Review by Booklist Review
For Nobel laureate Morrison, language is holy, story is power, and inspiration is found at the margin, that is, in lives locked out of America's white, corporate mainstream, in art of conscience, in overlooked beauty and hidden truths. Editor Denard incisively introduces this well-structured collection of clarion works spanning three decades and exemplifying Morrison's exacting arguments, commanding forthrightness, and blistering wit on subjects personal and universal, timely and timeless. Whether she is remembering her grandparents, praising Toni Cade Bambara and other writers, defining black womanhood, celebrating black heritage, or dissecting racial and political issues, Morrison, drawing on her experiences as a book editor and educator as well as a novelist, rejects lump thinking, pursues historic facts, and brings courage and candor to bear on complex conflicts. A master stylist, penetrating thinker, and committed artist wholly engaged in transforming lives, Morrison believes that a novel should be beautiful, and powerful, but it should also work. It should have something in it that enlightens. Morrison holds to the same high standards in her revelatory nonfiction.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2008 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Although Morrison's powerful novels on race and identity have secured her literary reputation, the commanding voice of her essays, speeches and reviews offers compelling insights into family, history, other writers and politics. The pieces span from 1971, when Morrison was an editor at Random House, to 2002, the year she won the Nobel Prize, and range from book introductions to thoughts on the nature of writing and reflections on 9/11. In a 1971 New York Times Magazine article, Morrison bluntly observes that black women's response to the nascent feminist movement is, "Distrust.... They look at white women and see them as the enemy." Following Toni Cade Bambara's death in 1995, Morrison recalled her friend's writing gift: "Bambara is a writer's writer, an editor's writer, a reader's writer... nothing distracts from the sheer satisfaction her story-telling provides." In a powerful address delivered to the American Writers Congress in 1981, Morrison proclaims, "[W]e don't need any more writers as solitary heroes. We need a heroic writers' movement-assertive, militant, pugnacious." Denard's judicious selections offer eloquent insights into the themes that are the rich ground for Morrison's haunting fiction. 10,000-copy first printing. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
This collection of previously published reviews, essays, tributes, and acceptance speeches--artfully arranged, edited, and introduced by Denard (founder, Toni Morrison Soc. of the American Literature Assn.)--makes up a portrait of a woman whom many consider to be one of the greatest authors in American literature. Throughout the work, which covers three decades in three sections--"Family and History," "Writers and Writings," and "Politics and Society"--the prose to which readers of Morrison's fiction (e.g., Sula, Song of Solomon, Beloved) have become accustomed takes on new meaning in the form of commentary, inspiration, and thought-provoking questions. Providing a glimpse into the personal ideals upon which many of Morrison's fiction pieces are based, the collection addresses issues of black history, modern race relationships, slavery, women's liberation, and more. It is an important resource for aspiring writers, Morrison fans, and any African American studies program and is highly recommended for academic libraries as an accompaniment to Morrison's Nobel prize-winning fiction.--Erin E. Dorney, Rochester, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
