Generations: A Memoir

By using an iconic American author as the anchor of her narrative, Clifton includes her own family’s history in the American canon … The lives of the enslaved and their descendants are marked not only by hardship but celebration, heartbreak, serene, the living. This cacophony of life is heard in Clifton’s memoir as the dead narrate and conjure their dead and bring to life an American family … Clifton’s dead come alive, are present, and take a seat at the table … her narrative humanizes the enslaved, her family. Her assemblage of voices of the enslaved and their descendants calls into question the language and standards for how we remember them … a lean book, inviting readers to get through it even in one sitting. In five tiny chapters, Clifton includes historic family photos, usually at the beginning of each chapter. The cover art features vigorous black and white figures connected by lines. The figures seem to be in motion, which points to the liveliness of the history here retold.

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