What do you think?
Rate this book
Reena and Other Stories: Including the Novella "Merle"
This collection of short works illustrates the growth of a remarkable writer. Opening the volume is the much-acclaimed autobiographical essay, “From the Poets in the Kitchen,” which pays homage to the hard-working, storytelling West Indian women who serve as her muses—women who fought back against oppression and invisibility using the only weapon at their command: the spoken word. Such women appear in her luminous short stories, which travel from Brooklyn to Barbados and back again.
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
3 people are currently reading
143 people want to read
About the author
Paule Marshall
43 books186 followersPaule Marshall was an American writer, best known for her 1959 debut novel Brown Girl, Brownstones.
Marshall was educated at Brooklyn College (1953) and Hunter College (1955). She 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 received an honorary L.H.D. from Bates College. She was a MacArthur Fellow anda past winner of the Dos Passos Prize for Literature. In 2009, She received the Anisfield-Wolf Lifetime Achievement Award.
Marshall was educated at Brooklyn College (1953) and Hunter College (1955). She 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 received an honorary L.H.D. from Bates College. She was a MacArthur Fellow anda past winner of the Dos Passos Prize for Literature. In 2009, She received the Anisfield-Wolf Lifetime Achievement Award.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 21, 2021
This consists of a novella (Merle), an essay and a few short stories. The essay is “From the poets in the kitchen”. Here Marshall talks about her influences, the women who raised her and taught her the power of words. The short stories range over her whole career and although interesting are overshadowed by the novella. The protagonist, Merle, also appears in Marshall’s novel The Chosen Place, The Timeless People. This is in fact a condensed version. It is set on a fictitious island in the Caribbean. Merle is the daughter of one of the last plantation owners, a servant who is a bit of an enigma. She has some English education, a husband and child estranged and in Africa. She is a victim of colonialism and is bitter, having experienced the racism of England. She meets a Jewish anthropologist (Saul) who has come to Bourne to survey and to look at ways of improving the lot of the inhabitants. An affair follows. This sounds trite but isn’t as Marshall creates complex characters and interesting juxtapositions.
Marshall creates a tension between the shadows and inheritance of colonialism and the very present threat of dollar imperialism. Marshall also conveys Merle’s voluble support for those who are poor and oppressed and her own problems with her mental health; holding the tension between the two well. It also gives the sense of the radicalism of the late sixties and early seventies, which is destined to fail. Marshall in her own expositions of Merle says she does intend the juxtaposition of black and white feminism as portrayed by Merle and Harriet. She also admits to using the Prospero/Caliban trope and extends it to illuminate how the tensions within feminism are linked to issues of white supremacy.
This is certainly worth reading and for myself I am convinced that I ought to read the longer version (over four times as long).
Marshall creates a tension between the shadows and inheritance of colonialism and the very present threat of dollar imperialism. Marshall also conveys Merle’s voluble support for those who are poor and oppressed and her own problems with her mental health; holding the tension between the two well. It also gives the sense of the radicalism of the late sixties and early seventies, which is destined to fail. Marshall in her own expositions of Merle says she does intend the juxtaposition of black and white feminism as portrayed by Merle and Harriet. She also admits to using the Prospero/Caliban trope and extends it to illuminate how the tensions within feminism are linked to issues of white supremacy.
This is certainly worth reading and for myself I am convinced that I ought to read the longer version (over four times as long).
July 1, 2025
I love Paule Marshall.
After reading the short story Reena in The Black Woman: An Anthology , I quickly became obsessed with Marshall’s soothing and ethereal writing style. She fills her characters with so much life and so much color that I find myself constantly thinking back on them, particularly the revolutionary Reena and the passionate Merle.
After reading this collection of works that chronicle the progression of Paule Marshall as a writer, I can say without a doubt that Paule Marhsall is a pioneer of Black Women’s literature, with a lot of her work being before it’s time.
Reena was my favorite work going into this, but after reading From the Poets in the Kitchen and Merle from this collection, it has some competition. Barbados , Brooklyn , and To Da-Duh, in Memoriam , are all phenomenal works as well.
“And again our laughter — that loud, searing burst which we used to cauterize our hurt mounted into the unaccepting silence of the room.”
After reading the short story Reena in The Black Woman: An Anthology , I quickly became obsessed with Marshall’s soothing and ethereal writing style. She fills her characters with so much life and so much color that I find myself constantly thinking back on them, particularly the revolutionary Reena and the passionate Merle.
After reading this collection of works that chronicle the progression of Paule Marshall as a writer, I can say without a doubt that Paule Marhsall is a pioneer of Black Women’s literature, with a lot of her work being before it’s time.
Reena was my favorite work going into this, but after reading From the Poets in the Kitchen and Merle from this collection, it has some competition. Barbados , Brooklyn , and To Da-Duh, in Memoriam , are all phenomenal works as well.
“And again our laughter — that loud, searing burst which we used to cauterize our hurt mounted into the unaccepting silence of the room.”
February 13, 2025
Two childhood acquaintances catch up on their lives at the wake of a distant aunt. This story tells of the struggles encountered by both women as they reflect back on their past memories as seen through their now adult middle-aged lives.
July 24, 2016
As I noted at the time, the book consisted of an introduction, 5 short stories and a novella. All were about black females of West Indian heritage and included some of their colorful expressions (like 'tumbling big' which means pregnant).
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews