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115th out of 130 books
—
38 voters
The Chosen Place, The Timeless People
The chosen place is Bourneville, a remote, devastated part of a Caribbean island; the timeless people are its inhabitants--black, poor, inextricably linked to their past enslavement. When the advance team for an ambitious American research project arrives, the tense, ambivalent relationships that evolve -- between natives and foreigners, blacks and whites, haves and have-n...more
Paperback, 480 pages
Published
September 12th 1984
by Vintage
(first published September 1st 1984)
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help me:
i love paule marshall.
reading brown girl, brownstones counted as a major life-event. BUT rereading the chosen place this summer was difficult-- what an interesting book, given marshall's deep (and valid) critiques of anthropologists and their work in "small" places, but good gracious-- how could i have missed the crazy gender and sexuality politics the first time around? granted, i was in high school, but...have been searching google scholar frantically for some analysis, so you lit fo...more
i love paule marshall.
reading brown girl, brownstones counted as a major life-event. BUT rereading the chosen place this summer was difficult-- what an interesting book, given marshall's deep (and valid) critiques of anthropologists and their work in "small" places, but good gracious-- how could i have missed the crazy gender and sexuality politics the first time around? granted, i was in high school, but...have been searching google scholar frantically for some analysis, so you lit fo...more
A few months ago Steve Almond had an insightful essay in the “Riff” section of the NYT Magazine about contemporary writers’ fear of a narration in fiction. For Almond, it’s a fear of something merely passing for an all-encompassing narrative, which can never be possible. Almond’s riff seems a tired one, didn’t this start with the appearance of le nouvel roman in the 1950s (not to mention what early readers made of Tristam Shandy). Given the tremendous popularity of genre fiction at the moment, w...more
I wanted to read this book because I found another of her books, "Praise Song for the Widow," to be powerfully meaningful. I loved reading this book, too. Marshall's descriptions of places and people are wonderful, insightful, evocative - a pure pleasure to read. Her treatment of the impact of racism both on the oppressed and the oppressor, the black and the white, is better than any I have ever read. It is a perfect example of the power of fiction because it brings the reader closer to the actu...more
Much of this story was already familiar to me because I read her memoir first. Paule Marshall is my first pick for Black history month and well worth the effort. She tells a story that is timeless, adultery, yet fresh, the people of the fictional island of Boure.
This book was a lot of work, but I love Paule Marshall, and I was determined to get through it. In the end, it was worth it - especially for those who want a richer perspective of the late 20th century Black Atlantic, and one from a woman's point of view in particular. Also a fascinating look at the power dynamics involved with ethnographic fieldwork. This would be a great companion piece to some of Hurston's work on the subject.
It is a good comment on anthropology, good depiction of complex human relationships. It shows the impact of history on a culture, and the impossibility of change we might see in many places.
My favorite book of the summer! A great story that brings in so many of the threads of Caribbean culture and politics a beautiful story of humanity.
Yep! A great read. Interesting because it talks about social science research in the late 1960s. Precious characters.
This is the first book my first English professor recommended to me.
A dense read but it wasn't bad.
One of my favorite books!
Read this a long time ago.
This book has a lot of good things going for it:
interesting, deep characters
beautiful imagery and language
deep insight into a different way of life
But I can't rate it highly just because I had such a hard time reading it. It was very slow-paced with many difficult, sad moments and not many happy moments. I found it too unrelentingly depressing and very long.
interesting, deep characters
beautiful imagery and language
deep insight into a different way of life
But I can't rate it highly just because I had such a hard time reading it. It was very slow-paced with many difficult, sad moments and not many happy moments. I found it too unrelentingly depressing and very long.
Very slow start but well worth the effort. Has a beautiful logic and flow, captivating characters that become only better more complicated versions of themselves as the story progresses Deep and full of radicalism - especially in the ways it creates coexistence with subtlety and honesty across and among races. That might be rambly as it is 2:30 a.m.
Really glad I held out and finished this on my vacation. Moving, extremely well written, no characters are left undeveloped. A good book to read while reading Traces of the Trade (the book). Slavery just took on a new face.
It took me 2 months to get through this book -- it was OK but not great. I appreciated it as a critique of anthropologists and outside-directed development schemes, but otherwise didn't enjoy it that much.
The book was difficult for me at first, but stay with it. It is a novel you enter into relationship with, and will stay with you forever.
one of my all time faves-i could read this over and over...
One of my two favorite books of all time. Incredibly moving.
Jun 08, 2013
Milly
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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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