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2024-04-24 9:07 pm

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie (Oprah's Book Club 2.0)

by Ayana Mathis

Hardcover, 2012

Status

Checked out

Tags

fiction, novel, black fiction

Genres

General Fiction

Historical Fiction

Publication

Knopf (2012), Edition: 1, 256 pages

Description

In 1923, fifteen-year-old Hattie Shepherd flees Georgia and settles in Philadelphia, hoping for a chance at a better life. Instead, she marries a man who will bring her nothing but disappointment and watches helplessly as her firstborn twins succumb to an illness a few pennies could have prevented. Hattie gives birth to nine more children whom she raises with grit and mettle and not an ounce of the tenderness they crave. She vows to prepare them for the calamitous difficulty they are sure to face in their later lives, to meet a world that will not love them, a world that will not be kind. Captured here in twelve luminous narrative threads, their lives tell the story of a mother's monumental courage and the journey of a nation.

Media reviews

Wall Street Journal

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie attempts to show the warping of the dreams of black Americans who hoped to find a better life in the urban North. This means not only must it bear the pressure of Ms. [Oprah] Winfrey's endorsement, but must also withstand comparisons to two of the epochoal works of

American fiction, Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and Toni Morrison's linked trilogy Beloved, Jazz and Paradise (to say nothing of William Attaway's equally brilliant but underappreciated Blood on the Forge). Few debuts could survive this kind of scrutiny, and Ms. [Ayana] Mathis's doesn't come close. The numerous strands of the plot only sporadically and arbitrarily connect to one another, and Ms. Mathis lacks the skills that a more seasoned author might have to impose a narrative authority on them.

— 1 more

... Ms. Mathis has a remarkable ability, however, to inject the most agonizing events with a racking sense of verisimilitude. The chapter in which Hattie desperately tries to keep her ailing twins alive (staying up with them for three nights in a row, making mustard poultices, walking in circles

with them in her arms in a steam-filled bathroom) and the one in which she makes the agonizing decision to let her well-to-do sister in Georgia adopt her last child, Ella, in order to give the baby a better life, have an excruciating intimacy that makes us feel we are reliving events in our own families’ lives. ...

User reviews

LibraryThing member teresa1953

Hattie Shepherd's life has been undeniably hard.

We meet her at aged sixteen when she is expecting twins. Her husband has already named them, such is his excitement. But tragedy is to follow and so begins a life full of trial and hardship. Hattie and August are part of the huge black migration

from the south of America to Philadelphia in the early to mid 1920s. In search of a better life, their expectations are never met.....and the babies keep on coming!

This a a beautifully written debut told with warmth and compassion. Each chapter is dedicated to each of Hattie's children and, later, one of her grandchildren. The effect of struggling times and their mother's tempestuous marriage to a serial philanderer takes it's toll on every last one, but in many different ways. August tries to be a good father, but not hard enough. Every night sees him out drinking and womanising, whilst Hattie is trying to keep food on the table for her ever growing family. Eventually, even Hattie seeks comfort in the arms of another man, but somehow in a more dignified fashion!

Following Hattie's life from a teenager to her early seventies, paints a picture of how society and attitudes have changed over the years, but not always for the better.

I read this beautiful novel in 2 evenings....it flows from the pages. The only slight criticism I have is that we don't completely learn how each of Hattie's children developed their own, sometimes self-destructing, behaviours or learn exactly what happens to them all. That would have taken a much longer novel and it may well be that Ayana Mathis wanted us to develop our own opinions and understandings.

Highly recommended, a must read, and one of Oprah's recommendations...which are always spot on.

LibraryThing member porch_reader

We meet Hattie Shepherd when she isn't more than a girl herself. Seventeen years old, she and her husband August have moved to Philadelphia with their twins Philadelphia and Jubilee. (Why are the babies named Philadelphia and Jubilee, you may wonder? Mathis tells us: "Hattie wanted to give her

babies names that weren't already chiseled on a headstone in the family plots in Georgia, so she gave them names of promise and of home, reaching forward names, not looking back ones.) Away from her family, Hattie struggles to care for the babies when they get sick, and the picture that Mathis draws of Hattie sitting on the floor in a steaming bathroom, trying to help her babies breathe, is so vivid that it took me back to the times when I did the same with my babies. Mathis drops us right into Hattie's life, and this first chapter, like the other chapters that focus on her other children, is filled with emotion and heartbreak, hope and tragedy, real life. The chapters are connected only because each tells an episode from the life of one of Hattie's children, and it is through their lives that we come to know Hattie.

Hattie's life is not an easy one, but it is also not so different from many other lives of struggle. What sets this book apart is that Mathis is a sharp observer of Hattie's troubles and of the way that Hattie deals with them. In comparing her to the other women in her neighborhood, Mathis observes, "And of course the other women of Wayne Street had been wounded and chastened by the North, just as Hattie had been, but she was so insistent on the singularity of her disappointment she could not see she wasn't alone in her circumstance." Hattie's children often express frustration with Hattie, struggling to remember when she has shown them love. But as Hattie observes, "They didn't understand that all the love she had was taken up with feeding them and clothing them and preparing them to meet the world. The world would not love them; the world would not be kind."

I had put off reading this book after it got so much publicity from being selected for Oprah's Book Club. But Mathis is going to be at this year's Iowa City Book Festival, so that nudged me to read this now. And I am so glad that I did. Hattie is a strong and tough protagonist (reminiscent of Olive Kitteridge?), but it is Mathis's way of capturing Hattie's world that truly made this book stand out for me. One of my favorites of the year.

LibraryThing member pdebolt

This is an amazing debut novel that begins with a tragic loss when Hattie is seventeen years old. The background and character of Hattie Shepherd emerge as the novel progresses through chapters featuring her children's lives and memories. Hattie is strong, Hattie is flawed and Hattie raises her

children in a culture unknown to most of us. In a perfect literary world, each of these chapters will become a novel. Reminiscent in style and quality to the wonderful novel, Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout, this is a book that is a brilliant portrayal of a woman and her family. I am not an Oprah fan, but I do applaud her for bringing this book to the attention of those who don't normally read literary fiction.

LibraryThing member MarkMeg

Depicts the life of Hattie, who is a southern negro who migrates to Philadelphia. She is in an unhappy marrige.and it is only after 50 something years that she is able to put an accepting face on the situation. The twelve tribes are her disfunctional children, all of whom have a different

disfunction, and display it in different manners. She does a good job of creating character and the difficult life of a black whether in the north or the south.

LibraryThing member TFS93

Utterly depressing! Too many "hot button" issues here, makes me wonder about the author. Was she just trying to make the book of the moment? Well she didn't accomplish it for me. Mathis's writing style does show potential. Maybe she should just be more careful what she says. I found this one

disappointing and couldn't recommend it to anyone. Oprah, you have lost your mind!

LibraryThing member nomadreader

The backstory: The debut novel of Ayana Mathis, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, was one of the spring 2013 that excited me most. When Oprah picked it as her second Book Club 2.0 read and pushed up the book's release date, I moved it to the top of my queue.

The basics: The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is the

life story of Hattie Shepherd. It spans from 1925 to 1980.When she fifteen, Hattie, her mother and sister moved from Georgia to Philadelphia. There she married soon after and gave birth to twins: the first of many, many children.

My thoughts: The first chapter of this novel is devastating and heart-wrenching and still somehow hopeful. Both of Hattie's twins are sick with pneumonia in the middle of the night. Mathis shifts from the current minutes to Hattie's memories beautifully. In the second chapter, however, the action shifts, both in time and narrator. Suddenly it's 1948, and Hattie's son Floyd is a musician traveling through the South. My understanding of this novel shifted, and I expected to read a chapter from the point of view of each of Hattie's children, thus coming to understand her as a mother and as a woman. In time, though, Mathis shifts back to Hattie.

One consequence of this narrative structure was it's disjointedness. I never truly got a feel for this novel as I was reading it, but upon further reflection, particularly of the stunning final chapter, I did. At times it felt like a collection of linked stories. While Hattie was a part of all of them, in each story the reader glimpsed into the life of one of her children, most of whom were only previously mentioned in passing. While Hattie weaved through all of the stories, her children did not.

While this novel is the story of Hattie's life, it's also a commentary on the Great Migration:
"He thought of the South as a single undifferentiated mass of states where the people talked too slow, like August, and left because of the whites, only to spend the rest of their lives being nostalgic for the most banal and backwoods things: paper shell pecans, sweet gum trees, gigantic peaches."
There's also an extreme sadness to this novel. As I read about more and more of Hattie's children, I couldn't help but think, "him too?" or "her too?" Can no one in this family catch a break in life? This darkness is crucial to Hattie and her views on life and religion:
"Hattie believed in God's might, but she didn't believe in his interventions. At best, he was indifferent. God wasn't any of her business, and she wasn't any of his. In church on Sundays she looked around the sanctuary and wondered if anyone else felt the way she did, if anyone else was there because they believed in the ritual and the hymn singing and good preaching more than they believed in a responsive, sympathetic God."
Favorite passage: "It seemed to him that every time he made one choice in his life, he said no to another. All of those things he could not do or be were huddled inside of him; they might spring up at any moment, and he would be hobbled with regret."

The verdict: The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is a difficult novel in many ways. As a novel of the Great Migration, it is hinged on a hope we know will fail, and taking the journey of a generation's disappointment is depressing. Still, Mathis is a bold and lyrical writer. The first and last chapters will stay with me for quite some time.

LibraryThing member SigmundFraud

I am almost finished with this novel and I like it a lot. A colored family moves north to Philadelphia from Georgia in the 1920s. They find a new world. Hattie the protagonist marries and has many, many children after losing her first children, twins, to pneumonia. As the book progresses there is a

story about each child and each life is so different. Some are down and out and others are living as the bourgeoisie. The contrasts are remarkable. I will definitely will finish this book. It is worth a detour.

LibraryThing member Quiltinfun06

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is an Oprah bookcase pub selection. It is fraught with dysfunction, angst and hardship all components of an Oprah selection. That being said , it was well written with great character development. The twelve tribes refers to the eleven children , with one grandchild,

that Hattie raised. A story depicting the power of motherhood. Not a pleasant read as some of it can become depressing but definitely a story worth the time.

LibraryThing member susiesharp

I have never been one for Oprah’s books usually a sticker saying she picked it makes me run the other way but this one sounded like one I’d really enjoy…however…

I am not sure what to say about this book it is well written but the choppiness of all the stories made it a little hard to

follow, it seemed like just when you were starting to care about one of Hattie’s children the story would jump to another. Also Hattie was not that likeable it doesn’t seem like she was a good mother or that August was a good father or that they were good together. It seemed like losing those first 2 babies turned Hattie’s heart to stone yet she went on to have more and more children and didn’t seem to love any of them all that much. Also each of these children is extremely flawed and I think the author is saying it is the way they were raised but it seemed no one rose above no one did better it seemed that the poverty that gripped Hattie gripped her children too and it set them down paths to unhappiness. I’m sure this is a realistic depiction of some families and how circumstance will mark you forever but I think I would have liked this story much better if even one these children had been given a happy ending of some kind. Also the ending was so abrupt I thought I had missed downloading a part.

The audio production: this book was narrated by, Adenrele Ojo, Bahni Turpin,& Adam Lazarre-White I have only listened to Bahni before and I am a huge fan, I was also very impressed with the other two narrators they both did a great job but Adam Lazarre-White was hands down the new narrator find for me he is fabulous reminded me a lot of Dion Graham he has that silky low voice but Adam’s had a little more gravel to it which I really enjoyed I will be looking for more narrated by all these narrators!

I would read another book by this author because her writing was very good but this book was just kind of middle ground for me.

3 Stars
5 Star Narration

LibraryThing member Schatje

This book is a family history of sorts. It begins with Hattie Shepherd leaving the Jim Crow South for a better life in Philadelphia. Hattie’s hope soon turns to despair after the loss of her firstborn children. Spanning the years 1925 to 1980, the book follows Hattie’s children and one

grandchild, her twelve tribes. Each chapter concerns one or two of them as they strive to find a place for themselves in the world.

Though she is not the central character in all the chapters, Hattie’s influence is clearly evident throughout. It is her mothering, or lack thereof, that shapes each child. Saddled with a feckless husband, she must raise her children in crushing poverty. Devastated by her loss and faced with the relentless demands of caring for a growing number of children, she focuses only on providing their most basic needs of food, shelter, and clothing and preparing them for a world that she believes will not love them and will not be kind: “Hattie knew her children did not think her a kind woman – perhaps she wasn’t but there hadn’t been time for sentiment when they were young. She had failed them in vital ways, but what good would it have done to spend the days hugging and kissing if there hadn’t been anything to put in their bellies? They didn’t understand that all the love she had was taken up with feeding them and clothing them and preparing them to meet the world. The world would not love them; the world would not be kind” (236). Unfortunately, Hattie’s own spirit of hopelessness infects each child with the poverty of hopelessness as evidenced in the paths their lives take: one child is a closeted gay; another child becomes a fraudulent preacher; one son is sexually abused; another son becomes a gambler and a drunk; one daughter suffers from a mental disease; another daughter attempts suicide.

Despite Hattie’s failings as a mother, a discerning reader will find it impossible to hate her. As one of her daughters says, “Mother was never tender,” but “Mother has always done what’s necessary” (220). Whenever one of her children is in distress, she does come to their aid, even if that child has done something which hurt her more than she can find words to express (215) and which makes even the child believe she is undeserving of her mother’s forgiveness (190). Hattie too was a victim of circumstances: “Fate had plucked Hattie out of Georgia to birth eleven children and establish them in the North, but she was only a child herself, utterly inadequate to the task she’d been given” (236). Furthermore, she is not able to cultivate her inner life, as one of her daughter’s realizes: “Mother was a beautiful young woman; the house was too plain, too small to contain her. . . . I understood she had an inner life that didn’t have anything to do with me or my brothers and sisters” (221). When Hattie tries to escape and find some personal happiness, she is unsuccessful. One of her daughters observes, “She’d never seen any joy in her at all. Hattie had been stern and angry all of Bell’s life, and it occurred to her that her mother must have been unhappy most of the time” (201). Her husband perhaps best summaries Hattie’s life when he thinks, “There were too many disappointments to name and too much heartbreak” (106).

Hattie admits her shortcomings; she tells one of her daughters, “’I never did know what to do about my children’s spirits. I didn’t know how to help anybody in that way’”(215). Hattie’s sister gives the following description of Hattie: “Hattie had never been easy to love. She was too quiet, it was impossible to know what she was thinking. And she was angry all of the time and so disdainful when her high expectations weren’t met” (127). A daughter uses almost the same words: “How stoic and constant Mother was, how seething and unfathomable . . . secretive and quick-tempered” (201). In the end, Hattie admits, “She had been angry with her children, and with August, who’d brought her nothing but disappointment” (236) but suggests she is leaving that anger behind: “’But I’ve been mad all my life, and I finally figured out that I couldn’t keep carrying that with me. It’s too heavy and I’m tired’” (215). Anger “hadn’t served her when she was young and wouldn’t serve her now” (243). She may also have time to show tenderness: “she patted her granddaughter’s back roughly, unaccustomed as she was to tenderness” (243). It may have taken Hattie 55 years to change, but then human beings do not change easily, especially if they are as proud as Hattie.

I do not choose books because they are recommended by Oprah; in fact, I often choose not to read them if they appear on her lists. This time, however, I’m glad I overcame my initial reluctance. This is an excellent novel, especially considering it is a debut work. The story it tells of people “wounded and chastened” (111) can be bleak, but the book is beautifully written with a definite lyrical quality. The book may take the reader to dark places, but as Hattie says, “’Everybody’s been there’” (215), and we can learn from those visits.

LibraryThing member Anansilaw

This book doesn't quite live up to hype. The story is told by multiple narrators connected to Hattie by blood - her children, her sister, her grandchild. We seldom hear Hattie's voice and can only guess at her motives. The author shows us Hattie's impact on the lives of those around her,

principally her children. What I didn't get was a cohesive view of Hattie - just glimpses of her hopes and dreams, her disappointments, her strength, her love. The story begins with an experience that changes her, affects her deeply and focuses her will for her children to survive. Surviving isn't the same as thriving. What a price some of them pay to survive.

LibraryThing member missjomarch

This was a typical Oprah pick in that it was an very sad story. The main character which this story centers around is Hattie, a mother raising her famiy in the most extreme poverty and the life changing event that affects the way she interacts with her children. Told in the perspective of each of

her children gives this book make for a very interesting read.

LibraryThing member rmharris

It is very likely that Ayana Mathis has already written one of the best books you’re likely to read this year. Covering the years from 1925 when she arrives in Philadelphia from Georgia to 1980, the first chapter of the novel reveals wound that drives Hattie to be so fierce with her children. At

seventeen years old, “only a child herself, utterly inadequate to the task she’d been given,” Hattie quickly has to deal with August, her frequently roaming husband, and a houseful of children. She becomes almost the textbook definition of Tough Love, fierce, terrifying, single-minded in her determination that her children survive. Mathis' writing is so accomplished, her voice so strong and self-assured, it is hard to believe that this is a first novel. With The Twelve Tribes of Hattie she has created a near-perfect debut about an imperfect family.

LibraryThing member brangwinn

Mathis' debut novel looks at the lives of the children of Hattie, who moved from the segregated south to Philadelphia and married August, who her family thought was beneath her. Its not a pretty life--that of a black in the north. Spanning the time from 1925 to 1980, Hattie's life is presented

through her children and her grandchild--the twelve tribes of Hattie. Mathis has the same ability with words that Toni Morrison has, only she's a little more plain spoken.

LibraryThing member LoveAtFirstBook

I just put down The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis and I am so overwhelmed with emotion.

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is an amazing fictionalized memoir of the Shepard family, with Hattie as the matriarch. It also happens to be the newest Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 pick, and it’s

outstanding.

Hattie is a woman with many children and a not-so-wonderful husband, August. Each chapter is told by one of Hattie’s children. Through their individual stories, the reader learns about Hattie and August, the individual child (as he/she grows into adulthood, etc), and how everything fits together as a whole.

Each person in the Shepard family experiences the same feeling of being alone, being separated for some reason, but they have a common thread of having Hattie as a mother.

Mathis takes you on this family journey from Six Shepard who is overcome by fits of religion and anger and takes to preaching, to Bell who does something horrible to her mother Hattie and feels like it’s her time to die, to Hattie’s own experiences in the south as compared to the north.

And as a little teaser, tomorrow my post will be all about hearing Ayana Mathis talk at the Brookline Booksmith!!!!!

What do you think of Oprah’s picks?

Thanks for reading,

Rebecca @ Love at First Book

LibraryThing member TooBusyReading

For much of this book, I thought it would be a 3-star book, but in the end, I'm giving it a 4-star rating. Why? Because the story grew on me.

The already pregnant Hattie got married at 16 and left the Jim Crow south for the marginally better north. And then she continued to have baby after baby.

Her story and the stories of her family are sad and angry, filled with sad and angry people. Initially, I just couldn't connect with the characters, nothing drew me into the story.

The characters sometimes try too hard to be who they are not, sometimes hide their true selves under what they want the world to see, often are harder and more flawed than we would like them to be. And in the end, they are altogether human. The story jumps from character to character, occasionally making me wonder “ who is this person and have I already met him?” And there are some I felt I needed to know more about. They all tie together as part of Hattie's tribe.

The writing is very good, especially for a debut novel. It is descriptive but not overly flowery. I could see through the characters eyes things that I could not have seen through my own.

This is not an uplifting, feel-good kind of story, and it is not filled with action and adventure, but in the end, it comes down to family. I am glad I read it.

Thank you to the publisher for providing an advance reader's edition for my review.

LibraryThing member Bellettres

I liked it--but not as much as I thought I would, based on all the rave reviews. So many sad, dysfunctional people! Reminded me of Olive Kitteridge, in format and, to some degree, in the personality of the title character of each book. I also kept thinking that I would see the connection to the

twelve tribes of Israel, but if it was there (which it must have been, given the title), it was too subtle for me.

LibraryThing member aelizabethj

Full disclosure - I don't buy into the Oprah book club phenomenon.

I don't think I'm jumping on the bandwagon with this one, unfortunately. Each chapter was dedicated to one of Hattie's children, so we never had a sense of anything being finished - sometimes you'd catch a glimpse of the other

children in the background of other chapters, but that was it. We learn about Hattie through her children, so at least to me, it's very much an unreliable narrator. The writing was fantastic, but I can't help but feel cheated out of a full novel, instead of just a series of short stories.

2.5 stars

LibraryThing member melissarochelle

I grabbed this one because of Oprah...I mean, she typically has good taste in novels -- though I don't always LOVE them like she does.

I didn't know much about this one going into it (I have a bad habit of NOT reading a book's description, I just dive in), so I didn't have any kind of expectation

other than Oprah liked it. I did expect it to have some kind of story and that it lacked. It's more connected stories about Hattie and her children than the typical family saga. There's no action that drives the story forward. You get glimpses into Hattie's family over many decades and I enjoyed that aspect much more in the early chapters, but wanted a bit more of a story later on. By the later chapters everything just became more sad...but it started pretty sad so I guess I shouldn't have expected any kind of glimpse of hope.

It was a good read, well-written, but not oh-my-goodness brilliant.

LibraryThing member Smits

Each chapter is a story of one of Hattie's children. we learnmore about Hattie through each child. Each story was so good that i was sorry to leave that person to move to the next. The whole book was like a teaser.

LibraryThing member Dianekeenoy

I think this is an excellent first book for a young author. I enjoyed reading it and glad that I did. I also rate as 3.5 stars. The excerpts from each child (or tribe member) was interesting but left me wanting to know more about them. The other thing that bothered me is the fact that every single

person is so damaged. While I understand that difficult childhoods can cause damage, there are so many people who overcome that and have happy productive lives. But, still liked the book!

LibraryThing member amhamilt

This was a good book, but frustrated me. It is written from the perspective of Hattie's (many) children and each chapter switches to a different point of view. The stories were all engaging, the frustration comes from the fact that they all end too soon. I felt no sense of closure at the end of a

narrative; I just wanted to know when we'd return to the story and find out what happened next. That never happened. I finished the book with a vague sense of longing and wondering over the unknown fates of each character.

LibraryThing member capiam1234

Interesting, but not my type of book. I saw hints of greatness here, but since I wasn't really interested in sinking into this in depth I didn't read into it as much as I should. For a 1st novel I must say it was a superb job with the structure between generations and building on Hattie's character

and development. Would I read it again? No. Would I read another book by this author? Possibly.

LibraryThing member smcamp1234

Interesting, but not my type of book. I saw hints of greatness here, but since I wasn't really interested in sinking into this in depth I didn't read into it as much as I should. For a 1st novel I must say it was a superb job with the structure between generations and building on Hattie's character

and development. Would I read it again? No. Would I read another book by this author? Possibly.

LibraryThing member mochap

tremendous debut novel--each chapter focuses on one of Hattie's children, ultimately giving us a full and moving picture of this flawed and moving family. Made me want to know what happened next for each of them!

Awards

Dublin Literary Award (Longlist — 2014)

Maine Readers' Choice Award (Longlist — 2013)

Hurston/Wright Legacy Award (Nominee — Fiction — 2013)

Crook's Corner Book Prize (Longlist — 2014)

BCALA Literary Awards (Winner — 2013)

NPR: Books We Love (2013)

Historical Novel Society Editors' Choice

Oprah's Book Club 2.0 (2012-12 — 2012)

Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2012-12-06

Physical description

256 p.; 6.6 inches

ISBN

0385350287 / 9780385350280

Local notes

Fiction

More

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