Cheryl Wills

This is an emotional narrative about the author's family. It focuses on her escaped slave ancestor, Sandy Wills, a soldier for the Union Army in the Civil War, and her tortured relationship with the father who abandoned her and her family in the turbulent 70's. The parallel storytelling is superlative, the story thrilling.
But it's marred by bad editing, the author's outpouring of emotion, and her habit of imposing current-day ideas and attitudes on the actions of her ancestor.
(Although one could argue that the emotion *is* the story, or at least a good part of it.)
This is historicallly important informaton about two critical periods of black history. I could wish that there was far less filler and more substance.… (meer)