Roots is a very emotional book. Alex haley has begun with the birth of Kunta Kintay the African who was captured and brought to the US and through whom Alex haley was born some generations later.

The birth of the baby, the naming ceremony, his early childhood, his initiation into manhood is very interesting and good to read.

However when he is captured and brought to the States after being tied to a wooden bunk is very painful to read. At this point I paused for a week before I could continue reading. Kunta’s plight kept recurring even in my dreams. It is said that Alex Haley underwent this experience so that he could write this part in detail.

How Kunta becomes an American slave who is sold to his master, how he tries running away and is captured, his painful recovery from the cutting of his foot is very sad.

The way Kunta keeps counting the months and the years(by putting a pebble in a vessel every new moon) is interesting. His daughter Kissy tries to forge a pass and is sold to another planter who rapes her and produces a half white-half black child through whom the next few generations happen. The slavery description of those days is terrible, how the slaves were treated, how they retaliated during the Civil war is given in thsi book which is alsmot a history of the American Civil war.

Kissy’s son Chicken George produces seven children and his son Tom produces some seven children again. At the birth of every child some African words which Kunta had taught Kissy are repeated and they come down to Alex Haley who uses these words to find out where his ancestor came from.

The book is excellent, touching and emothional besides being historical.

Plot Revealed In The Review:	Somewhat revealed
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