Book Review: The Love Songs of W.E.B Du Bois
Initial Impressions
I thought this was a wonderful read. It was not a light read because of the topics and trauma in the lives of its characters, but it was those characters who pulled me in. I cared about them before I knew how it would all tie together. As the history, secrets, trauma, and wonderful parts of their past unfolded, it brought more light to who they were. The book made me think, feel, and learn, all while being highly entertaining to read.
I have seen many great reviews of this book online for quite an extended period. I added this to my want-to-read list a while ago and just got around to it. I was a bit late to find it, but that is normal. I don’t usually keep up with book releases, so reading anything late is normal. This was released in June of 2021. I have recently read other books to expand my understanding of the history of black America, slavery, and cultures that I feel I need more knowledge of. This book fits that category as well as having wonderful reviews, so the time for my reading had finally arrived.
I didn’t go into this book with much background or understanding. I didn’t have expectations or even deep reviews with spoilers that I had read, so I did not know what to expect other than very high-level ideas. I had an idea that it covered multigenerational stories of a family from slavery to the current time frame. I went in the cold. I was pleasantly surprised many times as the tapestry unfolded in so many different and, to me at least, unexpected ways.
I read this book very quickly. I’m not the fastest reader because I tend to read many books simultaneously, but once I was maybe 15% or so into it, I couldn’t put it down. The writing was beautiful and flowed easily from page to page.
Plot Overview
The novel follows Ailey Pearl Garfield, a contemporary Black woman, as she seeks to understand her family’s history and reconcile her personal struggles with the legacies of slavery, segregation, and racism. Ailey’s narrative is intertwined with historical accounts of her ancestors, reaching back to the Indigenous and African-descended peoples who lived in Georgia centuries before her. Ailey’s family lives on land that was stolen from Native Americans centuries earlier.
The novel is richly layered, combining family secrets, historical trauma, and the enduring resilience of Black and Native peoples. The writings and maybe even the philosophy of W.E.B. Du Bois, including his concept of "double consciousness," are a recurring touchstone throughout the novel, lending additional insight into the characters and their cultural experiences. Du Bois spoke of “sorrow songs” in his seminal work *The Souls of Black Folk* (1903). He was referring to African American spirituals, which were rooted in the experience of enslaved people. These songs are deeply significant to African American history and culture, as well as the culture of America as a whole. The historical sections of the book, which include narratives from periods long before Ailey’s time, are titled “Songs.” In the author's words, “The history of slavery provides the spine of this novel.”
“This is a Black feminist novel. I’m unapologetic about that.” Jeffers stated that in the Coda section of the book.
Key Themes That Opened My Eyes to the Complexity of Experience
Intergenerational Trauma
The novel underscored how the past—especially the painful legacies of slavery, colonization, and systemic racism—reverberates through families and individuals over time. The novel caused me to reflect on how trauma is inherited—not just biologically or from a specific act, but also through culture, silence, and memory—and how healing can begin when those stories are acknowledged. Jeffers examines this trauma in both explicit and nuanced ways:
Historical Accounts: The novel traces Ailey’s family lineage, starting with the Indigenous peoples who lived on the land, through the enslavement of African ancestors, and into the present. These threads reveal how violence, exploitation, and forced displacement became embedded in their family’s story.
Personal Trauma: In the contemporary timeline, the novel confronts issues like sexual abuse and mental health struggles that seem to arise from unprocessed generational pain. Lydia’s experience with abuse and the family’s varying responses illustrate the silence and shame that can perpetuate cycles of harm.
Survival and Resilience: Despite so much trauma, the author also highlights the strength of Ailey’s ancestors, showing how their endurance and defiance enabled future generations to survive and thrive. The push and pull between pain and endurance or resilience is what creates or hurts the human condition.
Readers are invited to reflect on how trauma is inherited—not just biologically but through culture, silence, and memory—and how healing can begin when those stories are acknowledged.
Identity and Belonging
Ailey’s journey is fundamentally about finding her place in the world and reconciling the different aspects of her identity. Jeffers uses Ailey’s story to explore the complex layers of identity, including race, sex, gender, family, and cultural heritage. Ailey’s lineage combines African, Indigenous, and European elements, reflecting the blending and erasure of cultures during colonization. Her search for belonging includes understanding and reclaiming her Indigenous roots. The novel also considers how Black womanhood shapes Ailey’s experiences. From societal expectations to the dynamics within her family, Ailey grapples with what it means to be a Black woman in contemporary America.
Identity is never static, nor can it be told in simple stories. Personal experiences, family history, incidents out of our control, and societal forces cause identity to change or evolve constantly. Borrowing from W.E.B. Du Bois’s concept, the novel shows how Ailey and her family navigate living as Black people in a world dominated by white standards of beauty, success, and value. This tension is especially evident in moments when characters like Ailey’s sister Lydia achieve outward success but feel a profound sense of alienation.
Heritage and Storytelling
Oral Tradition: Uncle Root plays a key role in passing down family stories to Ailey, acting as a keeper of their history. His narratives provide context for Ailey’s modern struggles, connecting her to the sacrifices and triumphs of her current family and her ancestors.
Unearthed Truths: As Ailey delves deeper into her family’s history, she uncovers secrets that have shaped her family’s identity—some beautiful, others painful. These revelations force her to confront how much of the past is carried into the present.
Healing Through Stories: Storytelling becomes a tool for healing as Ailey learns to embrace her full heritage and the complexities of her family. By understanding her ancestors’ lives, she finds strength and purpose.
Trigger Warnings
The novel is emotionally intense and delves into some difficult topics. Its raw and honest portrayal of traumatic events may be distressing for some readers. However, the book also offers themes of resilience, love, and healing, which can make it a meaningful and transformative experience for those prepared for its intensity.
Readers should be aware of the following themes and content:
1. Sexual Violence:
Graphic depictions of sexual assault and abuse, including incest.
The impact of sexual violence on survivors and their families.
2. Racism and Slavery:
Explicit descriptions of racial violence, including lynching, physical abuse, and systemic oppression.
Historical accounts of slavery and its brutalities.
3. Substance Abuse:
Themes of addiction and its impact on individuals and families.
4. Mental Health Struggles:
Depictions of depression, trauma, and suicide.
Characters grappling with the emotional weight of generational and personal pain.
5. Death and Grief:
Loss of loved ones, including children.
Exploration of grief and its lasting effects.
6. Physical Violence:
Instances of domestic violence and physical harm.
I don’t believe anything below are actually spoilers,
but you can stop reading here
if you want to go into the novel cold like I did.
A few Character Basics
Ailey Pearl Garfield
Ailey is the protagonist and narrator of much of the novel. She is a modern Black woman who struggles with identity, self-worth, and the weight of her family’s complicated history. Her journey of self-discovery drives the story.
Belle (Ailey’s Mother)
A deeply religious and resilient woman who provides emotional grounding for Ailey. She also embodies some of the tensions between tradition and progress.
Lydia Garfield (Ailey’s Older Sister)
Lydia is outwardly successful but privately suffers from the trauma of sexual abuse. Her struggles highlight the complexity of family dynamics and the impact of unspoken pain.
Carol Rose (Ailey’s Middle Sister)
Carol Rose often seems overshadowed by her siblings. Her life path is different, including making difficult choices and facing societal judgment.
Uncle Root (Ailey’s Great-Uncle)
A learned man and one of Ailey’s most important mentors. Uncle Root shares family stories and imparts wisdom that helps Ailey understand her heritage. He is a retired HBCU professor.
Geoff Garfield (Ailey’s Father)
Ailey’s father is a steadfast provider, though his stoicism often masks deeper emotions, a complex past, and even some secrets of his own. His relationship with Belle reflects traditional gender roles in their marriage. He is a medical doctor.
David James
David is a friend of Ailey’s and often debates Uncle Root about W.E.B Du Bois and Booker T. Washington.
Samuel Pinchard
A Southern plantation owner who mistreats and brutalizes the people he enslaves**
W.E.B. Du Bois
Though not a character in the story, Du Bois’s writings and philosophy shape much of the novel's thematic framework. His ideas about race, identity, and history are woven into Ailey’s reflections.
The Songs
“Songs” are not used musically (at least not literally) but as sections of the book that use the past to connect with and enhance the novel's themes and narrative aspects of the present. They show that personal identity is inextricably linked to collective history. Jeffers creates a wonderful tapestry of voices, past and present, that help explore the impact of race, memory, heritage, trauma, resiliency, and so much more on the characters in her novel.
They are a callback or comparison to what W.E.B. Du Bois called “sorrow songs” in his seminal work The Souls of Black Folk (1903). He was referring to African American spirituals rooted in enslaved people's experiences. The novel's structure helps create the interwoven nature of the history and the characters. The deeper I read this book, the more the structure itself added more insights into the plot and the characters. A look at some of that structure is below.
Songs: A Connection to Oral Tradition and History
The Songs are deeply tied to oral tradition and historical storytelling, reflecting the African American experience and the ancestral lineage of the protagonist, Ailey Pearl Garfield.
Each Song section often delves into the histories of Ailey's ancestors, mainly through the voices and lives of her enslaved and Indigenous forebears. These sections anchor the novel in the broader historical and cultural context, weaving a narrative that spans centuries.
Chapters: The Personal Journey
The chapters (many times following a Song) focus on Ailey's personal experiences and her family's immediate history. These chapters often explore themes like identity, family, trauma, and resilience in a contemporary or near-contemporary setting.
The relationship between the Songs and the chapters is thematic and genealogical. The chapters act as extensions of the Songs, grounding the historical or mythic elements in the lived realities of Ailey and her family.
The Influence of W.E.B. Du Bois
W.E.B. Du Bois's concept of "double consciousness" (the idea of Black individuals having to navigate their identity within the context of a dominant white society) is a key influence. The structure allows the novel to explore dualities: the past and present, personal and collective, trauma and healing.
The Songs evoke the idea of a "sorrow song"—a melancholic yet resilient narrative thread running through African American history and culture.
Brief Summary of the Song Sections:
1. Song One: The Beginning
This section introduces the origins of the family lineage, tracing back to the land's indigenous inhabitants and their encounters with enslaved Africans brought to America. Ailey’s family lives on land that was stolen from Native Americans in contemporary times. The book begins with the original inhabitants of central Georgia.
This early connection to the land brings to light the trauma of colonization and the forced intermingling of cultures through violence and survival. This history is interwoven through Ailey’s experience invisibly most of the time. Ailey’s identity comes from a complex history of oppression and resilience.
2. Song Two: The First Crossing
This section, or song, chronicles the arrival of enslaved Africans to the Americas, detailing their suffering and the brutal conditions of slavery.
Themes include survival, dehumanization, and the persistence of cultural identity despite horrific circumstances. By highlighting the brutal reality of the Middle Passage, the author connects this collective trauma to the individual lives of Ailey’s ancestors.
3. Song Three: The Plantation
Here, the author explores the lives of enslaved individuals on plantations, mainly focusing on the relationships and power dynamics between enslaved people and their enslavers. Resistance, the complexities of interracial relationships (often rooted in violence and exploitation), and the struggle for autonomy are brought to life for the reader. Not only does slavery’s legacy shape family lineage, but here, it also provides context for later generational trauma.
4. Song Four: The Aftermath
Here, the book deals with the aftermath of slavery, including Reconstruction and the continued oppression of African Americans through systemic racism and violence. The resilience, the pursuit of freedom, and the struggles of formerly enslaved people to build lives of dignity are explored through Ailey’s ancestors. These connections show how history is never truly past.
5. Song Five: The Present
In this narrative, we get closer to the present, connecting the ancestral stories to Ailey’s life and her family’s immediate struggles and triumphs. This Song solidifies the connection between the historical and contemporary, underscoring how Ailey’s journey is deeply rooted in the past.
A Random Sampling Memorable Quotes
There is no rhyme or reason for my quote love below. It is just things I captured as reading that touched me or made me think.
“For the original transgression of this land was not slavery. It was greed, and it could not be contained.”
Slavery followed and was contemporaneous with the displacement and genocide of the indigenous people of this land. Greed was the root cause of all our past sins.
“Workers tend to have more genius than the boss, to reduce the strain of labor.”
Valid in all times, but much more true under slavery or oppression.
”What a beautiful homegoing”
Surprisingly, this was a new term for me. What a beautiful name for a funeral, wake, or celebration of life.
”Bacon smelled so good, like the memory of young love.
”I know she’s hard to take, but we don’t know the troubles she’s seen. And we never will, either, because Miss Claire’s a prideful soul.”
Do we ever know the trouble anyone has seen?
”She couldn’t date because the Devil never slept. Especially, he suffered from insomnia on Saturday nights, the hours before God’s faithful servants would convene”
“Oh, child, ain’t nothing wrong with you. All womens be sad after they haves a baby. And you did lose something. You lost your freedom. You can’t never go nowhere without thinking ’bout your chirren. You tied to ’em for life. Even when they grown you gone worry ’bout ’em, ’cause this world is a mean old place.”
”Lydia was fifteen, going on sixteen, when Mama had talked to her about what it meant to be a woman. How Mama had been in college, headed to graduate school and planning to become an English professor, before she found out she was pregnant by Lydia’s father. Mama had set aside her dreams to become a wife and a mother, and she hadn’t regretted her choice, not for one second. But she told Lydia that she wanted her to understand that once a woman had a child for a man, he could come and go in a woman’s life, exactly how he pleased. He could decide if he wanted to get married or stay single. He could pay child support, or make a woman track him down every month or take him to court to buy formula for her baby or groceries once his child had teeth to chew proper food. And even if a man did pay child support, that wouldn’t be enough to cover the bills for a house he wasn’t staying in. Even if he did want to get married and live with a woman, her child would be a red wagon to pull behind her, not the man’s. A mother couldn’t ever be free of her child.”
”In the distance would be the lights coming from the cabin that seven of their Negro slaves shared. Adam and Joan thought little about these Negroes except to take their respect and (presumed) affection for granted, like all owners do for that which they consider things and creatures.”
”They came with the rights they had given themselves and the rights they had taken away from others. They sent word from mouth to mouth that our earth was free. Come and split down the pine, the cedar, the pecan. Come and shoot the deer. Come and bring your pigs and cattle that trample the earth. Here is a place where a white man can make himself a king.”
”Sharpe had owned forty-three enslaved Black folks, but had caught religion during a sermon by a Great Awakening minister. After hearing the sermon, Edward Sharpe had decided he was against slavery. But instead of freeing the Black folks he owned and giving them a plot of land to work, he’d sold them for a profit, and bought land and started a university with the proceeds. In the university mythology, Edward Sharpe was lauded as a moral hero, and no information was given on the people he’d traded.”
When others are seen as less than, or in this case, creatures less than human or less than themselves, bad things happen, even in the name of “good.” Even those against slavery did not see blacks as people. Even now, the names of those sold away from families traded to fund community projects or lost in the prison system to make current-day owners rich are not seen in history.
”No matter how low, everyone wants somebody to look down upon.”
“Rabbit didn’t know what freedom was, but she knew love. It was a gift that she craved to bestow on others. This ability to love was her resistance to the cruelty of the plantation.”
Final Thoughts
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois is a richly layered novel, ideal for readers who appreciate multigenerational family sagas, historical fiction that includes social commentary, character-driven storytelling, and explorations of identity and race. The book is full of African American history, culture, literature, challenges, and celebrations. It is also full of resilience, healing, and self-discovery.
It is one of those books you want to read again for the first time if only to experience the characters. It is easily in the top five books I read this year, and I would recommend it highly to almost anyone.
Percival Everett reimagines Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim, the enslaved man who accompanies Huck on his journey. In Everett's retelling, Jim, who prefers to be called James later in the novel, is portrayed as literate and resourceful, further exploring his character and experiences. "By giving Twain’s secondary character much-deserved agency, Everett allows him to be something he couldn’t be before: the hero.”