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by
Alice Walker
Even a fickle reader of Alice Walker will find something to admire in The Way Forward Is with a Broken Heart. This tender, elegiac collection of stories is based in part on her early marriage to a white man and her continuing puzzlement at how their connection--once so charmed and resilient--faded to nothing. Looking back at their happy years together in "the racially vola...more
Published
(first published October 3rd 2000)
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I am still pondering what to put in this review...
For those unfamiliar with her work (my friends and I are sci-fi/fantasy geeks, just before anyone starts in with "How can you not know..."), Alice Walker writes beautifully. She is lyrical, and real, and emotional. This collection of stories is very personal (by the author's own admission), and it shows.
Some may complain that the material here is too repetitive. To me, the repetition was necessary and symbolic: we all have patterns and cycles tha...more
For those unfamiliar with her work (my friends and I are sci-fi/fantasy geeks, just before anyone starts in with "How can you not know..."), Alice Walker writes beautifully. She is lyrical, and real, and emotional. This collection of stories is very personal (by the author's own admission), and it shows.
Some may complain that the material here is too repetitive. To me, the repetition was necessary and symbolic: we all have patterns and cycles tha...more
The title of this book interested me. This is a collection of stories based in part on Walker's early marriage to a white man (a Jewish civil rights attorney). Living happily in the racially volatile and violent Deep South state of Mississippi, a place and time in which their union was not only unconventional but illegal. Then she goes on to say (on the inside flap of the book) "These are the stories that came to me to be told after the close of a magical marriage to an extraordinary man that en...more
I loved Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and was anxious to read her work again. In this book, there are different characters and story lines, woven together into one story of how love and relationships evolve and change. My favorite characters were Big Sister, Little Sister. My favorite line: “Do you ever wonder, old lover of mine, where so much loves comes from? I wonder this often, because no matter how distressing the world is, wherever I am, there never seems to be a shortage of love. Is thi...more
(FROM JACKET)"These are the stories that came to me to be told after the close of a magical marriage to an extraordinary man that ended in a less-than-magical divorce. I found myself unmoored, unmated, ungrounded in a way that challenged everything I'd ever thought about human relationships. Situated squarely in that terrifying paradise called freedom, precipitously out on so many emotional limbs, it was as if I had been born; and in fact I was being reborn as the woman I was to become."
So says...more
So says...more
I loved the Colour Purple so was a little disappointed to read this collection of short stories. There is no doubt that Alice Walker is a spiritual and poetic writer but the rawness of her stories was too uncomfortable for me. I enjoyed the beginning of the book – a memoir of the relationship with her first husband, but the rest of the stories, the ‘fiction’ were too transparently taken from her experiences and I found it all too repetitive and wacky.
this always happens to me with alice walker books (since Temple of My Familiar): i start off all into it and excited and then just fade away. i start to feel less than because i'm not all spiritually removed and shit, because i'm attached to people and don't want to change all the time, because i'm "of this world." all her books seem to be about her and her life and so i don't really feel connected since i'll never have a life like hers
Quick, enjoyable read. Walker is radical in a way that feels very American. The stories felt like they were all stories about the same people and same events, even when they had characters with different names. Portrayal of bisexuality/lesbianism felt old-fashioned -- I was going to say "oddly" old-fashioned but considering Walker talks about a character's kid growing up in the atmosphere of the Cold War, it's not really odd.
There's no doubt that Alice Walker writes beautifully. And I loved some of these short stories. However, there were some that just completely lost my interest. I know there's truth in the fiction, but I can only read about a woman who is with a cheating man and also is in love with another woman so many times.
"...the Universe is not that interested in punishing us. Every move we make is simply part of its reflection. " So this is one of those books. The kind that you immediately want to reread as soon as you are done. And it's a really fast, succulent read. I'm sure everyone says this about Alice Walker but it's as if she can see into my head, my heart and my soul. In general, I have a promiscuous relationship with books and I devour them, moving quickly from one to the next but I want to have a mo...more
I don't know how Walker weaves these stories together... I'm pretty sure most (all?) are reflections of her marriage and subsequent divorce of a Jewish man, and yet the stories are of all kinds of women dealing with love in their lives. So good. Alice Walker is my hero.
This was a great read. Alice Walker is such a wonderful writer. This book is about a marriage breakdown and the experience of moving through the fears of being unmated through to freedom and rebirth of a new self. It is about love, loss, healing.
This was a very hard book to read. The first 100 pages just broke your heart and left you wondering if you had it in you to read the next 100 pages. The last 100 healed the wounds and left new ones. As expected, a beautifully written book.
I'm not partial to short stories and read this mostly because I'd fallen so in love with her other books. Some of the stories were quite moving, others a little dull. I had a hard time getting into it, but that's probably my fault.
I read this book during a time when I was questioning whether or not I mattered in the lives of some of the people I know. I could easily put some of my story beside this story, which in a way was both healing and validating.
Excellent. I'm not sure where autobiography leaves off and fiction begins, but it doesn't matter. It's a beautiful examination of friends, lovers and parents, from one of our greatest authors.
Sorry to say, I didn't like this one. I really wanted to like it and was looking forward to being immersed in Alice Walker's world, but something about these characters just didn't grab me. For all their emotional turmoil and soul searching, they struck me as self-centered and sterile. I couldn't finish it and that's rare. :(
This book is a memoir of sorts but told in short story fashion. Alice Walker talks about her marraige and the eventual dissolution of the relationship as well as other forms of heartache.
I enjoyed this thoroughly for it is sad, and wistful and true...love has always confused me, and Walker makes heartbreak a little easier to understand.
Alice Walker's writing is rich, earthy, and passionate. This wasn't her best book but I'd still recommend it if only to experience her writing.
I wanted to like this more, but found my mind drifting a bit in parts. The best part was the last 30 pages and the interview with Ms. Walker at the end.
A poetic book that managed to convey conflicted emotions and life experiences of politics, love, heartbreak, and building a life.
My favourite chapter is the Little Sister and Big Sister part, when they go swimming. And also Olive Oil.
BOOK: Short love stories of interesting, black characters who have equally interesting opinions of white people
This compilation of short stories by Alice Walker is fantastic. She is a great story teller. Love her!
Some of the stories in this book were wonderful, others I just couldnt get into. Though I am huge fan of Alice Walkers work, this wasnt my favorite read of hers.
This book gave me so much insight into an author that I already had immense respect for.
Deeply feminine characters. Many socio-emotional issues touched upon.
One of the few books I actually gave up on. I REALLY could not get into it.
Wasn't my favorite by Ms. Walker but I was intrigued beyond measure.
Disappointing though it has lots of great images! Read with Linda.
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Alice Walker (b. 1944), one of the United States’ preeminent writers, is an award-winning author of novels, stories, essays, and poetry. In 1983, Walker became the first African-American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for fiction with her novel The Color Purple, which also won the National Book Award. Her other books include The Third Life of Grange Copeland, Meridian, The Temple of My Familiar, an...more
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