A review by terrahome
Iola Leroy: Shadows Uplifted by Frances E.W. Harper

3.0

Another one I would love to give 2.5 stars, but oh well. This book is not bad persay, but it suffers from not really being much of a novel stylistically. This is really more a post-emancipation manifesto. It explores ideas of racial uplift, which as in the case with most racial uplift politics of the era have aged poorly is some ways and okay in others. Generally, I'd say the novel is an important historical artifact, but as a novel it's not particularly enjoyable. The story is told to the reader, sometimes multiple times, through really long dialogue sequences. Description of setting whomst? All I know is pages upon pages of back and forth conversations about politics. Again, not condemning the important anti-slavery and anti-racist messages of the book, but don't go into this one expecting a gripping story.