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Daughters
One of America's eminent black novelists tells the story of a young black woman living in New York and her struggle to understand herself and her parents back home in the West Indies. Reprint. 50,000 first printing. Tour.
416 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
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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.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
November 20, 2008
With my latest rereading of Daughters by Paule Marshall, this book has entered the ranks of my favorites. It has always been a member of my favorite book ever list but now it is, officially, in the top ten.
The ending of Daughters always devastates me. It represents the ultimate in UrsaBea's independence from a stereotypical daddy's girl role...while at the same time doing what is best for her father.
Basically, Daughters is a beautifully, well-written metaphor for development.
The ending of Daughters always devastates me. It represents the ultimate in UrsaBea's independence from a stereotypical daddy's girl role...while at the same time doing what is best for her father.
Basically, Daughters is a beautifully, well-written metaphor for development.
May 25, 2020
This book took me a while to read. Not because it was boring but because Marshall writes in a way that forces the reader to move slowly. The reader can't skip ahead or gloss over any of the words unless they want to lose important details about the plot. Written poetically, and with abundant details about the characters, what they look like, where they are, and what they're feeling, Marshall is a master writer. I took my time reading it and I'm glad I did.
Ursa is a seemingly successful Black woman living in Harlem. She has a boyfriend of six years, is working toward a master's degree, and works at a well-respected research firm. Unfortunately, her life is challenging in a number of other ways. Her relationship is stale. Her superiors at work are putting up multiple barriers for her to start a new research project. Meanwhile, her father, referred to as PM is seeking re-election in a fictitious Caribbean island (and also Ursa's birthplace), Triunion. Ursa appears to be interested in what is happening with her parents in Triunion but disinterested in returning there after many long years. Her life and theirs, despite seeming perfect in many ways, is extremely complicated.
The story of the successful Black woman who deals with microaggressions at work and romance problems is not new. What makes this novel special is a number of things. Marshall writes about abortion, miscarriage, suicide, and IVF without ever naming them. Again, forcing the reader to pay attention to keep track of what is going on. It also makes apparent the ways society forces these experiences to be invisible; one might assume that these experiences are less common simply because a lot of women don't talk about them. The way Marshall writes about them here makes this apparent while also offering subtle commentary about how taboo these topics are. The second thing that makes this novel different from others is the bi-cultural identity aspect. Ursa is often reminded by her peers in the U.S. that she is from somewhere else. This identity works to her benefit at times, but in most cases the people in her life find a way to other her. Relatedly there is the unspoken obligation that Ursa feels to send money home to her family in Triunion to help with the elections. There is an obligation for many immigrants living in the U.S. to their families abroad, and this is no different here. There is also some great commentary here about class and race. Despite being a successful woman, Ursa is very aware that she is a darker-skinned Black woman, and therefore to society less desirable than Black women who are lighter than her. Viney, her best friend who she has a deeply intimate platonic relationship with, represents a foil to Ursa's character in this way, as is her mother Estelle in some ways, whom she despises because she takes after her mother but did not inherit her lighter skin tone. Class is also recurring theme, when we see how successful Viney is but she is still unable to protect her Black son from being harassed by police. Many of the characters in the novel do a lot to gain wealth and appear elite, only to be reminded by society that their Blackness serves as a barrier.
The final thing I'll say about the novel is the way the mother-daughter relationship between Ursa and Estelle is illustrated. Marshall examines this relationship in her first novel, Brown Girl, Brownstones, where Selina and her mother are often at odds. Here, Ursa and Estelle are at odds for different reasons, possibly because Ursa does not understand her mother. This can represent a larger commentary about Caribbean literature, which often illustrates a fractious relationship between mothers and their daughters (see longer commentary about this on my blog).
Overall, Marshall remains one of my favorite authors and one of the most underrated authors in the Black literary canon. It's a shame that I did not get to know her work until months after her death, but I will continue to suggest her to anyone who will listen.
Ursa is a seemingly successful Black woman living in Harlem. She has a boyfriend of six years, is working toward a master's degree, and works at a well-respected research firm. Unfortunately, her life is challenging in a number of other ways. Her relationship is stale. Her superiors at work are putting up multiple barriers for her to start a new research project. Meanwhile, her father, referred to as PM is seeking re-election in a fictitious Caribbean island (and also Ursa's birthplace), Triunion. Ursa appears to be interested in what is happening with her parents in Triunion but disinterested in returning there after many long years. Her life and theirs, despite seeming perfect in many ways, is extremely complicated.
The story of the successful Black woman who deals with microaggressions at work and romance problems is not new. What makes this novel special is a number of things. Marshall writes about abortion, miscarriage, suicide, and IVF without ever naming them. Again, forcing the reader to pay attention to keep track of what is going on. It also makes apparent the ways society forces these experiences to be invisible; one might assume that these experiences are less common simply because a lot of women don't talk about them. The way Marshall writes about them here makes this apparent while also offering subtle commentary about how taboo these topics are. The second thing that makes this novel different from others is the bi-cultural identity aspect. Ursa is often reminded by her peers in the U.S. that she is from somewhere else. This identity works to her benefit at times, but in most cases the people in her life find a way to other her. Relatedly there is the unspoken obligation that Ursa feels to send money home to her family in Triunion to help with the elections. There is an obligation for many immigrants living in the U.S. to their families abroad, and this is no different here. There is also some great commentary here about class and race. Despite being a successful woman, Ursa is very aware that she is a darker-skinned Black woman, and therefore to society less desirable than Black women who are lighter than her. Viney, her best friend who she has a deeply intimate platonic relationship with, represents a foil to Ursa's character in this way, as is her mother Estelle in some ways, whom she despises because she takes after her mother but did not inherit her lighter skin tone. Class is also recurring theme, when we see how successful Viney is but she is still unable to protect her Black son from being harassed by police. Many of the characters in the novel do a lot to gain wealth and appear elite, only to be reminded by society that their Blackness serves as a barrier.
The final thing I'll say about the novel is the way the mother-daughter relationship between Ursa and Estelle is illustrated. Marshall examines this relationship in her first novel, Brown Girl, Brownstones, where Selina and her mother are often at odds. Here, Ursa and Estelle are at odds for different reasons, possibly because Ursa does not understand her mother. This can represent a larger commentary about Caribbean literature, which often illustrates a fractious relationship between mothers and their daughters (see longer commentary about this on my blog).
Overall, Marshall remains one of my favorite authors and one of the most underrated authors in the Black literary canon. It's a shame that I did not get to know her work until months after her death, but I will continue to suggest her to anyone who will listen.
December 26, 2023
really a 4.5 I would say! I read this 400 page book in 3 days and was so drawn into Ursa’s world. I live for complex, mystical, intertwined, beautiful, female friendships!
August 22, 2007
I read this book the summer before my first year in college for a summer institute. I remember disliking it at the time because of what I felt like were characters drawn too starkly ...10 years later I plan to re-read expecting new insight.
March 12, 2015
A slog. Needed editing.
November 13, 2011
Arrgghhh this took me sooo long to read! It's not that the book was boring, well maybe just a 'lil, but nothing really happened. During the present in the book nothing was really goin' on. Everything was the past, and, there was a chapter for everyone to explain how they felt about everything! This gets to be long. I especially thought the chapters by Celestine were dull. The characters that I really enjoyed were Ursa-Bea and Esther, the later was never fully explored and explained, but I guess that would have probably added another 20 chapters to the book. I can't say I didn't like this book, because I kept reading it, I was a little slow and more than a little repetitive.
December 21, 2007
Eh. Paule Marshall is one of my favorite authors and so I still liked this book and thought the main character was compelling. But I didn't feel like she wrapped up the story very well. Paule Marshall's real skill is in showing the importance of a place to an individual. Overall I think Daughters is a good summer beach read. But Praisesong for the Widow is really her triumph.
December 1, 2008
I've really liked Marshall's other books but I just could not get into this one. Then...I got almost to the end only to find that 30 pages of the stinking book was missing and a previous 30 pages was repeated. Not cool. So I give up. I surrender. I was not meant to get through this book.
Read
August 19, 2009liked it, most interested about life in the carribean
Read
October 26, 2009too old, had no desire to finish this book.
September 13, 2012
My first Marshall read. Liked it enough to read a second.
September 9, 2025
To be young, gifted, and a Black woman in New York when your parents live on a Caribbean island (a thinly-disguised Barbados), and he is a man people love despite themselves and keep electing to office as though he were born to it, while she is a U.S.-born, light-skinned Black woman who helps him make his career even though you know he's sleeping with another woman on the side....
This is a book with half a dozen strongly developed female characters and a fabulous sense of time and place. Judging from this and Brown Girl, Brownstones (which I must reread!), author Paule Marshall has daddy issues of monumental proportions. She has turned them into art. Yet I wonder if a woman who was born less than a hundred years ago would put up with Ursa's boyfriend in the book, let alone her father. The ending is emotionally ambivalent but necessary for her to live her own life.
This is a book with half a dozen strongly developed female characters and a fabulous sense of time and place. Judging from this and Brown Girl, Brownstones (which I must reread!), author Paule Marshall has daddy issues of monumental proportions. She has turned them into art. Yet I wonder if a woman who was born less than a hundred years ago would put up with Ursa's boyfriend in the book, let alone her father. The ending is emotionally ambivalent but necessary for her to live her own life.
October 17, 2020
Beautiful book, compelling brave story. Wished I had read this earlier in my life..
January 30, 2024
Second half was completely riveting. Whenever I need a reminder of myself I will pick up Daughters.
August 31, 2025
Gorgeous writing. Rich details and more of a political novel than I expected. Loved!!
March 15, 2023
book #16 of 2023: Daughters (1991) by Caribbean American novelist Paule Marshall. I read this book decades ago: must’ve been shortly after it was published. I remember really loving it: it is absolutely not the book I only very vaguely recall, but it’s still awesome. it’s set in the fictional Caribbean island Triunion, as well as NYC. it’s a slow build, told through the voices of the women of the story - all of whom know each other, their varying perspectives, values, and fears clear, though they are all, as are the men, definitely fully formed characters: you get to deeply understand not only who they are, but the true natures of their relationships, with each other and the men and boys who connect them, which provides the depth that really is the meat of the book. the main character, Ursa, is the daughter of an island’s pride son who grew up to be the politician everyone knew he would, appropriately nicknamed as a child: PM, and a native new yorker, Estelle, who’s made her life supporting her husband’s career on the island, in hopes of improving the lot of the people there. with themes of systemic racism, the black power movement, nature vs progress - bringing to mind Frankenstein, the Folks vs the people: them! (class and race conflict), relationships of many kinds but especially a good and familiar - though by no means trite - range of those that women experience, and most of all, identity, this book is an interesting blend of gentleness and no punches pulled reality: it has the gritty, the impoverished, the lush, the well appointed, the outrageously luxurious, and the subtly perfect that is nature, but always, always, it has what’s best for the Folks, the real people, as its ultimate dramatic stakes, its highest value. a wonderful read. I’m so glad I went back. I need to read some of her other works: I can’t remember if I read Brown Girl, Brownstone…I think so? maybe time to find out.
a quote about writing by the author:
I realise that it is fashionable now to dismiss the traditional novel as something of an anachronism, but to me it is still a vital form. Not only does it allow for the kind of full-blown, richly detailed writing that I love… but it permits me to operate on many levels and to explore both the inner state of my characters as well as the worlds beyond them.
— Paule Marshall
a quote about writing by the author:
I realise that it is fashionable now to dismiss the traditional novel as something of an anachronism, but to me it is still a vital form. Not only does it allow for the kind of full-blown, richly detailed writing that I love… but it permits me to operate on many levels and to explore both the inner state of my characters as well as the worlds beyond them.
— Paule Marshall
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 6, 2011
I am always looking for the next Gloria Naylor who is my all-time fav. Marshall is not her (at least based on this book) but I am intrigued.
It's funny how dated the 1990s seem now. Daughters reminds me of that. At some level this is a nostalgic read (the plight of an islander in America, the corruption of political upstarts by the system in big cities, etc.) Unfortunately, Black women's fight for power and privilege is far from over and so that part of the book wasn't as historical as I might have liked it to be.
In general the weaving together of different women's voices from different places (US and the Caribbean) and different ages was done well. And the commentary on how we all must fit into the place and the systems we have come from while also forging our own paths was on point.
The ending was a little too open-ended for my taste, but thought provoking nonetheless.
I def. want to read more.
It's funny how dated the 1990s seem now. Daughters reminds me of that. At some level this is a nostalgic read (the plight of an islander in America, the corruption of political upstarts by the system in big cities, etc.) Unfortunately, Black women's fight for power and privilege is far from over and so that part of the book wasn't as historical as I might have liked it to be.
In general the weaving together of different women's voices from different places (US and the Caribbean) and different ages was done well. And the commentary on how we all must fit into the place and the systems we have come from while also forging our own paths was on point.
The ending was a little too open-ended for my taste, but thought provoking nonetheless.
I def. want to read more.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews