5 comments about The Sweeter the Juice: A Family Memoir in Black and White.

1. This author tells the story of her own family, spanning many generations. She did this mostly for her mother Margaret Morris Taylor who had suffered the sting of abandonment from her father and siblings. Her mother died when she was four. This story is no doubt the story of many families. Many light skinned black people crossed over or gingerly walked the colour line. WHO CAN BLAME THEM? Considering the indignities, lack of opportunities etc.. forced on black people. I learned that some theatres and concert halls went to the trouble to hire "Negro spotters" to point out racial imposters - humiliating many a coloured socialite in the process. Interesting!
   I was happy that Margaret eventually connected with her sister Grace after seventy-six years. The author concludes that her "white" relatives have missed the tangled richness of being black in America - sorry but her life may have been more priviledged than most black people's - but she acknowledges that they have also escaped that special pain and anger that most black Americans feel. She wonders though,what personal demons they may have created.
   A great read!



2. The Sweeter the Juice clearly demonstrates that racism is equally prevelent on both sides of the color line. While Haizlip's book is well written, the author is no less guilty of racism towards white people than the WASPs she condemns. Her comments about whites and "poor white trash" in particular are uncalled for (i.e. "my mother said there is nothing worse than poor white trash" and "a nice white person is nothing more than that. A nice white person"). As the descendant of working class Southern whites I was personally offended by her assumptions about my ancestors. In fact, my father rose out of Southern poverty and all of the associated racial biases of his family.
   
   When a white person does something gracious for Haizlip, she overlooks it and portrays it as a negative event. For instance, when Martin Luther King is shot and Haizlip's white neighbor comes by to make her tea and offer her sympathies, the author says "she said that assuming she knew how I felt." While Haizlip's ambivalence towards whites is understandable given some of her experiences, she makes just as many stereotypes about whites as they do of her. She claims to be an integrationist, but part of the reason American society is not socially integated today, is the self segregation of blacks and mixed race people like Haizlip.
   
   Haizlip is contradictory at times. As a New Negro like her mother, she is "eager to please" and be accepted by white culture, but at the same time, she resents her caucasian heritage and is active in African American social circles. This book seems to be more about the author's insecurities about her racial identity than about bringing familes together.
   
   After meeting her white relatives, Haizlip creates a "white corner" to keep their photographs separate from the rest of her family. She says she wonders if they would have ever bothered to find her. This seems a bit ridiculous since it is the grandson of her aunt Grace who takes the initiative to locate Haizlip and unite the families along with her. Again, Haizlip cannot accept as legitimate any positive actions on the part of whites. Haizlip tells her daughter that she keeps the white family's photos separate from the others because it wouldn't be honest to do otherwise. Haizlip explains that she will never be able to connect with her white relatives because their lives are too different from hers- they passed for white and she didn't. So does this mean that Haizlip cannot have anything in common/be friends with any white person? And she's the one who worked so hard to locate her mother's sister to begin with. Without meaning to, Haizlip is passing down her own anger towards white people to her daughters, potentially preventing them from forming bi-racial friendships with whites who are color blind would not reject them the way Haizlip's mother's relatives rejected her.
   
   The saddest part of this book is that towards the end, Haizlip does not accept her new-found white relatives the same way they accept her. She keeps their pictures and their lives as separate, but equal (to quote a Jim Crow phrase) as possible.
   
   In order to make herself feel part of "Us" instead of "Them," Haizlip turns poor whites into the "Them." This is not how we will solve today's racial problems. Racism will only be solved if everyone becomes part of "Us."



3. I am not an Oprah fan but one day with nothing to do I actually spent a rare session in front of television flipping channels. And I found myself stopping at her channel at her show's beginning wondering What is it This time?
   
   The author of this book and her mother were there to discuss this book and her family saga as well as the Issue of 'Passing'.
   
   I found their discussion so facinating that next day I went straight to the book store and ordered this book. Later I would buy other books on the subject.
   
   Not wishing to be 'controversial' I must confess that the book was quite fasinating and I did enjoy reading it.



4. I enjoyed this book from cover to cover. Sure, some of it was confusing, like some said, but what part of genealogy isn't confusing? My own genealogy confuses ME! :o) This book was wonderful! I think the author did a wonderful job in addressing this little spoken of topic. I was recommended this book after I found out that my family had African American roots, & so this book hit home with me. It aided me through an emotional journey...answering many of the questions such as: "Why so many secrets?" It also helped me to understand that some of my family members will never in their lifetimes will willing to openly talk about this subject, but the book confirmed my feelings that it's their loss. Thanks & kudos to the author!!!



5. I just read this book. It was very moving and insightful. It was so sad that Margaret Taylor, Shirlee's mother, was abandoned by her father,sister and brothers, and endured such a difficult childhood. It took over 70 years for Margaret to find her sister!

   I think that Grace Cramer's life was more tragic, perhaps, because she blocked out so many memories and isolated herself. I would think she could have at least written her sister, once in 70 years! even if she was nervous about revealing her heritage to other people. It was wonderful to hear that Grace's grandchildren had a happy meeting with Shirlee.
   The photos are great and the stories about the Taylors, Morrisses etc. are inspiring. It was fascinating to read about African American life in New England and the South. I look forward to reading the book about the Haizlip marriage.

5 comments about Coal to Cream: A Black Man's Journey Beyond Color to an Affirmation of Race.

1. Robinson uses his own personal sojourn through South America as a framework to discuss broader issues of race relations and racial identity. When Robinson first visits Brazil, he views it as a utopia for black individuals, a place where unlike America race was not an immutable construct but rather a broad spectrum of possibilities which ebbed and flowed: "[t]he emphasis on the more mutable issue of color (rather than the rigidity of race) was at the heart of what I loved so much about Brazail--the absence of racial conflict, the ease of coexistence."
   
   At first, Robinson's exulation of Brazil as a paradigm for issues of race appears naive and simplistic. However, as Robinson's journey continues, he realizes that Brazil also suffers from its own insidious forms of prejudice and problems of racial conflict though manifested differently, exist there as well. Robinson's meditations on race are interesting and emerge from a well written and engaging story.



2. I enjoyed this book because it is a thought provoking book. Too often the topic of race is avoided. The truth is that race may be the topic of the next decade in the US. The country is starting to have a substantially higher percent of population of non-whites. The largest California is already mostly non-whites. The author compares and reflects on his upbringing in the US with his experiences in Brazil thru the eyes of a dark Black man. I agree with the author that Brazilians do indeed think about race and are certainly not color blind. In my travels to Brazil I noticed from looks that some people certainly acknowleged the fact that I was Black by giving me a certain look or holding their look a little longer. However the lack of malice was apparent among my Brazilian contacts. In the US sometimes I have created static by simply showing up as a Black man at an all white affair or business meeting. The average Brazilian is actually quite a laid-back person. The American in comparison tends to be aggressive and highly opinionated. I hope to one day spend some time living in Brazil. I think that the author also overestimates the number of Blacks (by US standards) in Brazil. I have the number at around 50%. I actually prefer the terms AfroBrazilian and AfroAmerican. The author actually made it a point to study race. In Brazil race is certainly not one of the top conversational topics. Although this book is only around 4 years old, plenty has change in Brazil. Global changes have had an impact on Brazil and the people have adapted. Foreign films and TV shows have had an impact on Brazilian culture. Inventions such as cell phones and the internet have had a profound effect of reducing Brazils isolation. I can't wait to go back next year!



3. In spite of my better judgement, I really like this book. As a quietly emotional, introspective and beautifully written report of one Black American man's reactions to Brazilian notions of race, it has no equal.

   Why do I give it only two stars then? It upsets me that people across the U.S. will use this as some sort of "text book" to decipher Brazilian race relations. It is not. In fact, for an intelligent, sensitive journalist, Robinson shows a shocking lack of knowledge of Brazilian history and culture, especially as viewed through Brazilian eyes. This fatally undermines his analysis of race relations in Brazil.

   To hear Robinson tell it, Brazil is in some kind of racial purgatory. Brazil's concepts of race never change. Or rather, its /lack/ of concept of race never changes. Brazilians, as we are told again and again throughout "From Coal to Cream" simply don't believe in the idea of race: they only see colors relative one to another. This theory of race in Brazil has a long and hallowed history in American academia. Unfortunately, Brazilian social scientists have pretty well demonstrated it to be full of enormous holes. There has been quite a long and well-documented tradition of seeing things in "black" and "white" in Brazil - a tradition which the Brazilian public ideologies of race would prefer to ignore. That this tradition remains alive and well in our quotidian world, however, is a fact that's brought back to me everytime I see some light-brown skinned kid wearing a "100% Negro" t-shirt here in Rio de Janeiro.

   Ironically, the years that Robinson spent as a journalist in Brazil saw some of the greatest historic changes in afro-descended Brazilians' perceptions of themselves and their nation. These changes were perhaps best (but not exclusively) symbolized by the 1988 Constitutional Resolution to give land to Brazil's surviving quilombo residents - a law which was only won through large-scale mobilization of Black Brazilian grass-roots groups. None of this exciting ferment and activity is touched upon by Robinson, whom, I suspect, is unable to read a daily newspaper in Portuguese. From what I've gathered in the book, he didn't know anything of this sort was occuring among Black Brazilians. If he did, he certainly didn't follow it up, prefering to maintain the old, thread-bare dichotomy of a Brazil which ignores race and doesn't progress opposed to a progressive, race conscious United States.

   Robinson would probably be quite suprised that, as regards his conslusions on race in Brazil, he is travelling the same path that many hard-core racists once tread. The French philosopher and scientific racist Gubineau (SP, sorry...) also believed that as a mixed race nation, Brazil was a contradiction in terms which could never, ever progress. The real question, of course, is why Robinson finds it necessary to do this and how does he have the power to be more widely heard on this subject than any one of hundreds of Brazilian journalists and scholars (of all colors) who are infinitely more well-informed than he is.

   Robinson needs to look into the mirror and realize that even though he's Black, he's also a U.S. citizen and thus inherits a certain degree of imperial power along with that status. Perhaps then he'd be capable of writing about Brazilian racism with a new degree of sensitivity - not only to his personal feelings, but to Brazil as well. What is scary to me is that "From Coal to Cream" is so convincingly written that even many Brazilians, ignorant of their own history, will buy into its precepts.

   When a journalist who barely speaks the language of a country attempts to tackle one of its deepest, most perenial problems based upon a few superficial travels, we should take his conclusions with a large grain of salt. Though it attempts to address Brazilian racism, "From Coal to Cream" is yet another in a long series of fantastic projections of Anglo-American fears and desires upon Brazil. Nevertheless, one should buy this book if one is interested in how Americans perceive and react to Brazil. /That/ is it's true value, and in this sense, Robinson has crafted a masterpiece.




4. i would recommend this book to any reader that wants a good perspective on how race and class abound our world. As a 18 year old Afro-American female,I too like Robinson, initially believed the myths of a Brazilian racial democracy, but later on I sadly realized the truth. Racism is just as explosive in Brazil as the US but only it is done in a more subtle and hidden fashion.

   Compare neiborhoods like Ipanema and the favelas(ghettos) of Rochina and Mangueira and see what colors are most dominate. And also see the racist killings of street children (80% killed are Black), and why the most dominate workforce for Blacks is domestic service(i.e. maids and butlers) The affirmation that Robinson made of saying that he was told he didn't have to be Black shows how in Brazil race is not soley based on heritage, but social status and education.

   Euguene Robinson digs into the reasons why the Black Brazilian Movement is finally starting in Brazil. Trying to find a voice in a racist society and have the series of "race" categorizations to seperate Blacks be removed so that Blacks can identify and work against racism in a country where they are dominate (UNESCO reports Blacks are 70% population) but used to be counted only as 6% in 1973 and then 44% in 1992 by the government, these figures do not show a boost in Black births, but a boost in Black identity and pride.

   Many will argue how Brazil can have Affirmative Action, but with a predomite population and predominte population of poor Afro-Brazilians, it is needed in Government and TV. I disagre with reviewers that claim that Black race identity leads to race "wars", it unifyies us, the only reason why people do not think racial conflict happens in Brazil is because most Blacks haven't been saying anything(ending that is Senetor Benedita da Silva).

   Even though I think that this book could have dug deeper in the realities and myths of race in Brazil, I belive this is a honest and well written work




5. A fasinating look at race and color.Well writing and obviously lived by Eugene Robinson. As a White 57 year old male I found his account of black life in Brazil to be educational and interesting. Its a shame that there has to be divisions between the races. I could only wish to live to see a colorless society. What then would they all fight over?

5 comments about Mingus: A Critical Biography (Da Capo Paperback).

1. In slightly under 230 pages, author Brian Priestley attempts to cover the life of Charles Mingus in a biography, discography and musicography. Without the proper focus, the book fails on all counts.
   
   I blame the publisher for a work that attempts to deliver so much, but does not have the number of words to make it work. I also strongly feel the editor failed miserably for not making critical calls as the book began to take shape.
   
   The major point of interest is a listing of major recordings that Mingus accomplished in his vast career. But when the highlight is a part of the appendix, it speaks loudly about the text!
   
   Mingus: A Critical Biography is hardly a definitive work on the oftentimes controversial life of the musical genius. I cannot even recommend it as a primer since those looking for an in-depth exploration on any of the three categories mentioned above will be sorely disappointed.



2. This is a slightly disappointing, but still very good biography of one of the greatest jazz composers and probably its top bassist. Mingus, using a mixture of jazz, blues, church music, European impressionism and march music, and folk, wrote some of the most outstanding music of the 20th century. A man of wide-ranging, complicated emotions, lionesque appetites, and varied intellectual and creative pursuits, this titan of modern music is a fascinating biographical subject.

   However, Brian Priestley does not capture the full measure of the man and his music. I'm not sure what the subtitle "A Critical Biography" is meant to convey, but there is not enough musical criticism. Particularly in the second half of the book, Priestley resorts to an "and then he wrote" approach, painstakingly detailing every new composition or derivative, and every new musician in the ever-changing Mingus ensemble. There is musical analysis, but often it is more technical than critical. Referring to a song on "East Coasting" Priestley writes, "it incorporates passages of G minor twelve-bar blues only slightly different from the opening of `Eulogy' (Im/bVImaj\bII7\V7 instead of Im|bVImaj7\IIm7b5\v7)." The first part of this sentence is the more revealing: "It is a tribute to Mingus' maturing methodology that ideas are shown to be capable of repetition and rearrangement."

   This does not go far enough, though. Why did Mingus "cross-breed" so many of his works, as Priestley notes but never really examines. The reasons (aesthetic, psychological--practical in the case of "Slop") for the similarities among some works (e.g., "Better Get Hit Into Yo Soul", "Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting", "Slop," and other compositions is never really explored. Were Mingus' edits across versions and his reworking of similar themes an attempt to forge a new "traditional" folk music within a mere two decades? (Perhaps this hypothesis is off, but I would have preferred that Priestley write a more encompassing analysis of both the whole of Mingus' work and its constituent parts.)

   Conversely, we may praise the author for not indulging in psycho-biography, for including extensive well-documented quotes from Mingus as well as other musicians, and for describing enough on-stage Mingus behavior to get a sense of his personality. One might want to read the excellent though brief "Mingus/Mingus: Two Memoirs" for a better look at the offstage Mingus and his relationships with non-musicians.

   The strength of the book is the extensive documentation of the entire Mingus discography, the ever shifting lineups, and both the recorded and non-recorded performances. This must have been a labor of love, as Priestley gives the definitive record of Mingus' output and how the performances map onto the different albums. The appendices include musical notations of ten (!) bass excerpts, a second-by-second structural analysis of "The Black Saint...,"and notes to all citations in the book. This is invaluable for the Mingus fan.

   Priestley's writing can be awkward, "She it was who wrote....," and strained "Any minimally serious astrological guide will describe the typical Taurean as having outsized physical appetites; what is perhaps even more relevant to Mingus is the ability to treat extramarital affairs (like the ice-cream [sic] of which he was so fond) as a dessert complementing, but in no way threatening, any long-established relationship."

   Despite the reservations noted above, I can recommend this book as a comprehensive resource for Mingus fans. It also includes enough personal information and sympathy (through interview excerpts with Mingus and others) that one begins to appreciate his complexities. There are a few clues to his Joycean autobiography, "Beneath the Underdog," and one gets a good sense of the racial tensions and injustices battled by Mingus. Finally, judging from the reviews of the other major Mingus biography, "Myself When I Am Real," this is the best book currently available. It will be enhanced, however, if read with the aforementioned autobiography (as perplexing as it is) and "Mingus/Mingus," as well as the brief but excellent critiques in "The Penguin Guide to Jazz." Includes 25 black and white photos, notes, appendices, and an extensive index.




3. What do you want from this Charles Mingus biography?

   1. A depiction of Mingus the man, including a psychological and/or anecdotal interpretation of his character?

   There's not a lot of that here. Although I will say that this falls into the category of what I call "John Bonham Biographies", named for the Led Zeppelin drummer who came off as a manic-depressive Jekyl and Hyde in the book "Hammer of the Gods". Another good example of this is humourist Michael O'Donoghue in Dennis Perrin's bio "Mr. Mike". Mingus, in Priestley's hands, is an extreme man. He is either a soulful genius, or a tyrannical, violent, out-of-control maniac. It always strikes me as a road too easily traveled by the biographer, and is thus distracting.

   2. A theoretical explanation of Mingus' music, with the intent of illustrating why he casts such a powerful shadow over the jazz world (as unparalleled bassist *and* composer)?

   There's oodles of that here. Unfortunately, it leaves very little room for the layman to join the party. At times the book reads like an advanced textbook on modern jazz theory. I guess I should have taken the title of the book -- "A Critical Biography" -- a little more seriously. Also, there are references made to Mingus quoting other songs within his own, which further baffled me, as it would anyone but the most knowledgeable jazz historian. And when he tries to determine Mingus' place in music history, Priestley isn't afraid to let the hyperbole fly. Like when he implies that rock `n' roll is an indirect descendant from a relationship between Alexis Korner and Mingus in London. Or an attempt to elevate Mingus' jazz as an artform, when compared to the vacuous pop of the mid-1960s, which lacks credibility because the vacuous being compared to is the (relatively) sophisticated music of the Beatles! Or an absurd claim that a disastrous concert Mingus put on at the Town Hall in New York "caused more fallout than the almost simultaneous Cuban Missile Crisis"! These and other arguments are handled sloppily at best, and do a disservice to Mingus himself.

   3. An explanation/refutation of Mingus' fantastic semi-autobiography "Beneath the Underdog"?

   You're in luck, because at times it feels like Priestley has a copy of Mingus' book beside him as he writes, ticking off fact after fact as it is corrected or explained here. Which might have been helpful had I read "Beneath the Underdog", but I haven't. And now don't need to. He should have just published a version of "The Annotated Beneath the Underdog", and left the biography writing to someone else with an original sense of narrative.

   So just be sure you know what your goals are when confronting this work. Jazzheads and Mingus-freaks, you're welcome to join the party. Casual jazz fans and Mingus admirers (of which I am one), step lightly. Fans of biography, do yourself a favour and pass on by. Oh, and I almost forgot. This book has the tackiest, creepiest, and most irresponsible closing line of any book I have ever read. I just hope that Dannie Richmond (drummer and frequent Mingus band member) hasn't seen it.




4. The reviewer from LA makes this book sound like a cheesy celebrity bio. Nothing could be further from the truth. Priestly has written a carefully detailed history of Mingus's musical life. There's an effort to make sense out of Mingus's wild autobiography Beneath the Underdog, and his personal life is discussed, as it should be, but Mingus's accomlishments and his place in jazz history are the main focus of this book. This is a first rate jazz biography.



5. Priestley does a good job at giving us an overview of Mingus the musician, that is, who he played with, where he played and when. However, like Beneath the Underdog, the book concentrates too much on the personal and not enough on the music. I was looking for a more critical review of Mingus's compositions and his role as one of the most influential and under appreciated musician of our time, but it seems that Mingus's persona will always overshadow his contributions. On a good note, Priestley's discography is extremely thorough which has made it a constant reference in my house. Finally, the writing is a bit dry which may make it a tough read for the casual jazz fan.

5 comments about A-Train: Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman.

1. I had the opportunity to read this book. From the moment of the first word to the very last word, the book draws you in to read more. The graphic descriptions can take you to the other side of the world and stand next to the author on his travels. You know what it was like be black during the "Jim Crow" days on the trains in the south. Granted that my 25 years never saw the ugly side of America, his visual imagery is just so vivid that I seriously think they should dump "Scarlett Letter" and place this book on the reading lists of High School Students.



2. Charles Dryden's book forces people to see the trials and tribulations encountered by black servicemen and women during WWII. I was shocked to read about the different encounters with 'Jim Crow' that Dryden and his peers waded through during their service years. A must for anybody curious about WWII, the Tuskegee Airmen or about the fight for civil rights in America.



3. I meet Col. Dryden when he gave a talk about his experiences and his book. I then read the book a felt a tremendous respect for the author and all the Tuskeegee Airmen. Col. Dryden tells his personal story in a way that made me feel as though I was there with him the whole time. The challanges of blacks in America in his story left a powerful impact on me, the courage the author displayed is an insperation. A-Train is very well written and reads easily. It is an powerful story that left me feeling inadequate and ashamed to be white. I had the oportunity to meet Col. Dryden again and sought him out just to shake his hand again, knowing him from his book, it was hard to hide my emotions.



4. Every young African American boy should read this book. It is an inspiration.



5. I initially bought this book expecting it to be similar to the other slew of WWII books out there ( The ME-109 dove at me out of the sun with guns blazing...). Instead I got an honest account of a man who wanted to fly for his country and be treated with the same respect as any other pilot. Dryden's memories and descriptions of his voyage through training to be a pilot as well as the segregated and de-segregated Air Force are interesting and honest. Dryden't narrative is not the heart-pounding, can't-put-the-book down type but rather the story of a man who, faced with tremendous adversity from his own society and country, persevered. There is no bitterness in Dryden's story, and I put the book down tremendously impressed by his belief in himself, in his religion and his friend. It's a good book

5 comments about Best Intentions: The Education and Killing of Edmund Perry.

1. Your readers must have read a different book and may have confused the facts. Det. Van Houten was not "off duty" at the time of this incident and he was not a witness to a crime in progress, but was the victim of a attempted robbery by the Perry brothers. Det. Van Houten did not kill Edmund Perry. Edmund Perry killed himself when he went out looking for a victim,and unfortunately for him, chose the wrong one. You can take the kid out of the "hood" but you cant take the "hood" out of the kid. Perry chose the wrong path and he paid for it with his life.



2. Edmund Perry, a seventeen year old student at Exeter Academy, was shot unfairly by a police officer. This officer thought that Eddie was mugging a woman so he immediatly shot him. Eddie lived in Harlem, but attended school in New Hampshire at Exeter Academy. He was living two completely differnt lives, black ghetto with his family friends and a prestigious bording school with his teachers and friends. It was very unlikely for a black boy to go to a prep school at this time, but Edmund was a very smart boy. He attended Harlem primary school then had four years of private school and soon would be going to Stanford University in the fall. This couldn't happen for him. How could someone who worked so hard in life and got far, have their life cut off so short? How is this fair? Robert Sam Anson, the author of "Best Intentions" did a fabulous job getting the facts from Edmund's family and friends, because this is a true story.



3. This was just a really really good book



4. Great things were expected of young Edmund Evans Perry, a gifted black teenager raised in Harlem and schooled at Philips Exeter Academy, one of the nation's most prestigious preparatory schools. At seventeen, he had already received four years of top-notch schooling, explored the world (Perry spent a year in Spain), and was accepted to Stanford University, where he planned to go for college starting in the fall of 1985. However, that summer Perry was dead, shot by a policeman on the streets of New York City, allegedly while involved in a mugging. What went wrong? The author spends most of the book trying to answer that question (we learn the basic story in the first couple chapters), and he does a remarkable job of doing just that. Robert Sam Anson interviewed the people who knew Perry, the people who made him what he was, both in Harlem and at Exeter, and over the course of the book, we learn just what happened to Edmund Perry. What you learn may surprise you, and it is sure to inspire many questions in all who happen upon its pages.



5. Best Intentions by Robert Sam Anson is an engaging and sensitive invistigation into why Edmund Perry, a black Exeter student who received a scholarship to Stanford, died in a dubious encounter with a police man. Anson traces Perry's stories from his years attending primary school in Harlem to his unsteady times at Exeter, a high class boarding school. Anson then crafts the Perry's story into a comprehensive and clear examination of race and education in America and the challenges that face black students. For those interested in education, race, or sociology, I would recommend this piece. It certainly isn't a cover-to-cover read, but it stimulates quite well.

No comments about The Educational Thought of W.E.B. Du Bois: An Intellectual History.

1 comments about Warrior Poet: A Biography of Audre Lorde.

1. Alexis DeVeaux presents a comprehensive account of self-described feminist, lesbian, and poet warrior, Audre Lorde. The author pulls together a myriad of published documents, unpublished journal entries by Audre Lorde herself, and a host of interviews with personal friends and family members to create a well documented look at the poet's life. The book is divided into two major sections called "lives." The first life begins prior to Audre's birth, and highlights some aspects of her parent's early life, their eventual marriage and move from the Caribbean to the United States. This family background helps readers understand Audre's nearly lifelong quest to come to terms with her relationship with her often emotionally detached parents. This portion of the book also details information about Audre's childhood, educational background, and young adult life. We learn about Audre's marriage to a white, gay, man and their eventual divorce and follow her process of "coming out" regarding her own lesbianism. Her long-term relationship with a white woman, Frances Clayton, and the challenges associated with raising a bi-racial son and daughter in a lesbian household during an era of rampant, overt racism and sexism was also discussed. DeVeaux also takes time to highlight some of Audre Lorde's flaws, thus providing a somewhat more balanced view of the author. Her professional career as a poet develops slowly, and the evolution of her writing career parallels the evolution of her political views and personal growth.
   
   The second section of the book, "The Second Life," continues to explore her career development, chronicles her battles with cancer in more detail, and ends with her death. Audre Lorde supported freedom and equality for all, regardless of race, gender, class, or sexual orientation. However, because of her strong views and personal lifestyle, she often found herself on the fringes. Many white feminists were uncomfortable with her views on race, while those involved in the black power movement tended to be uncomfortable with her feminist ideology and her lesbianism. Yet she used her own struggles, particularly her battle with cancer, as a means to educate, motivate, and inspire.
   
   I enjoyed WARRIOR POET and was impressed by Alexis DeVeaux's attention to detail and the time she spent helping readers understand the social and political climate of the times. There were times when I felt she went a little too far "setting the stage" and wanted to read more about Audre and less about other poets, or politics. Audre seemed to use her identity to take on very public battles for women's rights, gay rights, and so forth. But I found myself wanting to know more about how her children handled their mother's public persona. I also wondered how her very conservative, Catholic mother and her other siblings responded to Audre's lifestyle, and this issue was surprisingly never addressed. In spite of its sometimes academic feel, this is a must read for anyone that wants to learn more about an important literary figure.
   
   Reviewed by Stacey Seay
   of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

5 comments about Beyond the River: The Untold Story of the Heroes of the Underground Railroad.

1. Author Ann Hagedorn, who moved "on location" to complete her research and add inspiration to her writing, offers a rarely seen individual account of the underground railroad. Most other books on the topic take a view from 50,000 feet. Hagedorn focuses in on one river (the Ohio), two states (Ohio and Kentucky), and one man (John Rankin). The abolitionist work of this Presbyterian minister (whose letters about abolition are a crucial primary source) serves as the backdrop and foreground for Hagedorn's exposition. Though focused on Rankin, the author does not fail to provide compelling real-life stories of many other "key players" both slave and free. For a compelling, unique read of the courageous men and women conducting the underground railroad, "Beyond the River" is the book to read.
   
   Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction , Spiritual Friends, and Soul Physicians.



2. Beyond the River was just named one of the American Library Association's Notable Books for 2004. The annual list is highly regarded and identifies 25 very good, very readable and very important books.

   This is a tremendous honor for Beyond the River and one that is richly deserved; this book lovingly weaves together tales of the abolitionist heroes in the town of Ripley, Ohio in the years leading up to the Civil War.




3. Ann Hagedorn offers the reader a captivating perspective on America's struggle with slavery in her work, "Beyond the River." The uniqueness of her work eminates from two particular aspects of her work, both of which begin with the way she takes her subject out of the macro world of politics and economics into the smaller world of the lives of the people effected by the souths 'peculiar institution.' Looking slavery through the eyes of individuals, the reader gains a far greater appreciation of the suffering, torment, and most of all, the fear generated by those who stood in opposition.

   Interesting also is the location the author focuses on, the Ohio River where on one side men are free and on the other live in chains. Most texts present slavery at great distances, like The Carolinas an and New York. Here we see just how intimate the slavery and the abolitionist could be and the blood spilled by both sides.

   Most importantly, Hagedorn writes in a cool clear voice that is enjoyable and informative. She delivers facts and passion in the same sentence without ever becoming melodramatic or shrill. Readers who enjoy this fictional work may also want to look at "Cloudsplitter," Richard Bank's novel on The Brown family's war on slavery.




4. This is a great read, suspenseful and thoughtful, one of the best page-turners I have read in a long while. I strongly recommend the book to anyone, of any race, of any religion, and from any part of the U.S. It has made me reflect on what 'weak' creatures most of us are when it comes to moral risk-taking, and how courageous other Americans in the past have been. This is a book that will make you feel very humble about how 'morally righteous' you really are.

   Unlike one of the other reviewers, I have enjoyed reading the 'large blocks of text'--the original written voice of the people livng at the time, and their [lists of] names make the events very real. These folks were a whole lot more articulate than myself--read this book!




5. So you think you know all about the Underground Railroad, the secret network that fugitive slaves used to escape bondage? Try this quiz:

   1. Once they reached one station of the UGRR, how did fugitives reach the next station?

   2. What role did women and children play in the UGRR?

   3. What religious group do you associate with the UGRR?

   So those questions are easy? Try these:

   4. What connection did Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, have with Ripley?

   5. How many years did the citizens of tiny Ripley, Ohio serve as major players in the Underground Railroad?

   Ann Hagedorn answers all these questions and more in Beyond the River. In her skillful hands, a century and a half fades away and the people of Ripley spring to life. By day, they live a surprisingly civilized life-- none of those rustic log cabins and barefooted trips to the outhouse that you read about in many attempts to bring history alive. By night, the sophisticated network of friends and neighbors bands together for one purpose: "a solemn promise to fight slavery until it is dead or the Lord calls me home."

   As a girl in the 1960's, I traveled through Ripley, Ohio a couple of times a year to visit my grandparents. I knew a little about the Rankin family and the Underground Railroad from reading the historical marker near Rankin House, but until Ann Hagedorn's book, the story of Ripley was lost history. Read Beyond the River the first time for the gripping story, the second time for the historical accuracy, and the third time for the inspiration to make our world a better place.

2 comments about Leading Between Two Worlds: Lessons from the First Mexican-Born Treasurer of the United States.

1. "The American Dream is the fundamental story of this country, and my life is a grateful reflection of its reality." This quote on the back cover of the paperback edition of the book sums up the heart of this true-life story.
   
   Rosario Marin, coming to America as an immigrant child via Mexico, had no expectations that her life would be any different than the path that her family, culture and fate had laid out for her. Yet the beauty of the American dream, and the heart of Rosario's true-life story, is that someone can come here, with nothing, not even speaking a word of English, and can find herself becoming an influential person in state and national politics within a matter of a few years.
   
   The wonder of the California dream imbedded within the larger American dream is that in the Golden State, one can rise to greatness even without family connections, a famous last name, money or influence. California, especially Los Angeles, where Marin spent the last of her childhood, is the one place where anything is possible, and even an immigrant who arrived without any particular dreams of greatness would find herself truly living out the best of the American dream. With the words Si, Se Puede! Yes, We Can! Rosario Marin ends the preface to this wonderful book.
   
   This book is truly inspirational and well worth reading.



2. Rosario's story was a well-written, easy read. I could feel the heart she put into it. She revealed a lot of sensitive, personal information without coming off as maudelin. Many of the stories within the story contained useful advice for any one, especially any woman, wanting to break into politics.

No comments about Journal of a West India Proprietor (Oxford World's Classics).