I loved this book at first and I ultimately enjoyed it, but by the end of it I was tired of it and couldn't keep track of all the characters.

There were portions that moved almost too quickly and some portions that were too drawn out.

Several of the earliest characters lacked any kind of closure. A case in point, after following Eudora's life for I-don't-know-how-many-pages suddenly she's a minor character with a few mentions and then her death is just a mention 2 years after the fact. At least Ma Bette's funeral is chronicled with a full family gathering.

On the upside I loved the stories themselves and the way that African American history is told through these 7 generations of women.