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Sacred Fire: The QBR 100 Essential Black Books
"QBR's evolving canon is a splendid way to begin honoring black artists." -Charles Johnson, from the Foreword "From critiques of W. E. B. Du Bois's Black Reconstruction in America to Alex Haley's Roots to Langston Hughes's The Ways of White Folks , these short, trenchant essays stimulate and challenge."-Booklist "A celebration of black literature. . .insightful commentary."- Ebony "A rich and surprising assortment." - American Legacy "Delving into a book is an entertaining and edifying way to celebrate and reflect on the rich tapestry of African American history. A great way to start is with Sacred The QBR 100 Essential Black Books ." - Atlanta Journal-Constitution Capturing the full sweep of writing from the diaspora--from Africa to the Caribbean to America-- Sacred Fire is a soul-stirring collection of provocative analysis on 100 works of literature that have shaped and defined black culture for over 200 years.
229 pages, Hardcover
First published February 4, 1999
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August 17, 2017
Published in 1999, so now over a decade old, Sacred Fire includes one- or two-page precis of 100 top works by Black authors. The summaries are gathered into six sections: history, identity, politics, spirituality, women, and men; each section is prefaced with a commentary by a different current author. A book like this is of potential interest on two counts: what the book has to say about the works it covers; and which works are included or excluded from the list.
In this case, the discussion of the works is weak. At its best, the summaries mention the historical and current importance of a work, but many of the summaries offer minimal insight, and none are critically balanced - the sharpest criticism a summary might offer is that the language in a particular work is 'strong', or 'even if you don't agree with the author's conclusions, the questions he raises are fascinating'. One would learn more about most of the works - about their authors, their plots and themes, their critical reception, their historical impact -- from reading a collection of Wikipedia entries on the same titles.
On the other hand, Sacred Fire offers a snapshot of the books judged most influential by a set of Black (American) intellectuals at the turn of the millennium. As the editors explain: "Our request [to a panel of scholars, booksellers and readers] was simple and straightforward: Name ten books by authors from the African Diaspora that have had the greatest impact on you....We drew from this survey a range of books that identified the issues and philosophies that we, as a people, felt were most critical, and that were written by the artists who most eloquently and powerfully presented these issues to the world."
The resulting list is very much of its time and place. It includes works by African authors - Chinua Achebe, Ben Okri, Ngugi Wa Thiongo -- but these are works commonly read by Americans, not a representative sample of African literature or writers. The list also includes several popular works from the 1970s and 1990s whose significance already seems diminished, such as Waiting to Exhale. For breadth, and to cover writers who should be on a list of 100 but who couldn't quite fit, the list relies on a couple anthologies from the early to mid-1990s. My guess is that these have since been superseded by more up-to-date collections. Still, the list as a whole includes a bunch of works I haven't read, and should, so even dated, Sacred Fire was a useful quick read.
In this case, the discussion of the works is weak. At its best, the summaries mention the historical and current importance of a work, but many of the summaries offer minimal insight, and none are critically balanced - the sharpest criticism a summary might offer is that the language in a particular work is 'strong', or 'even if you don't agree with the author's conclusions, the questions he raises are fascinating'. One would learn more about most of the works - about their authors, their plots and themes, their critical reception, their historical impact -- from reading a collection of Wikipedia entries on the same titles.
On the other hand, Sacred Fire offers a snapshot of the books judged most influential by a set of Black (American) intellectuals at the turn of the millennium. As the editors explain: "Our request [to a panel of scholars, booksellers and readers] was simple and straightforward: Name ten books by authors from the African Diaspora that have had the greatest impact on you....We drew from this survey a range of books that identified the issues and philosophies that we, as a people, felt were most critical, and that were written by the artists who most eloquently and powerfully presented these issues to the world."
The resulting list is very much of its time and place. It includes works by African authors - Chinua Achebe, Ben Okri, Ngugi Wa Thiongo -- but these are works commonly read by Americans, not a representative sample of African literature or writers. The list also includes several popular works from the 1970s and 1990s whose significance already seems diminished, such as Waiting to Exhale. For breadth, and to cover writers who should be on a list of 100 but who couldn't quite fit, the list relies on a couple anthologies from the early to mid-1990s. My guess is that these have since been superseded by more up-to-date collections. Still, the list as a whole includes a bunch of works I haven't read, and should, so even dated, Sacred Fire was a useful quick read.
Displaying 1 of 1 review