Kaitlyn GreenidgeRecensioni

Holy hell, this was perfect.

I don't get a whole host of motivations for why characters in this novel did what they did.

Looking back for my review of Greenidge’s debut from a few years ago, I find that it says in its fulsome entirety: “I don't get a whole host of motivations for why characters in this novel did what they did.” In her second novel, once again there is a main character whose actions and motivations tend to be rather opaque, but this time I found myself largely enjoying the journey. Certainly the lack of chimpanzees in this story helped (I’m an inveterate opponent of monkeys/chimps/apes in novels, from bitter experience…) but more than that this one has an interesting raison d'être.

Libertie is born in New York in the years approaching the Civil War to a mother who is a freeborn African-American doctor and part of the Underground Railroad. Her father died before she was born and she was named for his great wish, that black people in America would build their own flourishing country, free of America and its racial oppression. Libertie’s mother herself believes in standing firm in America and claiming their rightful part in it, and raises Libertie to follow in her footsteps of care and healing of others.

That’s about the first third of the novel, which is fairly good. The next third follows Libertie to an incipient HBCU to get her degree. This part dragged for me and I was losing interest, mirroring Libertie herself who had little interest in her courses. When the novel moves into its final third, I could at least appreciate however how this middle part sets up the last.

Libertie returns home, meets, and quickly marries a young man from Haiti who has come to study under her mother. They leave for Haiti, where Emmanuel has a dream similar to that of Libertie’s father, much to her mother’s despondent dismay.

Really, however, Libertie is flailing. She doesn’t want any of the roles assigned to her by others in their dreams - her mother’s dream of her being a doctor, Emmanuel’s dream of her being a helper by his side in his building up of Haiti. Unfortunately she doesn’t know what she DOES want either, other than being her own person, but she doesn’t know how to achieve that so does some rather unwise things. Which many of us can surely identify with if we recall our own youth!

Ultimately I think Greenidge is writing a novel about the struggle of African-American women to find their own freedom, their own liberty, to become all that they can be and wish to be. It’s a struggle not only with the world outside the African-American community but also within it. She’s used the frame of the historical novel and I enjoyed the touches this enabled, like learning about the 1863 NYC draft riots and learning some Haitian Kreyole. The novel ends on a surprising note, Libertie taking another somewhat drastic and perhaps unwise decision… or is it? The novel won’t tell us what comes from it, leaving us instead to consider what Libertie continues to flee from, and what she is searching for.

Beautiful and lyrical and disturbing. I both really enjoyed this and also felt totally icky while reading, on a few different levels. I just fell into this book and didn't really come up for air til it was over.

What started out as an interesting historical fiction account of a black woman doctor as told by her daughter, ended up becoming a long, drawn-out, rebellious identity crisis that comes to a blunt and unsatisfying conclusion. The storytelling was there, but the plot tended to wander without ambition and no apparent objection. All the components needed to create a compelling narrative were there: fascinating characters, a time period ripe with potential, and an entire “lifetime” to play out on the page. Numerous experiences were glossed over that, if expounded upon, could have enriched the storyline, instead drawing out the more dull moments and adding miscellany that could have been omitted.

The synopsis held so much promise but did not deliver.

Algonquin Books gifted me an advanced copy of this book. The opinions are my own.

Parents have dreams for their children. But we need to be careful to nurture our children's dreams even if, or perhaps more importantly when, they do not match the dreams we have for them. We can guide and suggest, but in the end, it is not our life to lead. It is our children's. This is hard to face under normal conditions but when there are many other extenuating circumstances, it must be that much harder. Kaitlyn Greenidge's second novel, Libertie, shows how hard it is for a child to go against her mother's dreams and expectations and reach for her own.

Set in Brooklyn and Haiti, this historical novel tells the story of Libertie, the dark skinned daughter of a light skinned, female, Black doctor who rejects her mother’s profession and instead marries and moves to Haiti. The story opens with Libertie watching as her mother saves an escaped enslaved man; at least physically she saves him. And young Libertie is awed by her mother's power but also horrified at the emotional cost, both to her mother and to the patient. As she eventually leaves home for medical school, she finds that she is drawn more to music than medicine, knowing that she is unwilling and unable to pay the emotional cost of healing, especially of failing to heal the whole person. She cannot and will not follow in her mother's footsteps, choosing instead a different path, one that will provide her with her own brand of heartache.

This is a novel of strong women. In fact, it is inspired by the first black, female doctor in the US and her daughter. Greenidge writes movingly of mother daughter dynamics at the tail end of the Civil War. She has drawn the realities of the time into the text seamlessly, richly detailing the community and the challenges facing women, and especially a dark skinned woman like Libertie in the time of Reconstruction. Place is beautifully evoked here although the vast differences in the Brooklyn setting and the Haiti setting make this feel a little like two different novels mashed together and the travel to Haiti turns the novel toward the gothic and atmospheric with hints of Jane Eyre. Libertie's search for independence is moving and the reader sees it from her own perspective through the first person narration. The novel is a bit slow moving and contemplative with a lot of story lines, not all of which get a full enough treatment. Over all though, this is a powerful look at the high cost of slavery, colorism, and liberation in a story about family relationships, both mother daughter and husband wife, and about freedom and becoming.

This is one of the books chosen for the Women's National Book Association Great Group Reads list for 2022. (And yes, I stole a line or two from the description on that page for my review but since I wrote those descriptions, I consider that fair game.)½

That was an uncomfortable read

The time is pre and post Civil War. The settings are Brooklyn, NY and Haiti. Libertie is the free-born daughter of a homeopathic doctor, Cathy, also free-born. Libertie is raised by her very stern, widowed mother to follow in her footsteps. Although her mother loves her dearly, she feels afraid to express this openly. Libertie is sent to a college in the midwest to be trained as a doctor. She doesn't want to be a doctor, but has never felt free to tell her mother this. Instead, she quietly flunks out of college, goes home at the end of term, and doesn't tell her mother the truth. Instead, she falls for her mother's new assistant, Emmanuel, marries him and goes back to his homeland, Haiti, to live with him and his family. His father is a stern bishop who doesn't even acknowledge her, and his sister is "crazy." Libertie realizes that she has gotten herself into this life because she didn't dare to tell her mother that she had flunked out of college and didn't want to be a doctor.

Themes in this story are mothers and daughters, racism and colorism, that is, the prejudice some lighter-skinned blacks have against darker-skinned blacks. Libertie's mother is so light-skinned she could pass as white, while Libertie is dark-skinned.

It was an interesting story and a well written book, but I wish it had been longer. I feel like a lot happened in a few pages, and would have liked to live with these characters longer. The story ends quite abruptly with a decision Libertie makes.½

Trigger Warnings: Suicide, Colorism

Born as a free black woman, Libertie Sampson has always helped her mother, Cathy, the only black woman physician in their Brooklyn Community, with her practice. But as Libertie gets older, she realizes her passion is not in medicine, like her mother’s dream has always been. Instead, she falls in love with music, and struggles to find out what exactly makes her happy.

I finished this book last night, and a small part of me is still thinking about Libertie and what the future holds for her. The themes in this book felt well researched: the differences of feminism and what being free means, mental illness, mother-daughter relationships, and colorism within the Black community.

The historical aspects of this novel were greatly researched as well. The lasting effects of slavery are still seen even to this day, but to see how freedom effected those who had just recently been emancipated had an impact on me.

Their bodies are here with us in emancipation, but their minds are not free.
How is it possible to become free when you do not even know who you are?

I also enjoyed the relationship between Libertie and her mother, Cathy. The pressure Libertie had to at first be everything her mother wanted her to be, but then deciding that’s not what she wanted… We are able to see the relationship through both Libertie’s eyes as well as her mother’s through her letters to her daughter.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and Greenidge’s writing. This was my first novel read by her and I am indeed impressed.

I would recommend this novel to those who not only like historical fiction, but also those who like reading about mother-daughter relationships as well.

Libertie - the character and the story by Kaitlyn Greenidge - are not what I expect. The book description speaks of a coming of age a story, a journey of self-discovery, and a journey of what it means to be a black woman in the 1860s. It is an interesting view on the history, but a negative tone that runs throughout the book makes it challenging to invest in Libertie as a character or to cheer for her happy ending.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2022/06/libertie.html

Reviewed for NetGalley and a publisher’s blog tour.

Libertie was raised in New York as a free black person, at least in name. Did she ever really feel free? Her mother, a light-skinned black woman who had sometimes passed for white when it suited her, had been trained as a doctor and herbalist and she expected Libertie to follow in her footsteps. Libertie's father had died before she was born and she was surrounded by women all her young life. Libertie's mother (Cathy) had sheltered slaves who had escaped from the south via the Underground Railway and during the Civil War she worked tirelessly to support the Union troops. The other black women in the community helped her raise funds and supplies but Cathy always held herself apart from them. And she also held herself from showing affection to Libertie. So, after the war, when Cathy sent Libertie off to Ohio to attend college Libertie felt she had been banished. While not exactly miserable at college, mostly because she became friends with two female music students, she really didn't want to be there and she failed her courses. She didn't tell her mother when she returned home and when her mother's student, Emmanuel, proposes to her and offers to take her off to Haiti, Libertie sees this as a way to escape before her mother finds out her disgrace. Except perhaps she is jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Libertie doesn't understand Creole, the language of the people of Haiti. Emmanuel is away all day on business. Emmanuel's father, a church official, sexually abuses girls and women in his church. Emmanuel's twin sister is either mentally ill or is pretending to be mentally ill. The only person who befriends Libertie is the maid, Ti Me. Her mother, who was upset that Libertie would marry and leave home and even more upset when she found out Libertie failed college, wrote angry letters to Libertie which caused Libertie to feel more estranged from her. She loves Emmanuel and even comes to love Haiti but she can't imagine continuing to live there. Once she decides to take control of her life instead of following the wishes and dreams of others she can finally claim her freedom.

Libertie's mother is based upon a real person. Dr. Susan Smith McKinney-Steward was the third African-American female to earn a medical degree in the USA. I think I would have liked the book to have more details about Cathy because there must have been a reason why she was so emotionally distant from Libertie and almost everyone else.

Libertie follows the story of the eponymous character from her childhood in a rural community near New York City, where she grows up free, but still under the restrictions of what it was to be Black in the United States. Her mother is a doctor, and often cares for people who have managed to escape slavery, not always successfully. Although she is respected, her stand-offish personality make it hard for others to get close to her, and that includes her daughter, Libertie, who struggles to find her place in the world, even as the Civil War ends and, theoretically at least, there are more opportunities available to her. She can't fit into the space her mother wants her to occupy, but when she takes a different path, things don't become easier or clearer.

This is a coming-of-age story with a protagonist we don't usually see in this kind of novel; Libertie flails about trying to find a purpose and she's not always sympathetic as she does so. Greenidge also plays with our expectations for historical novels by omitting white people, who exist on the periphery and always as an untrustworthy and potentially dangerous force. But while Greenidge is doing some interesting things in her clearly well-researched novel, it felt a little saggy in places, like it wasn't sure where it was going. Greenidge is a promising writer and the things she choses to write about are always interesting, but she is still developing her craft. I'm eager to read what she writes next.

Black lady doctors existed before the Civil War?!?! The strength that must have taken - I'm in awe. I'm assuming this book takes place before the Civil War, as the time is vague. I'm only guessing on the time, as much is vague in this book. But wow would I love to read the book about a black woman doctor pre-Civil War -- sadly that is Libertie's mother and Libertie herself is focused on here and is much more wishy-washy. Or else she is following the instructions and dreams of what her mother wants her to do before she decides otherwise. Therefore, the book itself seemed to make weird narrative shifts that I didn't completely understand. Briefly mentioning interesting events or topics I wish had been explored more. Mainly, I wish Greenidge had instead focused the book fully on an early black woman doctor - that would have been amazing.
*Book #120/304 I have read of the shortlisted Morning News Tournament of Books competitors

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Set during and immediately after the American Civil War, Libertie is narrated by a free Black girl named Libertie Sampson. She's raised in Brooklyn (often referred to in the historically accurate parlance of Kings County) by her mother Cathy who is one of the first Black women to become licensed as a medical doctor. In addition to running a practice for the local community, Dr. Sampson helps enslaved people who have escaped from the South.

Libertie is under a lot of pressure from her mother to also go into medicine, although Libertie does not wish to follow that path. Eventually, after flunking out of college, Libertie accepts the marriage proposal of her mother's apprentice Emmanuel and moves with him to Haiti. Despite the promise of a new nation of free Black people, Libertie grows quickly disenchanted with Haiti and it at odds with Emmanuel's family.

This book deals with a lot of issues. The conflict between mother and daughter is at the heart of the novel, but also more broadly the idea of how Black people should be and act now that they've gained their freedom. The book also deals with colorism, as Libertie herself is dark-skinned, and the discrimination among Black people. Finally, it's a book of self-discovery as Libertie having decided how she does not want to live her life figures out what she really wants to do.

This was a tough book to read since Libertie seems constantly to be dealing with the disapprobation of others and her own self-criticism. It made me anxious to read. Nevertheless, this is an excellent narrative with a lot of interesting period detail.½

This book confused me for a long time. The way the characters related to each other seemed strange, and their motivations didn't make sense to me. I thought my review would be that along with praise for the rich settings Greenidge weaves. But when I got to the last chapter, everything felt like it fell into place. It's not often that I read a novel like that, where things feel opaque for so long only to come clear at the end. It's quite satisfying.

2022 TOB— I struggled to get through this book. Libertie has a mother who wants her daughter to follow in her footsteps. It’s not what interests Libertie (although in the end I’m not sure what does.). Libertie ends up marrying a man that her mother does like and moves to Haiti. Things are strange there. I’m not sure I really have understood what the message of this book was supposed to be.½

After losing her father when she was very young, Libertie was raised by her single mother in post Civil War era Brooklyn. Their hopes of being treated differently after the war were not to be for this light skinned Black woman and her darker skinned daughter. Yet, she believed that if she taught her daughter science and biology and sent her to college she would become a doctor just like her and would afford her more independence in the future. It was either love, lust or music that sidetracked Libertie which led her down a path which actually reduced her freedoms rather than expand them.
I thoroughly enjoyed this story which is based on and inspired by the first Black woman to become a Doctor in New York.

C1860, Libertie lives in Kings County in NY, and her mother is one of the few black doctors they are aware of. Her mother has plans for her to go to college and then they will practice together.

Libertie goes away to college, and does not like it. She fails out of med school, but she discovers music. Back home in NY, she marries a Haitian man and goes home with him to his free country, rather than tell her mother she failed and lost interest. In Haiti she learns the black men may be free, but the black women belong to the men.
———
I liked the first half of this book, when Libertie was growing up in New York. It was interesting, and touched on historical events. After Libertie arrived in Haiti, the storytelling seemed to shift. It got slower and more repetitive. While I found her discovery of how her life in Haiti would not be what she dreamed of--and as she learned how other women dealt with it--interesting, I found the storytelling shift to be disappointing.

I listed to this on Hoopla, and the narration was great. I especially loved how the narrator sang the songs and lines. Being virtually tone deaf, I always struggle with songs in novels because I cannot imagine them at all, and can only "hear" songs I already know.

I wanted to like this book because it sounded like such an interesting premise but the multiple points of view (two 1st person narrators and 3rd person recounts of myriad other characters) ruined any sense of cohesion this tale might have had. At the end, I was left feeling like I had missed something because the resolution felt disjointed and abrupt, which is a shame as I found the book very readable.

Many thanks to Thomas Allen & Son for providing me with a free review copy.

The eponymous main character of Libertie is the dark-skinned daughter of a white-passing Black physician mother, living in what is today Brooklyn in the years around the American Civil War. In the book's first half, Kaitlyn Greenidge brings to vivid life a free Black community in the mid-nineteenth century.

The second half, however, stumbled for me. The action moves to a Haiti that's got distinct shades of the Victorian Gothic melodrama to it, and which never convinced me of its reality as a place despite Greenidge's frequent scattering of Kreyòl, and depends for its emotional heft on a series of letters which to me read like an MFA student's imagining of how an actual person might write a letter.

Overall, I could see and appreciate what Greenidge was trying to do here—a Civil War narrative which centres neither plantations nor battlefields; an exploration of gender, colorism, and colonialism—but I didn't think Libertie was truly successful.½

Based on the life of Susan Smith McKinney Steward, the first Black woman to become a doctor in the state of New York, this novel is told by her daughter Libertie, who loses her father at a very early age and is taught medical procedures by her determined mother during the Civil War period. Of very dark skin and a freewoman, unlike her mother who could “pass”, Libertie sees how there is now a bit of hope for a better future. When she is sent off to college for science classes in preparation for her own medical career, Libertie instead becomes entranced by two female students, gospel singers, and decides to be an impresario, bringing them back East to perform, without disclosing to her mother that she herself had been dismissed from college. She is obviously on a different path than her mother, but what exactly IS her path? When Libertie returns to Brooklyn, she meets and falls in love with her mother's young protégé, Emmanuel, who brings her to Haiti with the hopes of starting a clinic. Libertie is distressed to be sharing her home with her father-in-law Bishop Chase, who has molested many young women in the parish, and Emmanuel’s sister Ella, who has been driven mad by bearing witness to the abuse. Still believing in her husband but yearning for her mother back in Brooklyn, Libertie is faced with a difficult choice when she becomes pregnant. Libertie's perspective and thoughts are beautifully expressed and the reader cannot help but be lovingly concerned with a woman of such intelligence, with so little direction.

Quote: "It is a strange thing, to see something you have imagined over and over again finally acted out in front of you. It is almost like a kind of death, a loss of something, that the thing is not as you has thought it would be."½

Libertie is an engrossing read with lyrical, beautiful writing. It’s a haunting story of a young Black woman growing up in post-Civil War America as a free woman, but denied many of her rights because of her skin colour.

Libertie (named after her father’s interest in a free country for Negroes in Liberia) has always lived in her mother’s shadow. Her mother is a doctor, with her lighter skin offering her many freedoms that Libertie is denied. Her mother dreams of the day the two can work side by side as doctors, but doesn’t see white women recoiling from Libertie nor notice that Libertie’s heart is not in medicine. Libertie tries to be a keen student, but she knows that she doesn’t have the passion that drives her mother. Seeing her mother unable to cure some people, such as Ben Daisy who escaped from the south, plants seeds of doubt in Libertie’s mind. Libertie is everything to her mother, but Libertie chafes against her mother’s direction and assertions. Sent to an all-Black college in Ohio, Libertie finds that her mind is not on her studies in medicine and finds joy in music instead. Returning home, she finds herself enamoured of her mother’s protegee, Emmanuel. Can he offer the freedom she craves in Haiti? Or will Libertie need to find it on her own?

I really enjoyed the majority of the novel, but did lose interest when the setting moved to Haiti. The focus on Libertie tended to drift away as she became less interested in Emmanuel and his family. Her drawing away from them was necessary for her to define herself and what she wanted from life, but it all felt a little detached and far away. In contrast, Libertie’s time with her mother growing up and at college felt very focused and in close range. The reader is privy to every thought of Libertie, including those that question her mother and others in position of power. Through Libertie’s eyes, the reader gets an idea of what it is like to be Black during that time period. Despite being free, Libertie is denied a seat in a stagecoach (instead, she is ordered to ride on the roof for miles) and has people staring at her because of the colour of her skin. In Haiti, she is also an anomaly because of her skin, her new family and that she doesn’t speak the language. Her outsider status continues, just as her husband tells her that Haiti is the place for Black people. There, Libertie sees things she disagrees with and gains the strength to call it out. In that way, she achieves her own freedom and accepts her past.

The writing in Libertie is simply stunning, evoking emotion and a clear sense of the setting. The characters are just as fascinating. Libertie can make silly choices and be infuriating at times, but you can’t help but cheer her on. Her mother is all business, but glimpses of her deep love for Libertie shine through in unexpected ways. It’s a thought provoking read of interpretations of freedom as well as a coming of age story.

Thank you to Allen & Unwin for the copy of this book. My review is honest.

http://samstillreading.wordpress.com½

This is a beautifully written historical novel by Kaitlyn Greenidge. If you look closely at this picture, you can see the red tabs that I stuck to pages when I found a particularly well-wrought sentence. There were dozens.

The setting is 1860s Brooklyn. I have to admit, part of the charm of the book was that this was a time and place that was fresh and unknown to me.

The line that opens the first section is this: "Se pa tout blesi ki geri. Not all wounds heal. 1860." The protagonist is Libertie Sampson, a young Black woman and the daughter of a doctor who can pass for white. Her mother intends that Libertie will join her medical practice, that they will be Dr. Sampson and daughter, but Libertie's interests lean elsewhere. The book begins in 1860, and we see through Libertie's eyes (told in first person POV) the world before the Civil War, during it, and afterwards, when Libertie moves to Haiti and experiences life there.

Despite being set during a war, this is not a book full of Huge Events. Rather, it's a thoughtful, poignant look at a mother and a daughter, striving to find their places in a world where everything is changing. It is also a nuanced meditation on race and our responsibilities toward others. I'm tempted to call it a coming-of-age story, and I would recommend it not only to adults but to YA readers, who I think will identify with Libertie's longings and hopes, her fears of disappointing her mother, and her desperate break with her early life that causes her to feel regret and brings about a growing awareness of herself.

I'm always entranced by authors who develop their secondary characters well. My favorite SCs in this novel are Experience and Louisa, two Black women singers, who are inspired by the Fisk Jubilee singers, all emancipated slaves, who formed an a cappella group that toured America and Europe to earn money to support Fisk University. The last section of the book, set in Haiti, was hard for me to read, as Libertie suffers emotional abuse at the hands of her husband Emmanuel's family. But her letter to her husband, at the end, is a satisfying triumph.

My review of this book can be found on my Youtube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/UB3GR2u7H9o

Enjoy!

The story of Libertie Sampson, daughter of a Black female doctor in the Civil War and Reconstruction eras in the US, is slow-paced and extremely subtle. The way Greenidge weaves together themes and ideas of the nineteenth century with concerns about identity and racism today is very well done and never seems too abrupt or didactic. She has a good command of period-appropriate tone and language, and the story is incidental and character-driven. Gradually we build a picture of Libertie's coming of age and understanding of herself as a person in the world. I didn't love the section set in Haiti as much as the first 2/3 of the book, but this is definitely an author for me to watch.