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Libertie

Kaitlyn Greenidge

Start date: March 9, 2022

Finish date: April 1, 2022

Discussion: 2022 TOB The Books

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What Members Thought

Feb 01, 2022 Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it liked it

Shelves: hoopla, read2022, location-usa-ny, tournament-of-books, 20booksbyblackwomen, january, around-the-world, around-the-usa, location-haiti, location-caribbean

Libertie is being brought up in Brooklyn during Reconstruction by her physician mother to take on her work, but flees to Haiti with a brand new husband to try to follow her own path.

I learned some pieces of history I didn't know about previously like the 1863 draft riots and the attempts to relocate free Black people to Haiti, but I'm not sure the pieces all flowed together. The pacing is also quite slow, but I am not a frequent reader of historical fiction so this may not be my thing.

It is, how ...more

15 likes · Like · see review

Jun 18, 2022 jo added it

Shelves: audio

i listened to the beautiful audio version of this book so i don't know what it would be like to read it. it is slow, but the slowness didn't bother me. it carefully builds an inner story, a story of personal growth, and it's so centered on the interior life of libertie that many words are needed. but as i said i listened to it, and when listening one is more patient, or at least i am.

i found this book so damn painful. a lot of the pain is not explained.

[SPOILERS FROM HERE TO THE END]:

why is l i listened to the beautiful audio version of this book so i don't know what it would be like to read it. it is slow, but the slowness didn't bother me. it carefully builds an inner story, a story of personal growth, and it's so centered on the interior life of libertie that many words are needed. but as i said i listened to it, and when listening one is more patient, or at least i am.

i found this book so damn painful. a lot of the pain is not explained.

[SPOILERS FROM HERE TO THE END]:

why is libertie's mother so tortured? she wants a daughter she doesn't have and both loves and rejects the one she has. later in the book, at some point, we learn she got into charity work (i don't know how else to call it: she is a doctor who helps slaves escape to the north) because a friend persuaded her. at some point though she seems to reject the principles that underpin this charity by agreeing to have a segregated clinic in which white women allow her to treat them because she is fair skinned and could pass for white. what is going on with her? she wants her daughter to be a doctor while at the same time not allowing her daughter to help her in the clinic (she helped her while she was practicing at home) because she is too dark and her white patients would not tolerate it.

she admires deeply a young doctor who practices with her while libertie is in college and can't stop talking about him (he is also very fair), but when libertie marries him she is so upset she all but breaks up with them both. what is going on? why?

i wish we were told why so much hurt runs back and forth between mother and daughter. maybe we were told but i missed it.

then poor libertie is forced to share a house with a serial rapist (a bishop at that) and a sister in law who has to pretend to be mad to escape her father's abomination. perhaps she becomes mad for real. we are not told. what is going on? what is the place of this turn of events in the story?

eventually, with the help of two lovely lesbian friends, libertie leaves husband and abusive house and returns home. is the mother now a loving mother? will she accept her for who she is? i am not sure we get told.

i confess this book was hard for me. so much sorrow, so much being stuck. it's a beautiful book, but if you ply your protagonist and my hero with so much hurt i want to understand a little better what the hell is going on.

i would like to say, also, that there are not many novels (that i know!) that deal with this particular period in history -- the last years of slavery, the early years of the reconstruction, the Black flight to haiti, and it was super interesting to learn more about it all. the whole issue of colorism -- so painful, so horrible. greenidge may not tell us fully what happens to libertie, but she trains a very clear eye on the horrors of white supremacy. timely. ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Jun 23, 2021 Caroline rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2021-prose, 2022-tournament-of-books

This was a really interesting historical novel and the audiobook reader is incredible.

I feel like there are some elements of a novel from the Victorian era, with the way the heroine's maturity and education and marriage are handled, as well as the emphasis on letters, but from the perspective of a character who wouldn't have been featured in that type of book. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Feb 13, 2022 C rated it liked it

Shelves: tournament-of-books

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 wan ...more

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Dec 31, 2021 Richard rated it really liked it

I really enjoyed the twists and turns in this one. I thought I had it pegged early on, but Greenidge has a unique vision for this character and environment and I found myself rapt as she moved through a world that was not made for her at all. This is a great followup to her first novel and I can’t wait to see what’s next!

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Dec 13, 2021 Katie rated it liked it · review of another edition

I loved the beginning of the book, but I didn’t live where it went / how it ended. It was still an enjoyable listen.

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Jan 06, 2022 Jessica (thebluestocking) rated it liked it

Shelves: audio, rooster-2022

Another #tob book that just didn’t work for me. This story about a freeborn black girl (then woman) with a doctor for a mother around the time of the Civil War should’ve been right up my alley. But I never felt a connection with Libertie or her choices.

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