Product Description

Edited and with a Preface by Toni Morrison, this posthumous collection of short stories, essays, and interviews offers lasting evidence of Bambara's passion, lyricism, and tough critical intelligence. Included are tales of mothers and daughters, rebels and seeresses, community activists and aging gangbangers, as well as essays on film and literature, politics and race, and on the difficulties and necessities of forging an identity as an artist, activist, and black woman. It is a treasure trove not only for those familiar with Bambara's work, but for a new generation of readers who will recognize her contribution to contemporary American letters.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1055999 in Books
• Published on: 1999-01-26
• Released on: 1999-01-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Amazon.com Review
Toni Cade Bambara published a novel and two collections of stories, yet before her death in December 1995, she had not published new work in 14 years. Her long silence was all the more ironic because Bambara had, in 1970, edited a ground-breaking anthology of black women's writing called The Black Woman. Here, Toni Morrison presents six hitherto unpublished stories and six essays, striking work that shows Bambara's view of the writer as cultural worker and her concern with politics and the empowerment of black Americans.

From Publishers Weekly
This compilation of selected short fiction, essays and interviews by (and with) the late Bambara (The Salt Eaters) is her first published work in 14 years, and it provides intriguing insights into this challenging African American writer. The collection includes a warm, appreciative preface by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, who also edited this volume. The six stories feature characters who seek self-definition through their relationships with others: in "Going Critical," a mother slowly dying from radiation poisoning reflects on her relationship with her daughter during a day at the beach; and two boys are puzzled by the community's warm reception of a painter who transforms their favorite landmark and play area in "The War of the Wall." The second section features Bambara's voice much more clearly, as she tackles discursively the social and political concerns, often about race and gender, that animate her fiction. Her film criticism is especially trenchant: she discusses blaxploitation films of the 1960s and '70s, Julie Dash's Daughters of the Dust and Spike Lee's School Daze with a sharp eye for their complexity, message and vision. She also questions the assumptions behind our daily language, provoking readers to think in more complicated terms. Bambara (1939-1995) never made any bones about the fact that she viewed writing as a political act. The writings collected here show that, unlike many others, she rarely let her activist motives cripple her aesthetic sense or her intellectual honesty.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Bambara's (The Salt Eaters, LJ 4/1/80) artful storytelling and passion for writing and for film come through clearly in this posthumous collection of six fiction and six essay and conversation pieces. Bambara did not publish a new book in the 14 years prior to her death from cancer in December 1995; these writings, collected by Nobel Prize-winning novelist Morrison, remind us of Bambara's enormous talent and character. Among the essays and conversations is "How She Came by Her Name," an interview with Louis Massiah, in which Bambara tells about the evolution of her name; "The Education of a Storyteller," in which she tells of a conversation with her "Grandma" Dorothy, who encouraged her to expand her mind and to "tell the tale"; and "Deep Sight and Rescue Missions," in which she addresses race, assimilation, politics, pluralism, and indoctrination. In the remaining three essays, Bambara analyzes the politics, language, cultural aspects, and potential for social transformation of film. Highly recommended for Bambara's storytelling techniques and commentaries on life, society, and media.?Jeris Cassel, Rutgers Univ. Libs., New Brunswick, N.J.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Award Winner
The Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA) chose this book as a 1997 Nonfiction Honor Book. The awards recognize excellence in adult fiction and nonfiction by African American authors