3 out of 4 stars
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African Venus by Sheryl Carkhum-Lord is a historical fiction novella centered around a sculpture made in 1851 by Charles Henri Joseph Cordier. The scuplture, depicting the beauty of an African woman, caused quite a stir in its day. Slavery and racism were alive and well in that time and many people criticized Cordier for making a scuplture of an African woman. However, the sculpture captured the positive attention of many famous people such as Queen Victoria, Samuel Colt, George Elliot, and Charles Darwin. It was first called, “The Bust of an African Woman”. Later on, the sculpture became known as “The African Venus”.
Not much is actually known about the woman behind “The African Venus”. This book serves to give you her story. She is a young African princess, named Nima, stolen away from her home by the French. The story follows her journey from princess to slave to the circumstances leading her to be sculpted by Cordier.
I had never heard of this sculpture before reading this book. I think it is a clever idea for a historical book and it works well. The author did a good job creating a story that is both interesting and educational. I found Nima's story to be very believable even though no one actually knows anything about the woman in the sculpture.
The story is a fast-paced and easy read. It is only about 40 pages long and can be read in one sitting. It is well-written and I did not notice any grammatical or typographical errors. However, there were one or two times when I was confused by the wording. It did not bother me too much, but enough to make me stop and try to figure out what the author meant.
Personally, I found it hard to connect with the characters. It is such a short story that you are mostly given events rather than the emotions or thoughts of the characters. I wish I could have delved deeper into what Nima was thinking and feeling. There is a little said on that, but I think it could have been developed more.
I give African Venus 3 out of 4 stars. I like that it is a very unique story. I enjoyed learning about this piece of history. If it had a little more to it or something to help me connect to the characters, I would easily give it 4 stars. However, I think people who enjoy short historical stories will find this to be a wonderful book.
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African Venus
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