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Amistad: A Novel Based on the Screenplay
A fictionalized account of the 1839 mutiny aboard the Spanish slave ship Amistad includes John Quincy Adams' role in defending its instigator before the Supreme Court
Mass Market Paperback
First published November 1, 1997
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About the author
Alexs D. Pate
14 books35 followersAlexs pate is an Assistant Professor in African American and African Studies at the University of Minnesota, where he teaches courses in writing and black literature, including a course on “The Poetry of Rap.” He also teaches fiction writing at the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast M.F.A. program in Portland, Maine.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
August 1, 2016
Sentences you thought you’d never read: Amistad (the movie) reminds me of Tropic Thunder.
This seems like as good a time as any other to read Amistad, the novelization of the 1997 Spielberg film now played in high school history classes the world over (including in my Grade 12 history class). With only fuzzy memories of the film, I decided the $2 for this book at the library-affiliated used bookstore was a bargain. This past week in my English class of adult Indigenous learners, we’ve been talking about stereotypes and, in particular, Black Lives Matter and racism. Amistad tackles these very issues in a fictionalized version of the United States just a few decades before the Civil War.
I don’t remember much about the movie—it’s on Netflix, so maybe I’ll re-watch it at some point—except that it wasn’t half-bad despite starring Matthew McConaughey. That’s why the movie reminds me of Tropic Thunder, which is another exception to my general rule that I just don’t want to watch movies with McConaughey in them. I can’t explain my completely irrational dislike of him, but there you have it. Anyway, I recall the movie as being “good” in that nineties-message-movie kind of way, plus-or-minus the hastily shellacked layers of historical commentary applied to the characters and sets. The movie and book are both very much aware that they are a story about slavery and freedom, and they are also very self-aware of the wider historical continuum, including the Civil War. The result is a kind of anachronistic imposition of twentieth-century ideas about nineteenth-century attitudes towards abolition and slavery.
This book bills itself as “brilliantly narrated by Alexs Pate”, and I spent some time trying to figure out if those awards were for writing. (Based on what I can read from his website, it looks like he’s gotten some awards for some of his other books, so maybe his writing was just constrained by an attempt to reproduce the screenplay too faithfully.) Amistad reminds me why I tend to avoid novelizations, because it feels brutally like one: all telling, no showing, with an omniscient narrator who spills everyone’s thoughts onto the page with the subtlety of a gossip columnist:
This is simply execrable writing. It’s so patronizing; it sounds like someone trying to explain these issues to children. Not only overly simplistic, it’s just so obviously hammering on the book’s theme. I don’t have an issue with didactic novels, but there is a point where the narrator’s intrusion into the story becomes grandstanding on a soapbox. Pate is approaching Doctorovian levels here, but unlike Doctorow his characters lack anything in the way of depth or a twinkle of humour—and unlike the movie, they don’t have the performances of actors like Anthony Hopkins and Morgan Freeman to enjoy.
It’s tempting to think that peeks inside the minds of characters like the narration above is adding depth to them, but it doesn’t. Instead these tidbits merely turn the characters into caricatures of their historical personae: Van Buren is a career politician who cares only about re-election; Calhoun is a dyed-in-the-wool slaveowner; Adams is an abolitionist who doesn’t like calling himself that, etc. While all or some of these representations might be accurate (I don’t know enough about the history to judge), they are still one-dimensional. A single story, no matter how true, is still just a single story.
Worse still, Amistad’s voice speaks to us from a position of hindsight. The narrator keeps dropping hints about looming Civil War, as if it were obvious to all the politicians at the time that war was going to happen. Again, not a scholar of American Civil War history here—and I’m sure that there were some politicians at the time who recognized and worried about the growing tension between the northern and southern states. But this is twenty years prior to the war, and while the Amistad played a role in exacerbating those tensions, there was still so much more yet to come. The book also grandstands on the idea that Amistad was this huge turning point in the American abolitionist movement, that it was somehow precedent-setting and opinion-changing in how people saw slavery. The narrator puts a “weight of history” tone into the storytelling, emphasizing the supposedly inherent backwardness of the anti-abolitionists and how it’s only a matter of time before the country finally does away with slavery.
Some of these flaws are faults with the movie and screenplay, and so perhaps it is unfair to criticize a novelization for replicating them. But that presumes a novelization cannot fix or expand upon what happens onscreen—isn’t the kind of the point? Novelizations can be strong companions to a movie. Indeed, this book manages to bring depth to one group that isn’t well-represented onscreen: the Africans of the Amistad. They do not speak English, and so for most of the movie they lack a voice—or the voice is mediated through a translator, later on. This makes for an uncomfortable situation in which a movie about the humanity of Black people is told through a white saviour lens, as a bunch of landed white guys debate in the finest traditions of imperial Rome. Because he doesn’t have to use subtlitles, Pate has an opportunity to flesh out individuals from within the group, to emphasize differences in tribe and character—and he uses this opportunity to great advantage. Not only do we get a much better idea of what makes Cinque such a determined figure, but we also see the differing opinions among the Africans and their perspective on the matter.
Still, even this small benefit is not really enough to save the book. I can’t recommend the novelization of Amistad. The movie itself, while far from perfect, is pretty entertaining and moving. The book, with its flat and surprisingly bad storytelling, doesn’t come close to capturing that. There are far superior works of literature available that deal with these issues in more interesting and complex ways (feel free to recommend some to me in the comments).
This seems like as good a time as any other to read Amistad, the novelization of the 1997 Spielberg film now played in high school history classes the world over (including in my Grade 12 history class). With only fuzzy memories of the film, I decided the $2 for this book at the library-affiliated used bookstore was a bargain. This past week in my English class of adult Indigenous learners, we’ve been talking about stereotypes and, in particular, Black Lives Matter and racism. Amistad tackles these very issues in a fictionalized version of the United States just a few decades before the Civil War.
I don’t remember much about the movie—it’s on Netflix, so maybe I’ll re-watch it at some point—except that it wasn’t half-bad despite starring Matthew McConaughey. That’s why the movie reminds me of Tropic Thunder, which is another exception to my general rule that I just don’t want to watch movies with McConaughey in them. I can’t explain my completely irrational dislike of him, but there you have it. Anyway, I recall the movie as being “good” in that nineties-message-movie kind of way, plus-or-minus the hastily shellacked layers of historical commentary applied to the characters and sets. The movie and book are both very much aware that they are a story about slavery and freedom, and they are also very self-aware of the wider historical continuum, including the Civil War. The result is a kind of anachronistic imposition of twentieth-century ideas about nineteenth-century attitudes towards abolition and slavery.
This book bills itself as “brilliantly narrated by Alexs Pate”, and I spent some time trying to figure out if those awards were for writing. (Based on what I can read from his website, it looks like he’s gotten some awards for some of his other books, so maybe his writing was just constrained by an attempt to reproduce the screenplay too faithfully.) Amistad reminds me why I tend to avoid novelizations, because it feels brutally like one: all telling, no showing, with an omniscient narrator who spills everyone’s thoughts onto the page with the subtlety of a gossip columnist:
Van Buren cared about the future of America. Slavery was too complicated and too interwoven into the fabric of American life to think that it could be eradicated by simply being against it. What good would that do anyway?
This is simply execrable writing. It’s so patronizing; it sounds like someone trying to explain these issues to children. Not only overly simplistic, it’s just so obviously hammering on the book’s theme. I don’t have an issue with didactic novels, but there is a point where the narrator’s intrusion into the story becomes grandstanding on a soapbox. Pate is approaching Doctorovian levels here, but unlike Doctorow his characters lack anything in the way of depth or a twinkle of humour—and unlike the movie, they don’t have the performances of actors like Anthony Hopkins and Morgan Freeman to enjoy.
It’s tempting to think that peeks inside the minds of characters like the narration above is adding depth to them, but it doesn’t. Instead these tidbits merely turn the characters into caricatures of their historical personae: Van Buren is a career politician who cares only about re-election; Calhoun is a dyed-in-the-wool slaveowner; Adams is an abolitionist who doesn’t like calling himself that, etc. While all or some of these representations might be accurate (I don’t know enough about the history to judge), they are still one-dimensional. A single story, no matter how true, is still just a single story.
Worse still, Amistad’s voice speaks to us from a position of hindsight. The narrator keeps dropping hints about looming Civil War, as if it were obvious to all the politicians at the time that war was going to happen. Again, not a scholar of American Civil War history here—and I’m sure that there were some politicians at the time who recognized and worried about the growing tension between the northern and southern states. But this is twenty years prior to the war, and while the Amistad played a role in exacerbating those tensions, there was still so much more yet to come. The book also grandstands on the idea that Amistad was this huge turning point in the American abolitionist movement, that it was somehow precedent-setting and opinion-changing in how people saw slavery. The narrator puts a “weight of history” tone into the storytelling, emphasizing the supposedly inherent backwardness of the anti-abolitionists and how it’s only a matter of time before the country finally does away with slavery.
Some of these flaws are faults with the movie and screenplay, and so perhaps it is unfair to criticize a novelization for replicating them. But that presumes a novelization cannot fix or expand upon what happens onscreen—isn’t the kind of the point? Novelizations can be strong companions to a movie. Indeed, this book manages to bring depth to one group that isn’t well-represented onscreen: the Africans of the Amistad. They do not speak English, and so for most of the movie they lack a voice—or the voice is mediated through a translator, later on. This makes for an uncomfortable situation in which a movie about the humanity of Black people is told through a white saviour lens, as a bunch of landed white guys debate in the finest traditions of imperial Rome. Because he doesn’t have to use subtlitles, Pate has an opportunity to flesh out individuals from within the group, to emphasize differences in tribe and character—and he uses this opportunity to great advantage. Not only do we get a much better idea of what makes Cinque such a determined figure, but we also see the differing opinions among the Africans and their perspective on the matter.
Still, even this small benefit is not really enough to save the book. I can’t recommend the novelization of Amistad. The movie itself, while far from perfect, is pretty entertaining and moving. The book, with its flat and surprisingly bad storytelling, doesn’t come close to capturing that. There are far superior works of literature available that deal with these issues in more interesting and complex ways (feel free to recommend some to me in the comments).
May 1, 2019
So I re-read this book as I own a copy. I can’t understand while reading who in the population does not feel shivers when a man says -Give us free-!!! The movie is also great however it’s the reading of people and suffering that grabs me and pulls me along. Many great and amazing people were lost in this book and guess what many and great people were lost in real life in this abomination.
June 27, 2025
Recently captured Africans revolt against Spanish slaveholders, killing most of them and commandeering the slaver ship “Amistad”, setting the stage for this incredible tale. In 1839, off the coast of Cuba, a group of recently imported Africans bound for slavery on Cuban plantations escaped from imprisonment in the ship’s holds, overpowered and killed most of the crew, then attempted to force the two remaining Spaniards to return them to Africa. The Spaniards tricked them and sailed up the Atlantic coast of the United States, being captured off the coast of Connecticut. Upon arrival in New Haven, a political firestorm erupted over what to do with these people, involving some of the most powerful world leaders, such as American Presidents Martin Van Buren and John Quincy Adams, Spanish Queen Isabella, and British Queen Victoria. The case was tried locally, then upon appeal moved to the United States Supreme Court for the final ruling. It’s a nearly unbelievable tale, that actually happened.
The novel is an adaptation of the screenplay for the 1997 motion picture “Amistad”. Unfortunately, for me that is its greatest weakness. Having never personally researched and read about the history of the Amistad case, it’s difficult to know which aspects of the story are factually historical, and which are manufactured. I am also limited by having seen the film, so the historical figures in the book are voiced in my mind by Djimon Hounsou, Morgan Freeman, Anthony Hopkins, and Matthew McConaughey, respectively portraying real life figures Sengbe(Cinque), Theodore Joadson, John Quincy Adams, and Roger Baldwin. It really does disservice to a book to first see a film version, because it corrupts the mind’s ability to formulate the story and characters internally. For that reason, I don’t know that I am giving the book its full due. However, it is a fascinating story that nearly any reader could enjoy.
The novel is an adaptation of the screenplay for the 1997 motion picture “Amistad”. Unfortunately, for me that is its greatest weakness. Having never personally researched and read about the history of the Amistad case, it’s difficult to know which aspects of the story are factually historical, and which are manufactured. I am also limited by having seen the film, so the historical figures in the book are voiced in my mind by Djimon Hounsou, Morgan Freeman, Anthony Hopkins, and Matthew McConaughey, respectively portraying real life figures Sengbe(Cinque), Theodore Joadson, John Quincy Adams, and Roger Baldwin. It really does disservice to a book to first see a film version, because it corrupts the mind’s ability to formulate the story and characters internally. For that reason, I don’t know that I am giving the book its full due. However, it is a fascinating story that nearly any reader could enjoy.
August 17, 2021
Zacznę od tego, że kupiłam tę książkę za 1zł!, co nie przyczyniło się do braku zainteresowania i odłożenia na półkę. Rozpoczynając lekturę nie sądziłam jednak, że mam do czynienia z tak ważną (dla Ameryki) historyczną literaturą, a jakąś tam historią, powieścią. Z początku lekko mnie nudziła, byłam jednak ciekawa jej rozwinięcia i losów czarnoskórych (choć tych białych też 😜) bohaterów, a gdy już się wciągnęłam- została pochłonięta w krótkim czasie. Akcja przez większą część toczy się w sądzie, a my mamy możliwość przyglądania się umiejętnościom adwokatów i systemowi działania sądownictwa i scenie politycznej XX w. Choć były to odległe czasy (ok. 1840r.), śmiało możemy zadać pytanie: czy tak bardzo różniły się od teraźniejszych? Czy jak wtedy, tak i teraz najważniejszymi wartościami , którymi kierujemy się w życiu nie są wolność, miłość, przyjaźń, pomoc innym czy po prostu człowieczeństwo? Czy to nie doprowadza nas zawsze do wygranej? Opowieść przedstawiona w książce odpowiada twierdząco na te pytania, a wiemy, że wydarzyła się naprawdę. Dla mnie to krzepiące, ale z historycznego punktu widzenia poniosło za sobą znacznie poważniejszą i ambitniejszą lekcję: dało wiarę i motywację abolicjonistom do całkowitego obalenia niewolnictwa w Stanach Zjednoczonych. Dziś wiemy, że marzenia tej grupy uległy spełnieniu, a historia statku z odważnymi Afrykanami i niesamowitej, udanej obrony są powszechnie znane w USA, a teraz i mnie 😃
Daję 5 ze względu na dobrze wykonaną pracę przez autora, jeśli chodzi o odwzorowanie historycznej rzeczywistości (to jego debiut!) i stworzenie ciekawych postaci.
Daję 5 ze względu na dobrze wykonaną pracę przez autora, jeśli chodzi o odwzorowanie historycznej rzeczywistości (to jego debiut!) i stworzenie ciekawych postaci.
April 11, 2021
Bardzo dobrze napisana spójna historia z wyrazistymi postaciami, aż sama byłam zaskoczona jak wciągnęłam się w tę opowieść mimo, że na co dzień nie sięgam po tego typu literaturę.
December 9, 2010
I decided to read Amistad after my husband and I visited The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati. Cincinnati is right across the river from Kentucky so it was often the slaves' first stop across the Mason-Dixon Line on their way to Canada. The museum sent a powerful message about a chapter of American history which is often glossed over in school history classes. While Amistad isn't necessarily the most well-written book I've read, it was able to personalize a historic event by focusing on the leader of the slave revolt Sengby/Cinque. You can read more about it on my blog at http://recipesforabetterworld.blogspo....
March 7, 2019
Heart wrenching story of an actual series of events that took place in American history. The courage and determination of Cinque and his fellow Africans are what heroes are made of. I expected this book to be a bit depressing but was impressed with how inspirational it was. Everyone should read this.
October 26, 2018
The Amistad is a book about justice trying to prevail in an unjust society. I personally enjoyed the book, but I wouldn't say it’s the best i've ever read. The book shows a good representation of what a person might feel when taken captive to become a slave. My favorite character in the book was Clique because his intelligence. After Clique had helped overthrow the ship from the Spaniards the other Africans decided to spare two of them to run the ship. Clique never trusted them rightfully so because they deceived the Africans and brought them to America instead of back to Africa. Clique was a strong leader and never gave up. In the end they were ruled by the Supreme Court to be free men and to be taken to Africa. None of this would’ve taken place without Clique determination to get back to his family and homeland.
My favorite part of the book is during the beginning when Clique started the revolt on the Amistad. The imagery used in the book is very vivid at this moment in time. How Clique escaped and the anger he felt and put out upon the men who tried to enslave him was brilliantly written. The book at times was hard to keep track with the story, but overall the book had an amazing statement behind it. Even though taken place when slavery was very popular, it was a good step in showing that African people were free to begin with and had rights just like any other race or ethnicity. At the end of the day I would recommend this book to anyone.
My favorite part of the book is during the beginning when Clique started the revolt on the Amistad. The imagery used in the book is very vivid at this moment in time. How Clique escaped and the anger he felt and put out upon the men who tried to enslave him was brilliantly written. The book at times was hard to keep track with the story, but overall the book had an amazing statement behind it. Even though taken place when slavery was very popular, it was a good step in showing that African people were free to begin with and had rights just like any other race or ethnicity. At the end of the day I would recommend this book to anyone.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 28, 2018
Basada en un hecho históricos, la trata de esclavos, Narrando las calamidades de medio centenar de hombres y mujeres africanos, para conseguir libertad y justicia.
Aunque con algunas impresiones histórica, como que el barco Amistad cargado de esclavos se dirigía hacia Haití en el año 1839, cosa que para dicha época sería imposible, ya que Haití fue la primera nación negra en conseguir su independencia con el acontecimiento de la Revolución Haitiana iniciada en 1791 y culminando en 1804 con su independencia y la consecuente abolición de la esclavitud en toda la isla de la Hispaniola.
Superada está impresición histórica, la novela es muy ligera para ser leída( o sería por antes ya había visto la película) y hace que la lectura sea fluida.
Aunque con algunas impresiones histórica, como que el barco Amistad cargado de esclavos se dirigía hacia Haití en el año 1839, cosa que para dicha época sería imposible, ya que Haití fue la primera nación negra en conseguir su independencia con el acontecimiento de la Revolución Haitiana iniciada en 1791 y culminando en 1804 con su independencia y la consecuente abolición de la esclavitud en toda la isla de la Hispaniola.
Superada está impresición histórica, la novela es muy ligera para ser leída( o sería por antes ya había visto la película) y hace que la lectura sea fluida.
April 27, 2024
This book is a historical fiction account of the rebellion of enslaved Africans aboard the Amistad and their battle to seek their freedom, which was depicted in film. Interestingly this book was written after the film which seems less common and at times, the writing feels like a screenplay. Reading this book made me want to learn more about this important event and seek a non-fiction accounting.
August 7, 2017
Amistad was a slave ship, this is the story of one man. Cinque, the son of a Mende chief who becomes a slave but also leads the uprising against the wrongs..President John Quincy Adams, is the man who reluctantly defended Cinque in a Supreme Court trial like no other and is a part of a nation's history.
June 24, 2023
I gave this book a three because there was no substance with this piece of literature. I found this book not to long ago and decided to give a try because I had seen the movie, which was fantastic, and wanted to compare the two. Usually, I have come to find out that the book is 100% better. Not this time. So, I suggest to watch the movie instead.
May 30, 2024
A good treatment of a movie version of the historic uprising and trial of kidnapped Africans. The writing is sometimes slightly confusing but nothing that can't be figured out. Also found two typos in the mass market paperback edition.
May 14, 2017
a must read for all people interested in the history of slavery brutal and truthful a great read
December 18, 2017
The story of the escape and trial of the natives who rose in insurrection aboard the Spanish slave ship, 'Amistad.'
March 30, 2018
Excellent true story of courage and redemption.
June 16, 2019
Simple writing. Interesting story and world impact.
June 27, 2022
Review TBD
November 4, 2025
Interesting story of American history. This book involved much more of the legal battle than I expected & was a tie-in to the movie. Now to see the movie.
December 30, 2024
Une superbe découverte !
Dans Amistad, Joyce Annette Barnes revisite un moment clé de l'histoire américaine : la rébellion des captifs africains sur le navire La Amistad en 1839. Le roman relate leur combat pour la liberté, l’épreuve du procès historique qui en découle, et la lutte contre l'esclavage. À travers des récits poignants et une narration vivante, Barnes plonge le lecteur dans cette tragédie humaine, illuminée par des éclairs de courage et d'espoir.
L'autrice réussit un pari audacieux avec Amistad : rendre accessibles des événements historiques complexes à un large public, tout en insistant sur leur pertinence morale et sociale. Le roman brille par son humanité, ses personnages profondément touchants, et son message universel sur la quête de justice.
Le style d'écriture, clair et direct, facilite une immersion rapide, elle est à la fois suffisante et simpliste pour que l'œuvre soit accessible aux plus jeunes, ce qui est une super initiative de l'auteur.
Amistad demeure un roman marquant et nécessaire, surtout pour ceux qui cherchent à comprendre l'impact de l'histoire sur les luttes contemporaines pour la justice et l'égalité. Barnes nous rappelle, avec force et empathie, que le combat pour la liberté est intemporel et universel.
Classement : Coup de cœur ❤
Age minimal de lecture : 11 ans
Dans Amistad, Joyce Annette Barnes revisite un moment clé de l'histoire américaine : la rébellion des captifs africains sur le navire La Amistad en 1839. Le roman relate leur combat pour la liberté, l’épreuve du procès historique qui en découle, et la lutte contre l'esclavage. À travers des récits poignants et une narration vivante, Barnes plonge le lecteur dans cette tragédie humaine, illuminée par des éclairs de courage et d'espoir.
L'autrice réussit un pari audacieux avec Amistad : rendre accessibles des événements historiques complexes à un large public, tout en insistant sur leur pertinence morale et sociale. Le roman brille par son humanité, ses personnages profondément touchants, et son message universel sur la quête de justice.
Le style d'écriture, clair et direct, facilite une immersion rapide, elle est à la fois suffisante et simpliste pour que l'œuvre soit accessible aux plus jeunes, ce qui est une super initiative de l'auteur.
Amistad demeure un roman marquant et nécessaire, surtout pour ceux qui cherchent à comprendre l'impact de l'histoire sur les luttes contemporaines pour la justice et l'égalité. Barnes nous rappelle, avec force et empathie, que le combat pour la liberté est intemporel et universel.
Classement : Coup de cœur ❤
Age minimal de lecture : 11 ans
March 1, 2013
Amistad gives a graphic description of the events that took place. Few other books contain as much imagery. Even though the ending is already known, the book goes into detail about the events that are not talked about. This makes the book more enjoyable because it is not based only on what one would expect.
One can easily follow the track of the story. It is hard to read it and not feel how the Mende felt on the ship. They were taken illegally to a life of slavery. A hellish life that none desires to live; they fought to the death to avoid it, killing almost every non-African on the ship. The real events had a large impact on the views of slavery in the United States, one that withstands the test of time. Numerous sources agree that a mistreated captive will fight with all their being to become free or treated fairly. This book is a reliable source for arguments of ethics in current political issues.
One can easily follow the track of the story. It is hard to read it and not feel how the Mende felt on the ship. They were taken illegally to a life of slavery. A hellish life that none desires to live; they fought to the death to avoid it, killing almost every non-African on the ship. The real events had a large impact on the views of slavery in the United States, one that withstands the test of time. Numerous sources agree that a mistreated captive will fight with all their being to become free or treated fairly. This book is a reliable source for arguments of ethics in current political issues.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 14, 2009
I saw the movie years ago, and recently saw the book at half-price books so I picked it up. I didn't realize it was written from the movie, not the other way around. So it was a bit clumsy and did not offer the detail a novel normally would. It jumped around quite a bit. However, I still think the story is a good one and the main character, Cinque, is developed into a very admirable character. I always enjoy stories that give me a glimpse of a culture that I don't know much about. This fits into the category, and it shows how an individual's circumstances can lead to much bigger changes in society.
December 10, 2009
This is the first book I've ever read that was written AFTER a movie and was based on the screenplay. I haven't seen the movie either, so it was really weird reading to start with. About the middle of the book it finally seemed to click- the feeling I was reading a book more than someone describing a movie to me.
There were parts that were really hard to read because they were so inhumane and there was so much suffering, but what can you expect when you're reading a book about the slave trade in the 1800's?
There were parts that were really hard to read because they were so inhumane and there was so much suffering, but what can you expect when you're reading a book about the slave trade in the 1800's?
October 14, 2007
I was anitipating that the writing would be terrible because the novel was based on a movie script, but it wasn't too bad. The copy I had was large print, so that was a bit strange. The story was very interesting, which was very redeeming. Apparently it is a true story about a ship load of African slaves that rebel and kill most of the crew and are caught by the U.S. in 1839. The majority of the book deals with a court case dealing with whether the Africans are slaves or free men.
February 19, 2011
I should have known better...as it was a novelization of a movie that wasn't that good in the first place. (Oh why oh why did all of my favorite actors have to get together in one friggin crappy movie that I couldn't bring myself to endure past fifteen minutes?) Aside from that fact, the writing itself was - in a word - TERRIBLE. I got more enjoyment from actual history textbooks about the Amistad story than this thing.
March 24, 2012
I love Alex Pate's writing, however this book seemed more like something he did for the paycheck. I like that he improved upon the movie. I was disappointed in the movie, especially after the phenomenal job that was done on Shindler's List. In Pate's version of the book he makes the characters come alive more and seem more real, whereas in the movie they seemed helpless and invisible because their language was not translated.
February 25, 2014
This book I chose it because I remember watching the movie in my History class but do not remember what it was all about because I spaced out. This is a very difficult book to read and can be boring to most because it is not as entertaining as fictional books. It has a historical aspect and teaches the reader about American history but it is a book that you have to stick with all the way through even if it does not appeal.
July 30, 2021
El libro empezó con buen ritmo pero cada vez avanzaba la trama se estancaba en conversaciones relleno. Me era difícil identificar a los personajes estadounidenses por como estaban presentados. Noté condescendencia hacia España. El libro es una novelización de una película que se basa en hechos reales (así que entiendo que el autor esté limitado) pero tuve muchas ganas de abandonar el libro, por todo ello le he puesto una puntuación muy baja.
February 4, 2009
as always, i'm revolted by the way white people treated blacks and indians. we think we can just go into a country and take over--india, australia, africa, america, where else? our way is so much better than theirs, and we needed to convert them to our way. what a bunch of bunk! the slaves in amistad had every right to revolt!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews