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Liked It “I wasn't sure if I liked this or not. But then I realized I was grabbing every minute to find out what happened, so I guess that's a good sign. |
Didn’t Like It “Had to skip a lot in this one. |
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“Freedom
OOSA Online Book Club wrote this review Monday, August 24 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
STAND THE STORM by Breena Clarke tells the story of slaves Annie, aka Sewing Annie, and her son Gabriel Coats. Gabriel was groomed by his mother to help sew, weave, knit and dye cloth. Gabriel exhibited a genuine aptitude for needlework. Master Ridley, of the Ridley Plantation, decided to hire ten-year-old Gabriel out to the local tailor. Eventually Master Ridley devises a business plan to open up his own business in tailoring. Any extra business that Gabriel would get on his own would be for his own profit. Profits he intended on buying his and his family's freedom.
Gabriel does earn their freedom, making uniforms for soldiers. Gabriel falls in love with a runaway slave, Mary. They eventually get married and have children of their own. Unbeknownst to Gabriel and Mary, just because they are free does not necessarily mean that their children will be.
STAND THE STORM is the story about the individual struggles of the "free" slaves during the time of the Civil War. I found this story to be difficult to read because it moved so slowly. Briefly, early on, the story seemed to pick up...only to slack right back off again. It was hard to get attached to the characters. I usually enjoy historical fiction but this story was just adequate.
Reviewed by: LeonaR
2.5 stars
”“I wasn't sure if I liked this or not. But then I realized I was grabbing every minute to find out what happened, so I guess that's a good sign.
Shannon C wrote this review Sunday, December 28 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
It's the writing that didn't really appeal to me. For example, it took me a few chapters to figure out which characters the book was about. Another review called it "fragmented" and that fits. I'm also still not sure if there was a main character or if it was the story of the whole family. But their story was very interesting and I really wanted to know what happened to them so I'm giving 4 stars with the whole writing style caveat. ”“Had to skip a lot in this one.
Betty B wrote this review Sunday, August 24 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Interesting characters but the plot was fragmented and repetitive.
I did, however, love the terms "the precious", "the precious ones", and "the preciouses" for the elderly slaves that were getting old and frail.”
“Breena Clarke’s Stand the Storm centers on the story of “Sewing Annie” Coats and her son, Gabriel, expert tailors who manage to purchase their freedom at the cost of entering a less than lucrative business arrangement with their former owner. Nonetheless, hard work and thriftiness allow them to purchase Ellen (Annie’s equally talented daughter) and her daughter, Delia. Prosperity reigns but the clan is happy for only a short while. The threat of re-enslavement looms at every corner as the reality of the times are made clear with the risk of being illegally captured by “pinchers” and sold South never to be seen again. There was also the ever-changing laws and complicated slave/freeman policies that deceitful slave owners misuse to extort and exploit freemen, not to mention the nerve-wrecking uncertainty of their status living in a district surrounded by slaveholding states as the country enters the Civil War.
Phyllis wrote this review Saturday, July 26 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
The history lessons are supplemented with interludes of courtship and conflict featuring some colorful, charismatic and lovable, yet sympathetic characters who serve as love interests and arch nemeses for Annie and Gabriel. Luck and courage are also factors in their adventures propelling the “freedom train.” Their industrious and ingenious survival skills are demonstrated during their humiliating encounters with whites and other undesirables. Unsurprisingly, for a story rooted in this era, the ugliness of racism and sexism are a given and Clarke does not skirt the realities of the degrading, violent sexual abuse that women and children of color endured at the hands of slavers, owners, or any white male in a position of authority. However, through Delia, the author broaches the sensitivities of colorism and the complications that it brings to the Coats’s household.
Told largely from the freedmen’s perspective in Washington’s Georgetown district, this literary novel will appeal to Historical Fiction buffs in that it evokes the cadence and archaic vocabulary of the antebellum era and elicits the bittersweet nostalgia that comes with it. The author conjures poignant images to transport the reader back to the bustling rat-infested waterfronts, the narrow, muddy thoroughfares lined with trendy businesses and salacious bordellos, and the horrors of blood-soaked, body-littered battlefields. It is these circumstances that prompts a forlorn Annie (depressed when her beloved Gabriel joins the Union Army) to reminisce about her early years enslaved on the plantation and yearns to return to perceived safety, quiet, and comfort of it. The author continues down this conflicted path as she delves into the complicated familial interrelationships of the Coats clan, the ramifications and hardships of a (slave) mother’s love, and its ultimate affects on the ties that bind. This title is well researched and recommended for literary, historical fiction fans or those interested in the challenges of African Americans in the antebellum period.
Reviewed by Phyllis
APOOO BookClub
July 25, 2008”
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