What do readers think of Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward? Write your own review.

This book by two-time National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward scraped my heart raw. She is unflinchingly honest in her portrayal of life on the Gulf Coast, a life of poverty and hardship, a life where Black lives—especially men—are not valued. Raw and brutal though it may be, this should be required reading for anyone who wants to know the answers to a lot of questions that begin with "Why?".

The formatting of this memoir is genius. It's essentially two books in one, two sides of the story. Because of the way it is written, the two sides enhance each other, making both stronger than they would be as standalone books. And when the two converge it is brilliant and heartbreaking.

As the title suggests, this is a book about five men in Ward's life, including her brother, who died too young, taken away through violence, drugs, accidents, bad luck, and suicide. Five men in the space of four and half years. All were victims of the poverty and the hardship in which they grew up. Their deaths almost seemed inevitable, and that is the deepest and truest tragedy underlying it all.

Juxtaposed between the chapters about the five young men is a memoir of Jesmyn Ward's life, beginning with her birth. She was born in April 1977, three months premature. The doctors told her parents she would die. She did not. She was a fighter from the start, which served her well. Her parents' marriage fell apart several times before ending in divorce, a younger sister had a baby at age 13, and her brother was killed by a drunk driver, who was never charged with his death. The family may have been poor, but she and her siblings were loved, and they were embraced by a large, extended family of aunts and cousins. Ward broke out of the cycle of early pregnancy and loving men who left their families, by being smart and having lucky breaks. Today she is a bestselling author of seven books (and counting) and a professor of creative writing at Tulane University in New Orleans. She is also the youngest winner of the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction, which was awarded to her in 2022 at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. It is her amazing trajectory in life that also makes this a story of hope.

This is not an easy book to read because of its unrelenting sense of tragedy and doom, of the scourge of racism and poverty, of the plague of drugs and alcohol. It is dark. And it is very disturbing. But it is an important book and one that will make a difference by giving us all a greater sense of understanding, knowledge, and empathy.

Magnificently written, this is a powerful tale that seared my heart and soul and will remain with me for a long time to come.