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31st out of 227 books
—
60 voters
Praisesong for the Widow
Paperback, 256 pages
Published
April 16th 1984
by Plume
(first published 1983)
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I wish I had liked this book. It was given to me by someone I like and admire, but I just couldn't force myself to like it. There was some lovely moments in the plotting and writing, and I liked the brief glimpse it gives in Caribbean life and religious tradition, but overall, the book disappoints. I will credit it with being ambitious. It tries to tie (almost) contemporary African American life to both its slave and African pasts. But it isn't substantial enough to really succeed. Although it g...more
Beautifully-written. The power and movement of this story took me by surprise. A black middle-class widow in her 60s, Avatara "Avey" Johnson---listens to her gut feelings while on a cruise with friends, and without consciously knowing what lies ahead, abandons her vacation schedule. Much of the bittersweet narrative consists of flashbacks about her life with her husband, Jay/Jerome, and their three daughters. What I loved most is that this turned out to be a healing story for Avey: about recogni...more
That African American writers who have Caribbean ties are sending a message that cultural roots must be maintained. Avey Johnson suffers as a result of pushing aside her culture and her people after her social status ascended to that of the middle class European. She found no peace of mind. Her life was miserable. She only found peace and an identity after she was purged and after she was reconnected with her culture. It does not matter how much you achieve socially in this life, you must never...more
This is another one of those books I allowed to languish on my to-read shelf for far too long. I found Paule Marshall's books thanks to Virginia Fowler, with whom my big brother and I both studied in college. If you haven't run into Fowler's work, well, run into it soon. She's one of the most fascinating people I've ever met, and she taught me to really learn and study. Ginny would make strong students shine, drag scholarship out of the laziest of students, or she would fail them--those were the...more
This book deals with themes of identity and reconnecting back to ones roots. It is largely connected with the black culture who are experiencing a type of diaspora. This book has some erotic scenes that is completely inappropriate for high school students but I think the theme of sexuality helps to illustrate the following apart of the two protagonists. It's a very rich novel with various symbols and themes that are interesting to study--ie religious symbols, mirrors, sexuality, names.
I love this book. I think I love it more at my current age than I would have as a younger woman. It speaks so beautifully about the threads that connect us to our families and our culture and our history and one another. It is about one woman learning to acknowledge and appreciate who she is, not as an individual, but as a human being in the context of her own people, family, and heritage. Really a beautiful book.
At first I didn't think I would like this book--the slave ship imagery was a little too heavy-handed, and the protagonist, Avatara Johnson, seems to have some real First World Problems. However, that's kind of the point--in an attempt to live out a middle-class fantasy, she and her husband have let cultural traditions fall by the wayside. This novel is her finding her path bath to her cultural roots.
I just couldn't connect in this one. Perhaps it isn't fair that I am just so done with reading books that I am forced to read for class and that i miss making my own reading list. That's why I threw this one an extra star. But honestly, I was just bored with the book and the lengthy descriptions. I wish the author had spent more time trying to get me invested in the main character than the descriptions of clothing and buildings. It felt like it took forever to read and the only reward for me at...more
Jul 27, 2011
Tim Boudreau
added it
Surprisingly moving indeed! Speaking of surprises, don't be surprised when she craps her pants. I was surprised. How often does that happen? More surprising: that an old lady barfing and crapping all over herself on a tiny boat full of approving old people can be symbolic and moving.
Cuz it was.
Cuz it was.
A wonderful story of cultural and personal self discovery. This book appears simple on the first take but is in fact quite profound. Avey Johnson may be a widow of senior citizen age, but her story is applicable to anyone who has ever tried to find out who they really are in the world.
This book was deceptively deep and meaningful. It took me a while to get into it but it had a profoundly inspiring effect. It reminded me that we all need to embrace our full humanity, even as we grow older and not stifle our natural "joie de vivre" in negativity and alienation.
This is a very complicated and layered text. Marshall is truly a literary genius. And to think, she worked with Langston Hughes?!?! It speaks a great deal to her talent and to her professional ancestry. I enjoyed the book, I loathed Avey Johnson (which speaks a great deal to the author's ability to develop such a realistic character), and found myself wishing there was more text beyond the last page. The only problem with this novel, and another guy in my class brought it up, you have to be some...more
Excellent!
Lush beautiful prose that is incredibly taut. Not a word or idea is wasted in this beautiful novel.
Avey, short for Avatara, is a woman in her 70s on a cruise with two friends. ON day five of the cruise, her life comes crashing down on her and she decides she has to get off the boat and go home. She ends up in Grenada for a night, meets an old man on the beach the next day and goes off with on "the Excurison."
In between, she travels through her memories to grieve her dead husband, the...more
Lush beautiful prose that is incredibly taut. Not a word or idea is wasted in this beautiful novel.
Avey, short for Avatara, is a woman in her 70s on a cruise with two friends. ON day five of the cruise, her life comes crashing down on her and she decides she has to get off the boat and go home. She ends up in Grenada for a night, meets an old man on the beach the next day and goes off with on "the Excurison."
In between, she travels through her memories to grieve her dead husband, the...more
This book was very disappointing. The plot was intriguing, but the writing wasn't up to par. The characters were interesting and held lots of promise, but ultimately, the book never came through. The best parts were about the main character's earlier life.
I wish the main character was stronger. Marshall has a great storyline that I didn't appreciate until the latter part of the novel because it seems I couldn't connect with the main character until then.
Jan 03, 2011
Lindsay
added it
meh. read it for class... maybe i didn't like it because i was forced to read, but maybe it just sucked.
Wow, the author and I have the same birthday. No wonder I feel like she is speaking to my soul.
This is a book of fiction about a New York women who leaves her friends and her cruise behind at the first chance -- the Island of Grenada. This book has special interest for me not because I am a widow from New York but because I was in Grenada in 1983, the year the book was published. The main character is finding herself and in so doing meets an old man at Grand Anse Beach and ends up the next morning joining a group of out-islanders for an annual celebration. This book is to be read with a m...more
I really enjoyed "Praisesong for the Widow." The story was unexpected.
Oct 14, 2009
Toni Banks
added it
There is a great life, joy-filled experience, and new insight after 65!
An healing, loving and affirming book, gorgeously told and rendered
A sob caught in my throat as I finished this book today.
Not to read anything my Paule Marshal again!
Good in the middle and end, but slow to start.
I didn't really connect with this book. There are a couple of passages, mainly the ones that talked about the decay of her marriage, that grabbed my attention, but overall, the book was a waste of my time.
Don't remember it.
Beautiful.
_Praisesong for the Widow_ is a novel about a widow in search of herself and her identity while on a cruise to the Caribbean. It utilizes a lot of flashback to connect the reader to the events that led to the main character's emotional and economic evolution. It's an interesting look at the disparity between black culture in the states and on the islands. Marshall's depiction of language is a vital part of her story and adds to the credibility of the emotions of the characters.
The book took me a little while to get into but it progressed into an outstanding novel, but I found myself losing interest at the end. So, good, but not great.
A positive journey for one woman back to the essence of her cultural roots...brought back some memories of my own roots...can serve as inspiration to all who feel isolated and disconnected from the world in which they find themselves.
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Paule Marshall was born Valenza Pauline Burke in Brooklyn to Barbadian parents and educated at Brooklyn College (1953) and Hunter College (1955).
Marshall has taught at Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of California, Berkeley, the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and Yale University before holding the Helen Gould Sheppard Chair of Literature and Culture at New York University. In 1993 she re...more
More about Paule Marshall...
Marshall has taught at Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of California, Berkeley, the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and Yale University before holding the Helen Gould Sheppard Chair of Literature and Culture at New York University. In 1993 she re...more
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“He was one of those old people who give the impression of having undergone a lifetime trial by fire which they somehow managed to turn to their own good in the end; using the fire to burn away everything in them that could possibly decay, everything mortal. So that what remains finally are only their cast-iron hearts, the few muscles and bones tempered to the consistency of steel needed to move them about, the black skin annealed long ago by the sun's blaze and thus impervious to all other fires; and hidden deep within, out of harm's way, the indestructible will: old people who have the essentials to go on forever.”
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