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felis_ignota's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
jessicaletaw's review against another edition
5.0
It's evidence of her brilliance, and the white world's apathy, that her words from the late '60s to the early '80s remain as keen and startlingly true today as when she first put them on the page. I'm grateful that this book exists; how lucky we are that she has created this garden for us.
lilyspunner's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
5.0
nicolasvallaey's review against another edition
5.0
Een van de beste boeken die ik ooit heb gelezen. Het is een perfecte balans van politiek en persoonlijke gevoelens. Enorm mooi, leerrijk en electrifying.
kitchenbeat10's review against another edition
I read the author has defended the transphobic comments of JK Rowling and I couldn't get past that.
eudijo's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed so many of these pieces. My favorites were her reflections on the writing process and the role of the black artist in society. Very inspiring and true to life.
gradybell's review against another edition
5.0
An excellent essay collection by Alice Walker on all things revolutionary. I learned quite a bit reading this especially on the topics of the relationships between feminism and race, as well as aspects of the Cuban Revolution I had never picked up on before. The consistency of these essays is amazing, and I never felt bored while reading. There is so much to annotate and pick up on, I would recommend to anyone who is a fan of Alice Walker or essay writing in general.
Favorite Essays:
"The Black Writer and the Southern Experience" - Walker unpacks our view of southern literature and the mostly white perspective mainstream audiences will experience it through while pondering how far can we separate art from artists.
"The Civil Rights Movement: What Good Was It" - A dissertation on the idea that the Civil Rights movement will ever truly end, and an examination of what must still be done to promote true equality in America.
"Good Morning Revolution: Uncollected Writings of Social Protest" - Examining Langston Huges relationship to socialism and how artists' political views are often snuffed to promote a certain narrative.
"Choosing to Stay at Home: Ten Years after the March on Washington" - Walker puts forth her view of freedom as having the choice to do or not do what a person wishes, and how unless we have the freedom to live anywhere, we can never truly have equality.
"Breaking Chains and Encouraging Life" - A view of anti-feminist and anti-lesbian sentiments within feminist and black circles and why revolutionary movements must not become tokens for those who seek to oppose these movements.
"My Fathers Country is the Poor ''- Walker Provides an excellent dissertation to the idea that communist movements don't "work' ' with an exploration of what changes the Cuban Revolution had on society and the people of that country. Based on a visit she made while in her college years it is one of the best researched and humanistic views of Cuba which gives a refreshing counter to an onslaught of biased American media pointing out every little problem with the country while ignoring the much greater hardships faced by other Latin and South American countries who are under the boot of imperialism. Walker is able to do this without being completely blind to Cuban faults, willing to point out problems presented both during the revolution and the following reconstruction phase (I.e. queer prejudice and hardships still faced by the peasant population). You can probably tell that based on the length of this review, this was my favorite essay and one that I would recommend everyone to read if you get the chance since its unique view of the Cuban revolution may give you pause next time you hear someone spewing anti-socialist talking points.
"To the Editors of Ms. Magazine" - Another essential read that relates to modern politics this time over the Israel Palestine conflicts and how to view the conflict from a humanist perspective which is seldom done when discussing the lives of other people. The piece takes a pro-Palestine viewpoint yet is able to avoid that messy territory of being antisemitic while doing so (Walker since writing this essay has not kept up this viewpoint since 2012 being a vocal supporter of David Icke a conspiracy theorist who believes in a Jewish council running the earth and that the Holocaust was a myth. I have no idea what happened in between 1983 and 2012 because this essay is definitely not antisemitic and criticizes those who believe kicking all the Jews out of Palestine is the right solution. Sadly, people change and sometimes that change is for the worst, yet I believe this piece can still be viewed as its own work separated from Walker's current standpoint so I'm going to keep on liking it, just wanted to point out that I’m aware and in no way justifying modern day Walker. Cool? Cool). This piece brings a shred of humanity into a conflict where leaders of countries in the imperial head continue to throw lives into a meat grinder in order to maintain their hold on the Middle East and absolve himself of any guilt surrounding the persecution of Jews. A great intro work for those who want to talk about this conflict without sounding like a supporter of the death and destruction being ravaged across Palestine and Israel.
Wow this review got really out of control. It had just started off being that one intro paragraph, but then I just felt like I needed to add more and more and from there it spiraled. It was also far more politically charged than I had expected it to be from the outset soooooooooo, hi everyone who wasn't in my European History Class, are you surprised? Probably not, I'm very bad at hiding it anyway. I suppose you can tell the quality of this collection just by how much it was able to get out of me, despite not being the target audience for most of the works.
Rating ***** 5/5 stars
Favorite Essays:
"The Black Writer and the Southern Experience" - Walker unpacks our view of southern literature and the mostly white perspective mainstream audiences will experience it through while pondering how far can we separate art from artists.
"The Civil Rights Movement: What Good Was It" - A dissertation on the idea that the Civil Rights movement will ever truly end, and an examination of what must still be done to promote true equality in America.
"Good Morning Revolution: Uncollected Writings of Social Protest" - Examining Langston Huges relationship to socialism and how artists' political views are often snuffed to promote a certain narrative.
"Choosing to Stay at Home: Ten Years after the March on Washington" - Walker puts forth her view of freedom as having the choice to do or not do what a person wishes, and how unless we have the freedom to live anywhere, we can never truly have equality.
"Breaking Chains and Encouraging Life" - A view of anti-feminist and anti-lesbian sentiments within feminist and black circles and why revolutionary movements must not become tokens for those who seek to oppose these movements.
"My Fathers Country is the Poor ''- Walker Provides an excellent dissertation to the idea that communist movements don't "work' ' with an exploration of what changes the Cuban Revolution had on society and the people of that country. Based on a visit she made while in her college years it is one of the best researched and humanistic views of Cuba which gives a refreshing counter to an onslaught of biased American media pointing out every little problem with the country while ignoring the much greater hardships faced by other Latin and South American countries who are under the boot of imperialism. Walker is able to do this without being completely blind to Cuban faults, willing to point out problems presented both during the revolution and the following reconstruction phase (I.e. queer prejudice and hardships still faced by the peasant population). You can probably tell that based on the length of this review, this was my favorite essay and one that I would recommend everyone to read if you get the chance since its unique view of the Cuban revolution may give you pause next time you hear someone spewing anti-socialist talking points.
"To the Editors of Ms. Magazine" - Another essential read that relates to modern politics this time over the Israel Palestine conflicts and how to view the conflict from a humanist perspective which is seldom done when discussing the lives of other people. The piece takes a pro-Palestine viewpoint yet is able to avoid that messy territory of being antisemitic while doing so (Walker since writing this essay has not kept up this viewpoint since 2012 being a vocal supporter of David Icke a conspiracy theorist who believes in a Jewish council running the earth and that the Holocaust was a myth. I have no idea what happened in between 1983 and 2012 because this essay is definitely not antisemitic and criticizes those who believe kicking all the Jews out of Palestine is the right solution. Sadly, people change and sometimes that change is for the worst, yet I believe this piece can still be viewed as its own work separated from Walker's current standpoint so I'm going to keep on liking it, just wanted to point out that I’m aware and in no way justifying modern day Walker. Cool? Cool). This piece brings a shred of humanity into a conflict where leaders of countries in the imperial head continue to throw lives into a meat grinder in order to maintain their hold on the Middle East and absolve himself of any guilt surrounding the persecution of Jews. A great intro work for those who want to talk about this conflict without sounding like a supporter of the death and destruction being ravaged across Palestine and Israel.
Wow this review got really out of control. It had just started off being that one intro paragraph, but then I just felt like I needed to add more and more and from there it spiraled. It was also far more politically charged than I had expected it to be from the outset soooooooooo, hi everyone who wasn't in my European History Class, are you surprised? Probably not, I'm very bad at hiding it anyway. I suppose you can tell the quality of this collection just by how much it was able to get out of me, despite not being the target audience for most of the works.
Rating ***** 5/5 stars