Not Emotional Enough For the Subject Matter

We Hope For Better Things follows three women in different periods of history, from the time of slavery, to the civil rights movement in the sixties, and to the current climate of racial unrest. The author does a good job of touching on the most important parts of the treatment of African Americans in the United States, but I wish the author had taken it a bit further. The novel was more about the relationships each woman had, with the controversy and strife toned down. All three time periods were emotional and painful for the women, but I did not really feel this come through in the writing. I liked the premise of We Hope For Better Things, but the emotional connection was just not there for me.