Roots, by Alex Haley |
This is the epic story following the family of Kunta Kinte, who
was kidnapped as a teenager from his home in Africa to be a slave in the US.
His family is dramatically followed down the line to Alex Haley, the author.
There is a well-known miniseries based on the book (it was pretty good), as
well as a newer one which I've not seen. The first one follows the book almost
perfectly. For the most part, this was an excellently written character-driven
book. I enjoyed following the family down the generations. Unfortunately, Haley
ruined it by claiming that it was actually his heritage, which it was not. That
was a lie. It was also apparently plagiarized (including even some of the
characters) from another book. :( Knowing that took some of the admiration I
would have otherwise felt for the book. Still, it was quite good...and a good
start for Black History Month.
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