Let Us Descend

Title:  Let Us Descend

Author:  Jesmyn Ward

Publication Information:  Scribner. 2023. 320 pages.

ISBN:  198210449X / 978-1982104498

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Rating:   ★★★

Opening Sentence:  "The first weapon I ever held was my mother's hand."

Favorite Quote:  "I am the weapon."

I have loved Jesmyn Ward's fiction and nonfiction work ever since I was introduced to it through a book club reading Men We Reaped. She was born in California, raised in Mississippi, and now is a professor of creative writing at Tulane. She is the winner of the National Book Award in Fiction and of the MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship. Her books tell compelling, emotional stories. In fiction and nonfiction, Jesmyn Ward contributes to an important conversation and a history that must be remembered.

Several of Jesmyn Ward's prior books tell the story and history of Mississippi - of slavery, of poverty, of racial inequity, of social justice. This book takes that story from the Carolinas to the New Orleans slave market to a plantation in the heart of Louisiana.

This is the story of Annis, who is born to a white slaveholder father and an enslaved Black mother. She is sold to destinations unknown. This book is her perilous and tragic journey.

Yet, this is also the story of endurance and of generations of women who have survived and whose strength descends through the generations. Annis has the memories - the ones she has experienced and those which are passed down through stories and have become equally real. As Annis is ripped from her mother and sold, these memories appears as actual beings that Annis can see and communicate with. It becomes a physical manifestation of her grief and the love that has been mercilessly torn from her. Annis's experiences and her memories of multiple ancestors also emphasize the reminder that this trauma descends down from generation to generation, all the way to the current times.

The repeated lesson of this book is self-reliance, resilience, and the focus on fighting for yourself:

• "In this world, you your own weapon."
• "I am the weapon."
• "Every day I woke, I spared myself."
• "Fight for it all."
• "You your own weapon... Remember."

Annis's manifestations of those memories and the strength they give her bring an element of spiritual / magical realism to this book. The writing itself gives these elements of the book a poetic quality. At times, that makes the book a challenge to follow and stay immersed in. For me, this lessens the intensity of the book as compared to the Jesmyn Ward's other books. Nevertheless, it tells an important story, and I will likely still always read what she writes next.

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