false 60940 8 Even a fickle reader of Alice Walker will find something to admire in <I>The Way Forward Is with a Broken Heart</I>. 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 volatile and violent Deep South state of Mississippi," a place and time in which their union was not only unconventional but illegal, Walker is also led to imagine other, less metaphoric homecomings. After the initial autobiographical story, "To My Young Husband," she turns to a character named Rosa, a novelist like herself, who returns home to the South with her sister, Barbara, after their grandfather's death. Rosa had not made it to the funeral, since news of his death arrived just as she was leaving on a long-planned holiday abroad. Now, belatedly, she has come to gather family stories. But when she asks her Aunt Lily a question, this woman glares back at her with something close to hatred: "I don't want to find myself in anything you write. And you can just leave your daddy alone too." Reeling, Rosa turns to her sister for comfort, but Barbara, too, rejects her with "a look that said she'd got the reply she'd deserved." <blockquote>For wasn't she always snooping about the family's business and turning things about in her writing in ways that made the family shudder? There was no talking to her as you talked to regular people. The minute you opened your mouth a meter went on. Rose could read all this on her sister's face. She didn't need to speak. And it was a lonely feeling that she had. For Barbara was right. Aunt Lily too. And she could no more stop the meter running than she could stop her breath. </blockquote> With her characteristic insight and her slow, colloquial prose--seeded with anger but watered with hope--Walker explores the territory of her own broken heart and those of African Americans of her generation. <I>--Regina Marler</I> 1223960 2000 The Way Forward Is with a Broken Heart total:374|5:113|4:144|3:93|2:23|1:1| 374 1467 533 32 4 0 false false Sun Feb 08 11:40:11 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 08 12:03:47 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 14 07:58:58 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 14 08:01:04 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun May 03 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun May 03 15:12:46 -0700 2009 Sun May 03 15:16:46 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Tue Jan 13 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 13 16:35:52 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 13 16:37:35 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Wed Apr 22 13:02:48 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 22 13:09:34 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Thu May 14 12:31:41 -0700 2009 Thu May 14 12:33:26 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Sun Sep 06 10:11:23 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 13 19:42:54 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Fri Mar 20 06:58:05 -0700 2009 Fri Mar 20 07:11:36 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Fri Jan 05 00:00:00 -0800 2001 Sun Apr 19 06:33:28 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 19 06:34:26 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Dec 24 15:51:50 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 24 15:52:19 -0800 2008 4 0 false false Fri Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Wed Sep 26 16:18:49 -0700 2007 Wed Sep 26 16:23:01 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Aug 16 15:52:54 -0700 2007 Tue Sep 11 07:21:48 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1997 Sun Sep 23 07:33:19 -0700 2007 Sun Sep 23 07:33:19 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Aug 07 18:38:18 -0700 2007 Tue Aug 07 18:38:18 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Jan 21 11:08:15 -0800 2008 Mon Jan 21 11:11:21 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 true false Sat Apr 12 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Apr 12 13:21:59 -0700 2008 Sat Apr 12 13:25:17 -0700 2008
For whatever reason I'd like to add that I think think would be a good book to read ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jun 20 15:19:36 -0700 2007 Wed Jun 20 15:19:36 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Mar 26 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Mar 11 10:24:29 -0700 2008 Wed Mar 26 09:54:56 -0700 2008 3 0 false false Tue Jun 17 17:40:20 -0700 2008 Tue Jun 17 17:41:40 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Fri Jun 15 12:15:09 -0700 2007 Sun Jul 01 14:10:20 -0700 2007 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=60940