Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward

In five years, Jesmyn Ward lost five young men in her life—to d
rugs, accidents, suicide, and the bad luck that can follow people who live in poverty, particularly black men. Dealing with these losses, one after another, made Jesmyn ask the question: Why? And as she began to write about the experience of living through all the dying, she realized the truth—and it took her breath away. Her brother and her friends all died because of who they were and where they were from, because they lived with a history of racism and economic struggle that fostered drug addiction and the dissolution of family and relationships. Jesmyn says the answer was so obvious she felt stupid for not seeing it. But it nagged at her until she knew she had to write about her community, to write their stories and her own. 

My Take:  This book received rave reviews but I was not crazy about it.  I did finish it, although there were times when I had doubts.  It took perseverance.  The writing seemed choppy and the story timeline jumped around to different periods.  It was supposed to be a memoir, but it seemed more the telling of the dead boys' stories rather than the author's life.  So much of the description was conflicting.  There would be a blunt simple statement and then a flowery out of place descriptive sentence thrown in (See example below).  I just didn't think it flowed well at all. I lived in Mississippi and I know the life she speaks of, so it was not any amazing revelation to me.  Maybe that's why I wasn't awed.  I couldn't recommend it.

Excerpt from Page 78:  "Mimi, Demond's been shot." I heard her, covered my eyes, breathed.  Death rushed me like water does the first summer jumper into a still-chill spring river.  "What the fuck!" I said.