audio book on my commute and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The reader is Avery Brooks and he was perfect for the part. His accents and characterizations were ideal for each character, which made the story very easy to follow. His deep baritone voice is very easy on the ears. This is one of the better audio books I have listened to.

The story itself left a great impression on me. It clarified to me once again how horrific the practice of slavery was. When one imagines this story being repeated by millions of slaves, it really has an impact. The detail Haley went into on the capture and transport of Kinte to America was very vivid and made me realize how horrible this experience would have been.

Haley's summary at the end of the book on how he acquired the information for this story was fascinating and illustrates to me that it really is a story that needed to be told. I was also impressed at how accurate the oral history through seven generation turned out to be.

I highly recommend this book to all. This story deserves to be a classic. I will now go ahead and watch the miniseries. I haven't seen it since it first came out.

Summary of Roots: The Saga of an American Family

One of the most important books and television series ever to appear,?Roots, galvanized the nation, and created an extraordinary political, racial, social and cultural dialogue that hadn't been seen since the publication of?Uncle Tom's Cabin. The book sold over one million copies in the first year, and the miniseries was watched by an astonishing 130 million people. It also won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.?Roots?opened up the minds of Americans of all colors and faiths to one of the darkest and most painful parts of America's past.?

Over the years, both?Roots?and Alex Haley have attracted controversy, which comes with the territory for trailblazing, iconic books, particularly on the topic of race. Some of the criticism results from whether?Roots?is fact or fiction and whether Alex Haley confused these two issues, a subject he addresses directly in the book. There is also the fact that Haley was sued for plagiarism when it was discovered that several dozen paragraphs in?Roots?were taken directly from a novel, The African, by Harold Courlander, who ultimately received a substantial financial settlement at the end of the case.?

But none of the controversy affects the basic issue.?Roots?fostered a remarkable dialogue about not just the past, but the then present day 1970s and how America had fared since the days portrayed in?Roots. Vanguard Press feels that it is important to publish?Roots: The 30th Anniversary Edition?to remind the generation that originally read it that there are issues that still need to be discussed and debated, and to introduce to a new and younger generation, a book that will help them understand, perhaps for the first time, the reality of what took place during the time of?Roots.
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