Roots – the Saga of An American Family by Alex Hailey
Doubleday & Co., © 1976 hardcover, 688 pages
I well remember when there was a huge amount of press and discussion about this book, it’s rise on the bestseller list, the many, many reviews. Then the mini-series was made and shown on television. I watched that, a segment a week, fascinated. After that there was no way I could pass it up. I bought it, read it through and very much enjoyed it. The book had much more detail than the mini-series, though that seemed detailed at the time.
It has been on the shelf ever since that time, and I decided to re-read it. No special reason, just took it down and started reading. I found the first section, Kunta Kinte’s life as a boy growing up in Africa, of some interest, but read quickly through it (meaning I skimmed now and then). After his capture, I read with interest of the trials and suffering of the journey across the Atlantic Ocean, his sale in Virginia, his first decade as a slave. For me, this was the most interesting part of the book.
After that my interest began to wane. By the time we reached the third generation, I was bored and skimming chunks of the book. I remembered much of it and kind of knew what was happening and was going to happen, I just wasn’t interested enough to pay close attention. I even put the book down several times to read other things, including two very good books, one a short story collection, the other a mystery novel.
Finally I made it to the end. The only part I read straight through was part of Chicken George’s time with his Massa and then leaving and returning to disaster. After that it was pretty much all downhill, so I coasted it to the finish.
I guess I’m glad I read it, but it’s going into a box in the basement, no longer taking shelf space on the dining room wall with most of the other hardcovers. Who knows, I may pull it out again in a few years and give it another go, but I doubt it. With this one, I think twice is enough.
The Broken Bullhorn 
I tried to read this years ago – I think I was about 15 and in high school. For whatever reason (probably because I was just a bit too young for it to hold too much interest), I never made it past the first chapter. I think I might give it a go again though – thanks for reminding me about this book!
I read this one way back when and remember liking it. Probably have the same reaction as you did on a reread. Prbably won’t try it though.
I never read it in book form…this is probably the only book that I read in parts in both PLAYBOY and READER’S DIGEST, two magazines that have fallen far in the world since I was 11 and 12.
I have yet to read it but I will get to it in the next year or so.
We got a request for this in at work recently (I work in a library) which prompted a bit of discussion over whether it should stay in non-fiction/biography as that is what it was marketed as, or be moved over to fiction, because that is clearly what it is.
In the end I put it in fiction. I don’t think I’ve ever read it, but I do remember watching the tv show.
It may have been one of those books only suited to the times. I come across them now and then. Perhaps his subject was bigger than his writing talent.
The first time I encountered Alex Haley’s work was in Playboy. I know there have always been a lot of jokes about reading it for the articles but I really did like the Playboy interviews each month. When they decided to do one with American Nazi Party founder George Lincoln Rockwell he insisted they agree not to send a Jewish writer, so they sent Haley. Next year I read THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X, which Haley co-wrote/ghostwrote.
ROOTS was probably not up to the level of either of the previous works. It’s been well documented that Haley plagiarized large sections of THE AFRICAN in his book.
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