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Featuring a new original introduction by Opal Palmer Adisa Avey Johnson--a Black, middle-aged, middle-class widow given to hats, gloves, and pearls--has long since put behind her the Harlem of her childhood. Then on a cruise to the Caribbean with two friends, inspired by a troubling dream, she senses her life beginning to unravel--and in a panic packs her bag in the middle of the night and abandons her friends at the next port of call. The unexpected and beautiful adventure that follows provides Avey with the links to the culture and history she has so long disavowed. Originally published in 1983, Praisesong for the Widow was a recipient of the Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award, and is presented here in a beautiful new hardcover edition as the second title in McSweeney's Of the Diaspora series. "Astonishingly moving."-Anne Tyler, The New York Times Book Review About Of the Diaspora: McSweeney's Of the Diaspora is a series of previously published works in Black literature whose themes, settings, characterizations, and conflicts evoke an experience, language, imagery and power born of the Middle Passage and the particular aesthetic which connects African-derived peoples to a shared artistic and ancestral past. Wesley Brown's Tragic Magic, the first novel in the series, was originally published in 1978 and championed by Toni Morrison during her tenure as an editor at Random House. This Of the Diaspora edition features a new introduction written by Brown for the series. Tragic Magic will be followed by Paule Marshall's novel of a Harlem widow claiming new life. Praisesong for the Widow was originally published in 1983 and was a recipient of the Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award. The series is edited by writer Erica Vital-Lazare, a professor of creative writing and Marginalized Voices in literature at the College of Southern Nevada. Published in collectible hardcover editions with original cover art by Sunra Thompson, the first three works hail from Black American voices defined by what Amiri Baraka described as strong feeling "getting into new blues, from the old ones." Of the Diaspora-North America will be followed by series from the diasporic communities of Europe, the Caribbean and Brazil.… (more)
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On and on he recited the list of names, pausing after each one to give her
"Temne . . . ? Is you a Temne maybe? Banda . . . ?"
What was the man going on about? What were these names? Each one made her head ache all the more. She thought she heard in them the faint rattle of the necklace of cowrie shells and amber Marion always wore. Africa? Did they have something to do with Africa?
Sixty-something widow Avey Johnson is on a Caribbean cruise with a couple of friends, an annual event since the death of her husband some four years earlier. Something happens to Avey on this cruise. She has a sudden urge to leave the ship and take the next plane home, so she disembarks at Grenada, the ship's next port of call. Instead of flying home immediately, Avey is drawn into the annual excursion from Grenada to the out island of Carriacou - a sort of ritual homecoming for the islanders who now make their homes on Grenada. The experience becomes a spiritual and cultural homecoming for Avey.
This novel explores collective memory as expressed through religious and cultural rituals and oral traditions in the United States and the Caribbean. Recommended for readers with an interest in African American literature, Caribbean literature, the African diaspora, women's studies, and religious studies.