 The Hemingsesof Monticello
I have read a few books on the subject of Sally Hemmings and Thomas Jefferson, one previously by Ms. Gordon-Reed. I liked the fact of the biography of the Hemmings family in its entirety, how the author provides the facts and supporting documents and how she weaves the history of the family. It was a great read and I had a difficult time putting the book down. Ms. Gordon-Reed's writing style captures you early on and brings the early Hemmings' to life forever. I only wish she could have provided more information on the original Scottish Hemings where the family received the name.
 EDITOR PLEASE
I think the author has a great insight into the life and times of Sally Hemings and her family and I doubt that anyone other than a black woman could achieve this perspective.
However, whether you like or even finish the book's 700 pages will probably depend on your interest in that perspective.
Put me down on the side of those who find this book to be long winded and rambling. The author has a chronic inability to keep to the point and a good read it is not, in spite of the fascinating subject matter.
I can also understand but not share the irritation some of the reviews feel about the author's speculative style. I mostly find the speculations convincing and accept the author's premise that with so little concrete information about the Hemings, and Sally Hemings in particular, the gaps need to be filled in by reasonable speculation.
I am somewhat puzzled about the awards this book has received since it really needs a re-write with the help of a good editor. Hopefully a second edition will come out which will be about 1/3 shorter.
Surprised it Won a Pulitzer
It is obvious the author did a lot of research. The book gave an in-depth look at slavery and all its ramifications. Most interesting was the time Jefferson spent in France and his relationships with both his white and black children. It was surprising the amount of pain his white progeny and their spouses gave him in their adulthood. There was much more about Jefferson than Sally Hemings, and that was unavoidable since so little was written about her. The Hemings men are covered much more in depth, and again, that is because there is more documentation of them from that period. My biggest complaint about the book is the repetition in it. The author writes well, but facts were repeated often and sometimes even verbatim. I wonder where the editor was.
A truer non fiction biography than most.
Bear River Spirit The book covers the historical lives of the Hemings family during the patriarchal reign of Thomas Jefferson. The focus is the Hemings family including other family slave connections. I have never read such an unbiased historical record before. Normally biographical records are dry and dull merely parroting previous biographers. The sense of putting the scene together pulls you into this book. It is about the family the society and the culture. At no time in the book do you feel the author is representing their attitudes and ideas of today on the society of the past. Instead the history is represented by the society and culture of the time, not ours. Instead of platitudes, the author presents ideas that could have driven actions or motives. This book is definitely a keeper and I recommend it as an excellent read to understand actions of the past, not necessarily the attitude of the current day writer who never really knew the character of the past. In fact, all biography is fiction. It is the mind of the writer and not the interaction or thoughts of the character. This book is true to biography in that it does not represent the characters as the author sees them, but actions and attitudes based upon study of the culture and society. This book is truer to non fiction as a genre than most biographies.
 I get it, and I got it an hour ago when she said it the first time.
Never did I think I would find a book that managed to both be so over complicated and simplistic at the same time. While this is ostensibly a book about the Hemmings family of Monticello, anyone reading it without knowing the title could be easily forgiven for thinking otherwise.
This author uses droning and ceaseless historical commentary to compensate for a near complete dearth of accurate historical evidence and then, when a piece of evidence is finally avaliable, she spends 10 pages or more beating it relentlessly into the ground. For example, in the chapters involving Sally Hemming's stay in France the author spends great stretches explaining a diet and exercise regimen sally MIGHT have had for an illness she MIGHT have had, goes into a never-ending recital of the French laws concerning slavery and engages in the most mind-numbing guesswork of motives when absolutely none were present.
There is no information presented in this book that has not been stated elsewhere, in a better fashion. I was literally yelling at the pages at times with sheer frustration. The closest I can compare it to is a biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine. A historian will spend hours discussing the motives of her sons, father and husband and laboriously attempt to pick through them to discern any possible role she had in them. Now imagine if the historian had equally little knowledge of her sons, father and husband as they have of Eleanor herself and you will roughly approach the problems within this book.
Moreover, evenas a person of mixed white and black ancestry, I found the constant harping on the evils of slavery entirely excessive. This is a book of a slave family, not of slavery, but you could barely tell.
The only possible good words I have for this book is that the author tried to expand on a topic not often covered in such detail.
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