Perhaps the most heartfelt writer I have read. Jesmyn Ward writes Annie and her mother, her companions, with strength and depth; she writes their daily struggles as the subjects of unending cruelty in sharp detail, from a character full of determination and despair, until both she and her reality are stark and fully imagined before us, until we are immersed in that dark place—and in the bloom of scents, the pain of cut palms, the seeping presence of spirits to watch and intercede. It is a hard story, because the history, the knowledge that these acts of enslavement, brutality, rape, starvation, torture and confinement were common and that thousands of people lived through them and bear their legacy. Ward reminds us, much like the spirit who records the names of those who cross the sea remembers, so the lives, the harms, and the fires can be felt in the land and the people we are among today. So that we can imagine what bodies were forced to bear, and the poetry and love that those extremely resilient people still found and shared, the will to live that carried skills and knowledge from person to person, and across generations unto freedom.

I chose Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward for my November 2023 Book of the Month pick. It is my second Jesmyn Ward book; I read Sing, Unburied, Sing a while back and loved it.

 

I had a lot of conflicting thoughts when reading Let Us Descend. Ward is an incredibly talented writer, and this book features many instances of her beautiful prose. I love the way she describes things—from the natural world to character descriptions, Let Us Descend is full of evocative word choices. On the other hand, the main character Annis and her central storyline felt flat to me. The story places a lot of emotional weight on Annis’s relationship with her mother and a fellow enslaved girl, but these relationships are hastily developed. Annis herself remains somewhat of a blank slate; I found the story’s side characters to be much more interesting.

 

In general, I liked the portions of the story in which Annis interacts with other people and disliked the portions that involved the spirit world. I’m not opposed to magical realism, but the fantasy elements in Let Us Descend really, really did not work for me. I cannot see what they contribute to Annis’s story or the thematic elements of the story as a whole. Naturally, the last part of the book, which follows Annis’s journey with the spirits, dragged for me. It felt like Ward used the last portion of the book as a personal emotional catharsis, and in the process lost sight of the story. 

 

You might like Let Us Descend if . . . 

·      You want to read an empowering magical realism story about slavery that draws upon Dante’s Inferno

·      You appreciate beautiful sentences

 

You might not like Let Us Descend if . . . 

·      You disliked unexplained magical elements

·      You want a book with a well-written main character and a tightly constructed plot 

·      You don’t want to read descriptions that border on body horror

 

Trinity by Zelda Lockhart. 

Similarities include:

·      Magical realism/Black Americans haunted by spirits

·      Lyrical writing

·      Thematic exploration of the power of maternal love and intergenerational strength

 

Key Differences include:

·      Trinity takes place in the twentieth century, Let Us Descend in the nineteenth

·      Trinity features three POVs, whereas Let Us Descend has one POV

 

this book was well-written, enjoyable even, but not necessarily one I’d rate highly or recommend, as it felt like it was missing something  

this book is more of a character study than a story, which I didn’t expect. Annis is an interesting, incredible woman, and I love her bi/pan existence- no unnecessary waffling about why she likes who she likes, just love of all shapes and kinds with multiple genders. platonic, romantic, etc. very refreshing, especially for a historical time period. The book is very very slow to start, and even slower to really move beyond just plain suffering and pain for Annis, but you come to love as care for her as the few events unfold. I do mean few events- this book bristles with emotion, but there is not a lot “happening”. I wasn’t opposed to that per se, but it took me a bit to stop going “so when does she do stuff ?”

the prose is lovely- it reminded me of reading their eyes were watching god. a treat for the eyes, with many phrases i turned over in my mind out of pure enjoyment. the author clearly dedicates a lot of time to style, even if it is at the expense of structure/pacing. 

the spiritual aspect of this book was oddly developed. there was so much teeming under the surface, but the parts we saw were rushed and half-explained. some of that could be attributed to the fact that as a slave, Annis has to rebuild her history and understanding of spirits from word of mouth info from her mother, and glimpses from the Water (?)— things are half-explained, because she is having to piece them together on her own. that being said, sometimes it just felt like the author wasn’t sure how to link all the pieces together and just kinda threw a spiritual universe in without thinking deeply on its structure. i often find that literary/speculative books struggle with the fantasy-adjacent aspects of their stories, because they don’t spend as much developing the world behind them. I think that is what is at play here 

as a result, the ending felt… disjointed. Annis goes from mostly confusion & fear in the face of spirits to being able to command and manipulate them over the span of a chapter or two, and it led to such a strange conclusion. Annis deserves peace and love, and i liked that aspect of it, but it felt like the author got tired of lead-up and just short-circuited Annis directly to it. i got to the last page and was like ? already ?

for that reason, this book is a 3.5 for me. very beautiful, sad, and profound, Annis was a heartfelt, incredible character, and the prose is lovely, but ultimately the lack of structure in some elements and rushed ending left me a bit dissatisfied. 

this story was so poetically written, it was beautiful to read.
it wasn’t too long, the perfect time to tell the story as needed without dragging on.
annis’ story is just so tragic and you think it can’t get worse but it continues to do so.
although difficult this was a really important read; exploring a young woman’s perseverance through loss, grief and insurmountable odds, with magical realism interwoven through the pages to provide hope and guidance.

Ward's writing is always stunning and this isn't any different. We follow Annis as she descends through the levels of hell made manifest through slavery and the systems built in the US to profit off of it. I love elements of the supernatural and the natural world turned character, and this delivers on both of those.  The story rapidly picks up its pace through the last two chapters, which I read holding my breath. Beautiful and brilliant.