Product Description

A visionary cast of characters weave together their past and present in a brilliantly intricate tapestry of tales.It is the story of the dispossessed and displaced, of peoples whose history is ancient and whose future is yet to come. Here we meet Lissie, a woman of many pasts; Arveyda the great guitarist and his Latin American wife who has had to flee her homeland; Suwelo, the history teacher, and his former wife Fanny who has fallen in love with spirits. Hovering tantalisingly above their stories are Miss Celie and Shug, the beloved characters from THE COLOUR PURPLE.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #111073 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-16
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

Review
''Walker's fictional creations are musicians, storytellers, artists and mothers: all of them embrace life with the characteristic optimism of this author, against a background of colour: love, for instance, blossoms on an "olive-green sailboat with its black-and-yellow sails". (HERALD (9.10.04) )

About the Author
Alice Walker won the Pulitzer prize and the American Book Award for The Color Purple. She is the author of many bestselling novels, essays and collections of poetry including Meridian, By the Light of My Father's Smile and The Third Life of Grange Copeland.

Customer Reviews

The best I have read
It would be an exaggeration to say that this book changed my life, but it has certainly changed the way I look at the world in a way no other book has ever done. It tells the intertwined stories of a group of people living in the USA. One of the characters has a special gift - she can remember all her past lives. Through her memories, the author tells her version of the history of mankind. The story itself is compelling, but it is mainly for the view of life it has given me that I love this book.

DEEPLY INSIGHTFUL
A moving and at times fantastical portrayal of men and women and their struugle to come to terms with the parts they play in each others lives. From Suwelo, the black historian coming to terms with collapse of his marriage to the woman he loves, a woman who loves him equally but has no desire to be married. It is on the death of his Uncle Rafe that Suwelo meets Mr Hal and Lissie, a couple of a thousand lives and a thousand lifetimes that he begins to understand women and how they have learnt not to rely on the men who have always betrayed them.
The whole novel is along these lines and the characters lives all link into one anothers, much like many of Walker's previous work. Essentially a work of feminist fiction from both female and male viewpoints, 'The Temple of My Familiar' is a deeply moving and often humourous work. I enjoyed it immensely and it is one the books that I always enjoy re-reading, a sure sign of a good book.

DEEPLY INSIGHTFUL
A moving and at times fantastical portrayal of men and women and their struugle to come to terms with the parts they play in each others lives. Suwelo,a key figure is a the black historian coming to terms with collapse of his marriage to the woman he loves, a woman who loves him equally but has no desire to be married. It is on the death of his Uncle Rafe that Suwelo meets Mr Hal and Lissie, a couple of a thousand lives and a thousand lifetimes that he begins to understand women and how they have learnt not to rely on the men who have always betrayed them.
The whole novel is along these lines and the characters lives all link into one anothers, much like most of Walker's previous work. Essentially a work of feminist fiction from a black standpoint with both female and male viewpoints, 'The Temple of My Familiar' is a deeply moving and often humourous work. I enjoyed it immensely and it is one the books that I always enjoy re-reading, a sure sign of a good book.