Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Random House (1998), Edition: 1st, 222 pages
Description
Fiction. Literature. HTML: A family from the United States goes to the remote Sierras in Mexico--Susannah, the writer-to-be; her sister, Magdalena; and their father and mother. There, amid an endangered band of mixed-race blacks and Indians called the Mundo, they begin an encounter that will change them more than they could ever dream. Moving back and forth in time, and among unforgettable characters and their magical stories, Walker brilliantly explores the ways in which a woman's denied sexuality leads to the loss of the much prized and necessary original self--and how she regains that self, even as her family's past of lies and love is transformed. . . ..
User reviews
LibraryThing member RavenousReaders
"The story of an American family--would-be writer Susannah, her sister Magdalena, and her parents--who take up life with an endangered mixed race of Black Indians in the Mexican Sierras, explores how a woman's denied sexuality leads to a loss of self and the sexual healing of the soul."
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LibraryThing member karima29
This book honours and sincerely explores the link between spirituality and sexuality by telling the tale of a family, and all it’s members, after an event that altered their lives forever. Without giving too much away, it’s about the denial of a young girl’s sexuality, and ultimately her self
What was fascinating to me was that when early on in the book she reveals the event, I couldn't believe that that was it. Simply because this thing happens in homes all over South Africa every single day. It took me a while to realize that it’s not only normal in South Africa, but ALL over the world. Show me a society that celebrates a woman’s sexuality and healthy expression of it and I’ll move there tomorrow to raise my own family of healthy women.
What followed the event was a very insightful and ever-so-interesting portrayal of what happens to us, ALL OF US, when we deny our daughters their sexuality. It’s painful. More painful yet when we have to acknowledge that we do not do the same thing with our sons.
I find that with every Alice Walker novel that I have read so far I am surprised by how indoctrinated I am by living in a patriarchal society. There are things that happen in the world, ways of being, that we all act out each and every day that are just so commonplace that we never ever question them. We don’t conceive that it could be different, because we’ve never heard of it being a different way. When I read her books, not only does she show me different ways of thinking about things, or doing things, but she also gets me questioning why we do it the current way, and then gives me the answer to the best of her knowledge and experience. Her books teach me enough to want to know more and more and more.
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and how that affects her, her father, mother and sister. It also has a huge impact on how they all relate to each other from that point onwards.What was fascinating to me was that when early on in the book she reveals the event, I couldn't believe that that was it. Simply because this thing happens in homes all over South Africa every single day. It took me a while to realize that it’s not only normal in South Africa, but ALL over the world. Show me a society that celebrates a woman’s sexuality and healthy expression of it and I’ll move there tomorrow to raise my own family of healthy women.
What followed the event was a very insightful and ever-so-interesting portrayal of what happens to us, ALL OF US, when we deny our daughters their sexuality. It’s painful. More painful yet when we have to acknowledge that we do not do the same thing with our sons.
I find that with every Alice Walker novel that I have read so far I am surprised by how indoctrinated I am by living in a patriarchal society. There are things that happen in the world, ways of being, that we all act out each and every day that are just so commonplace that we never ever question them. We don’t conceive that it could be different, because we’ve never heard of it being a different way. When I read her books, not only does she show me different ways of thinking about things, or doing things, but she also gets me questioning why we do it the current way, and then gives me the answer to the best of her knowledge and experience. Her books teach me enough to want to know more and more and more.
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Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1998
Physical description
222 p.; 9.75 inches
ISBN
0375501525 / 9780375501524