Product Description

In this collection of essays, reviews and articles, Alice Walker brings her most powerful, moving and poetic voice to the crucial subjects of art, politics and social change.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #930872 in Books
• Published on: 2000-07-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

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

Stunningly articulate, meaningful and profound
Put simply, Alice Walker has inspired me more than any writer I have ever read. Her writing is resonant, lively, crisp, emotional, vibrant, original, witty and relevant. Even several decades after the original publication of this collection of essays, articles and letters this is relevant.

The topics covered include racism, sexism, the civil rights movement, Cuba, literature and nature. Alice Walker's voice is authentic and affecting and the emotion in every essay is so real that I was frequently moved to tears and very affected. The chapter 'From An Interview' is without a doubt the saddest thing I have ever read in my life. I enjoyed every page of this book, it was never tedious or difficult to read.

Yet Alice Walker is not as well-known as she should be. For starters, her books are ignored in the curriculum, in favour of privileged white men, a fact which she is no doubt painfully aware of. But this criminal neglect is actually extenisvely addressed in this book, as Alice laments over the great many female authors, mainly black, who have been ignored by elitist, dangerous snobs. I am personally going to make it my goal to pressure MP's with regard to including more talented female authors in the curriculum, especially poor or black ones, since they have been pretty much ignored altogether.

Words really cannot do this book justice. It is relevant, challenging and thought-provoking, and utterly vital for illustrating that there is a big wide world out there that exists outside of middle America, and the West's white preoccupations. This book will open up your mind and make you aware of things you didn't even know existed. Buy it and read the words of a profoundly insightful, sensitive, deep thinker.

more wonderful thoughts from Walker
I regard Alice Walker as a genious of modern literature from the amazing 'The Color Purple' to this absorbing piece of womanist writing. Walker's love for black woman and for humanity in general is apparent from the outset. Even as a white male I find so much to value learn from the principles of Walker's own school of thought; womanism.

Her engaging argument makes use of examples from her own life and from more generic experiences applicable to all of us. For anyone looking to contribute in modern society I recommend this book. Please read it.