Black Calhouns (Buckley) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
The story of Buckley's ancestors is fascinating for many reasons. Her candid portraits of their experiences offer a window onto shameful episodes in American history that are more recent and relevant than many realize. The stories also represent at least a proxy for the untold stories of so many others whose lives have been conveniently forgotten, excised from national consciousness...Buckley's moving chronicle, like Ta-Nehisi Coates's Between the World and Me, should be read in schools across the country.
Christian Science Monitor


(Starred review.) In this thoroughly engaging family chronicle, Buckley reveals an expansive tapestry of African-American history since the Civil War. The story begins with her great-great-grandfather Moses Calhoun, a freed slave turned businessman.... Buckley’s awesomely informative shout-out to the Calhouns is a treat to read.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review.) Buckley...writes here about her family history.... Although the author sometimes loses focus by including each major event in post-Civil War black history,...the book comes alive when she discusses the life of her famous mother and her own childhood.... [It] covers much of the same ground as Buckley's previous book, The Hornes. —Kate Stewart, U.S. Senate Lib., Washington, D.C.
Library Journal


(Starred review.) [An] assiduously researched and gracefully written family history...entrancingly well-told.... Buckley’s superbly realized American family portrait is enthralling and resounding.
Booklist


[A] middle-class black family's journey of hard work, education, and aspiration in a deeply racist United States.... The author later weaves her own story of 1960s political awakening into this thoroughly jam-packed narrative of history and nostalgia....ambitious, relentless, and occasionally messy.
Kirkus Reviews