laramie_moore's reviews
1185 reviews

 I love family epics, it's one of the reasons I loved Black Cake. Charmaine Wilkerson is just as fresh and captivating this second time.
Ebby is such a complex character and I love her. I love how she deals with things in her own way while still reassuring her family she loves them.
The history of the jar, and therefore the Freeman family, and their test of time is beautiful.
Wilkerson has created such complex and nuanced characters who feel real. And they all have very complicated relationships with each other. Some chapters, from different people's perspectives, felt like reading diary entries. Even characters the reader may be rooting against, still can't entirely hate because you feel like you are getting to know real people, their inner most thoughts.
The plot is amazing. The twists and turns about what happened to Ebby's brother Baz, and the politics that follow his death are poignant.
This book travels the world. We go with Ebby from her family's home of Refuge County, Massachusetts to the countryside in France.
We follow the Freeman's early ancestors from their home country to working on a plantation in South Carolina. But the interesting part is they work as potters, they create pottery, which is how the jar, Old Mo came around. The writing is so good, the jar, Old Mo becomes its own character.
I learned so much about history, the racism of the past, but also the racism and microaggressions of the present.