Lionheart Gal: Life Stories of Jamaican Women

by Sistren, Honor Ford Smith

The republication of Lionheart Gal marks an event unique in contemporary literature. It is the distillation of the Jamaican woman's experience in fifteen compelling life stories from the internationally known Sistren Theatre Collective. Since 1977 the women of Sistren have been exploring the lives of Caribbean women, from which they create plays, workshops and screen prints for presentation throughout the Caribbean and elsewhere. This book is based on testimonies from Sistren collected and edited by Honor Ford Smith into a vivid record of women's lives. The stories retain all the emotional depth of works of the imagination, yet they are at the same time invaluable records of oral history. Scholars of language, culture, politics and literature will need this book; the general reader will revel in it.

316 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Colleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A group of short stories written in Jamaican patois, a very good read!

[Lindsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a very eye-opening read to the lives of women in Jamaica in the 1970s and 1980s, the use of Patois/Creole, and women-women and women-men relations there. While the book is quite useful, and at times very moving, it does take time to get used to reading the Patois, especially rhythmically. I found it helpful to read sections aloud. I would highly recommend this book to readers interested in gaining a much richer understanding of Jamaican and global women's issues, Jamaica in the 1970s and 80s, and Jamaican urban life.