A provocative novel about an African tribal woman’s battle with madness after the trauma of a childhood genital mutilation.
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Dec 15, 2008
Julie
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Picked this book up for a dime on a bookshelf full of unappealing books outside of a library. I believe that I took it because I knew that Alice Walker is a reputable writer, but I didn't even read the back cover. It's been sitting on my shelf for a few years and I'd completely forgotten about it. I picked it up two nights ago and WOW...
The subject of genital mutilation has been dormant in conversations in my world lately, and I welcome the opportunity to be awakened to important con More...
The subject of genital mutilation has been dormant in conversations in my world lately, and I welcome the opportunity to be awakened to important con More...
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May 05, 2008
Pam
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This is my second reading of this book. The first was nearly 20 years ago and all I really recalled was thinking I should hold on to the book because I would read it again.
Since I am a very different person now that when I was in my early twenties - I experienced this book very differently. The first read was an introduction to genital mutilation, let alone it's different forms, the cultural significance, the consideration of the psychological ramifications for anyone involved - I More...
Since I am a very different person now that when I was in my early twenties - I experienced this book very differently. The first read was an introduction to genital mutilation, let alone it's different forms, the cultural significance, the consideration of the psychological ramifications for anyone involved - I More...
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Jan 04, 2008
Tulara
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The book details the life of an African girl, Tashi, from her youth through marriage - she meets the son and a daughter of missionaries and becomes friends with them - although still seeking acceptance from her village. The author, Alice Walker, gives us a unique perspective for each of the characters in each chapter. We see the wonderful youthful girl enjoying a crush and feeling the splendor of sex in the grass - yet - we learn that women in that village practice genital circumcision on ever
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Sep 02, 2011
Lisa
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This book was written in the same style as The Color Purple, with each section being written by a different character. I enjoyed that aspect, because it gives each one a voice of their own, & a unique perspective on the events in the book. This book centers on Tashi, also called Evelyn, who married Adam, & was briefly seen in The Color Purple. It centers around the barbaric practice of female genital mutilation, or, female circumcision, which Tashi had done, & which killed her sister Dura. I
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Jan 12, 2011
Donni
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This is the second time I have journied through the pages of this riveting book, picking up new nuances and concepts along the way. This book is one of my all time favourites because it hits an emotional chord and attachment to the charcaters and their inherant obstacles develops through each page to well after the book is finished and one is left musing the strangeness of certain customs and how mutilation can become culturally acceptable until individuals questions it. "Resistance is the
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Jul 01, 2010
Reid
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A quite wonderful book about a grisly and difficult subject: female genital mutilation. Walker attempts to be quite evenhanded and succeeds admirably, considering how horrific she most likely finds this practice. Because it has spiritual as well as social significance in many cultures (mostly in Africa), she does attempt to present that side of things. However, it becomes quite clear that the subjugation of women and the supremacy of men is the primary motive behind the practice, and that no spi
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Aug 27, 2009
Sandi
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Back in the early Nineties, there was a story in our local newspaper about female circumcision that was published because of the release of Possessing the Secret of Joy by Alice Walker. It was a practice I had never heard of before, and I was both horrified and fascinated. I read it as soon as I could. Now, after more than 15 years, I still remember how emotional this book was. (I don't know what possessed me to think of it today.) With Possessing the Secret of Joy, Walker proves that ficti
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Nov 15, 2008
Debbie
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A sad and painful read, this book. It includes many familiar characters from The Color Purple, although perhaps more thinly characterised than in that book. Each character tells their own story, interspersed, and there is perhaps a tendency for them to sound alike.
The book looks the distasteful subject of FGM in the face and explores its complexity. Not a book for those who don't want to know. Disturbing, honest, a quick but not easy read.
Charity shop find.
The book looks the distasteful subject of FGM in the face and explores its complexity. Not a book for those who don't want to know. Disturbing, honest, a quick but not easy read.
Charity shop find.
Aug 11, 2011
Aleeda
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This was the toughest book for me to finish. It was recommended to me by several friends whose judgment in books reflected mine, but I kept putting it off. The novel's subject, female genital mutilation, cannot be sugar-coated, nor should it be. Alice Walker does a unbelievable job of kicking your apathetic butt into gear. You will be angry, unbelievably angry. Angry enough to figure out what you can do to stop this, frustrated that the practice is still going on and tolerated by societie
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Jul 30, 2011
Jason
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Like the modern German who, wanting to rise above the past and enter a new age of normalcy, must open the wounds of the Holocaust and come to terms with its legacy and its indelible mark of Cain, Alice Walker opens a tremendous, but previously hidden wound for African-Americans (and humans in general) who look to Africa for self-evaluation and identity (for we are all 'Africans' in the evolutionary sense): female genital mutilation. Ms. Walker shines a blistering halogen light on this unbelievab
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Apr 04, 2009
Louise
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A remarkable story about the painfully, horrifying and chilling ritual of female circumcision. I can't begin to imagine the horror and pain these young girls endured during such procedures, but Alice Walker gave me a realistic insight into this horrific, cruel and saddistic practice.
Being a person who cares deeply for others, this novel made me want to reach out and care for all these women who suffered so much.
The central character in this novel Tashi remembers her mothe More...
Being a person who cares deeply for others, this novel made me want to reach out and care for all these women who suffered so much.
The central character in this novel Tashi remembers her mothe More...
Dec 30, 2009
CaterinaAnna
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I read my own, now lost, copy of this book when it was first published having heard Alice Walker speak about and against the practice at the heart of the novel in Birmingham Town Hall.
It is a powerful and gory book, not for the squeamish, which tells the story of Tashi - a character from The Colour Purple - filling in the gaps of what happened to her during the time of that earlier story and continuing it through to her death. I shared Tashi's mother's frustration at her decision, an More...
It is a powerful and gory book, not for the squeamish, which tells the story of Tashi - a character from The Colour Purple - filling in the gaps of what happened to her during the time of that earlier story and continuing it through to her death. I shared Tashi's mother's frustration at her decision, an More...
Feb 10, 2009
Gemma
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This is the first time I have read anything by Alice Walker and so I feel I may be lacking a certain richness in my reading by not approaching this work from the angle of The Color Purple. I certainly plan to read her most famous work now, as this novel is one I am thoroughly glad to have read.
Dealing with the topic of female genital mutilation, Walker does not flinch from trying the faint-hearted. I think this should be essential reading for both genders, especially at a time of ris More...
Dealing with the topic of female genital mutilation, Walker does not flinch from trying the faint-hearted. I think this should be essential reading for both genders, especially at a time of ris More...
Jan 05, 2012
Sharri-ann
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Wow, this book truly opened my eyes as to the world of female genital mutilation, the history behind the practice and the one who are left to heal from it's scars. Tashi goes through the process as a form of dedication to a culture she feels is dying. Some of us relate to that being first generation Americans and immigrants we desire to please our families and carry on their ways of life so it does not seem like the rich history dies with them. Unfortunately, it turns Tashi into a bitter vile yo
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Feb 18, 2010
Christine
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I appreciated The Color Purple for what it was. This book follows a similiar writing style from what I remember of TCP. I'm a little unclear of the actual time period, but I am thinking it's in the 1960's. It's following a missionary family in Africa and the relationships that results. It does jump around in time a little though. Warning--this book does address squeamish issues like female circumcision.
So when I had about 50 pages to finish this book I really really really wanted to More...
So when I had about 50 pages to finish this book I really really really wanted to More...
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Dec 30, 2009
Becky
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Possessing The Secret of Joy is a powerful book about the traditions, fears and emotion surrounding the practice of female circumcision in certain tribes in Africa. It deals effectively with the oppression of women, and the general atmosphere of misogyny surrounding the practise. In this aspect it is very moving. But the novel falls down with some of the characterisation. While Tashi, her husband Adam,and the menacing M'Lissa are wonderfully done, the next generation is not so deft, and the
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Jan 22, 2012
Inksster
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I read this as I have a soft spot for Alice Walker and because my work in Kenya involves women and girls who are survivors of FGM. I didn't give it five stars as nothing will ever measure up to reading The Color Purple for the first time. I enjoyed the protagonist's multiple names/selves and the first person descriptions of FGM. Walker had, as always, some moments that captured moments of experience so beautifully. At core, this is a book about FGM specifically and trauma in general.
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Dec 17, 2009
Tiffany
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Such a moving novel that centers around Tashi (from The Color Purple and the horrific custom of female genital mutilation. Possessing the Secret of Joy is, as far as I know, is the first novel to illustrate the beliefs, effects, practices, and horrors behind FGM. Tashi represents the "every woman" who takes a stand for women's rights, but only after she chooses to undergo circumcision as a young woman. The book is broken into many short chapters, each one narrated by a different cha
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Jul 27, 2009
Shirley
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One of my favorite novels of all time. Have read it 3 or 4 times. Beautifully written. Characters have clear and distinct voices. Good story-telling. Interesting story; about an African woman who suffered from female mutiliation. She is accused to murdering the woman who killed her sister during a mutilation procedure. Each chapter is told by the point of view of Tashi or someone who knows her including her African American husband, her best friend, her husband's French lover, her various ps
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Nov 20, 2008
Robin
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OMG,the whole time I read this book my mouth was wide open. It was the only thing that I could talk about, so much so that my friends started reading the book. I remember feeling so very angry. At one point I had to call my mother long distance for a NFW conversation. This book really opened my eyes to what I call Alice Walker's angst and her need to inform us of true life cruelties that happen to women in a fictional way. I've only read two books by her and I wonder if she has ever written a "
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Oct 07, 2011
Emlyn
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Preview… Rarely would I recommend a book that I consider so lacking in entertainment value. However, Alice Walker’s “Possessing the Secret of Joy” is worth reading for its many layers of meaning. This is a quick read that, while a bit erratic and hard-to-follow at times, hits the reader with deep emotions at its pivotal plot points.
Tashi moves from her native Olinka (a fictitious nation in Africa) to the western United States, adopting the new name ‘Evelyn’ along the way. This characte More...
Tashi moves from her native Olinka (a fictitious nation in Africa) to the western United States, adopting the new name ‘Evelyn’ along the way. This characte More...
Aug 28, 2010
Hubo un tiempo en que los libros me parecían escritos sólo para mí. Los encontraba, o me encontraban ellos a mí, en los estantes más bajos de mi casa, de la biblioteca o de las librerías. Los cogía en base a la estética del objeto y no tenía ningún remordimiento en dejarlos a medias. Me parecían escritos sólo para mí porque ninguna de mis amigas del colegio había siquiera oído hablar de ellos, ni yo de los suyos. A veces nos los prestábamos, cuando había alguno que tuviese cosas algo "f
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Apr 30, 2010
Mandi
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Oct 19, 2008
Calley
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I just finished this book, and though I'm still numb from the truthfulness and reality of what this story addresses, I felt compelled to write something right away.
This story picks up on the lives of some of the characters from The Color Purple. Alice Walker says it is not meant to be a sequel, and therefore she felt that she could change the lives of Tashi, Adam, and Olivia slightly from what we were introduced to in The Color Purple and The Temple of My Familiar. Though, I didn' More...
This story picks up on the lives of some of the characters from The Color Purple. Alice Walker says it is not meant to be a sequel, and therefore she felt that she could change the lives of Tashi, Adam, and Olivia slightly from what we were introduced to in The Color Purple and The Temple of My Familiar. Though, I didn' More...
Jul 11, 2009
Mindy
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Oh my heart, my heart, my feminist heart. There are very few authors who affect me as deeply as Alice Walker does.
And FGM infuriates me more than any other misogynistic cultural practice. I'm most assuredly not a cultural relativist. If a culture (including religions) perpetuates the subordination of females, it is simply abominable. Males must develop ways of germinating (*haha*) self-worth beyond the ones that base status on one's ability to possess and dominate females (and other More...
And FGM infuriates me more than any other misogynistic cultural practice. I'm most assuredly not a cultural relativist. If a culture (including religions) perpetuates the subordination of females, it is simply abominable. Males must develop ways of germinating (*haha*) self-worth beyond the ones that base status on one's ability to possess and dominate females (and other More...
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May 22, 2007
Agnes
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I have not yet read "The Color Purple," or any other Alice Walker novels, but I will do so now because this book was fantastic. It tells the story of a minor character who appears in "The Color Purple," Tashi, an African woman whose story deals with colonialism, misogyny, female genital mutilation and identity. The novel is told in slices mixed in time and told by about five main characters, though the main voice belongs to Tashi and her various identities as she travels fr
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Jul 25, 2011
Holly
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This is an important book to read if you are a woman or if you want to understand women's roles in our society. I have never been to Africa and I am not a black women. I am not even an extreme feminist or a lesbian; but this book made me angry. It made me angry for the things that men to do women (different things in different cultures) to "keep them in their place". More often than not in the name of religion or "God". Have you ever stopped to wonder why men find it necessar
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Jul 14, 2011
Daryl
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RESISTANCE is the secret of joy
Resistance is the secret of possessing joy
Resistance is the secret of joy possessed
Resistance is personal
Possessing is personal
Joy is personal
Why a secret then?
Each secret brings one to her core
The center from which everything spreads
Nipples capable of ripples
Secrecy keeps resistance going
in a situation where joy is kept
from being possessed
by personal violation like genital mutilation
kept from pe More...
Resistance is the secret of possessing joy
Resistance is the secret of joy possessed
Resistance is personal
Possessing is personal
Joy is personal
Why a secret then?
Each secret brings one to her core
The center from which everything spreads
Nipples capable of ripples
Secrecy keeps resistance going
in a situation where joy is kept
from being possessed
by personal violation like genital mutilation
kept from pe More...
Mar 31, 2011
Reviews below include the words grisly, squeamish, and horrifying. I am definitely squeamish about medical details, and as I was in my early/mid teens when I picked up this paperback on the basis of recognizing the author was famous.
I was not really ready to read details about female genital mutilation (are you ever "ready"?), I just remember that part of the story, and yeah I can tell you that FGM is gruesome and oppressive and wrong, but I don't think anyone would really a
I was not really ready to read details about female genital mutilation (are you ever "ready"?), I just remember that part of the story, and yeah I can tell you that FGM is gruesome and oppressive and wrong, but I don't think anyone would really a
Jul 03, 2010
Matt
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In terms of artful use of language, I think this is her best book. I believe I have read them all. It reads like a poem. The story is about hideous and useless destruction, but the earnestness of the characters is ruthlessly triumphant. Extremely restrained and terse. Not one word is unnecesary, what isn't said has more weight than what is. The subject matter is ugly, but almost secondary for me. This could be Hemmingway on bullfighting, or Camus on capital punishment, the only thing important
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