Product Description

In this, her first collection of nonfiction, Alice Walker speaks out as a
black woman, writer, mother, and feminist in thirty-six pieces ranging
from the personal to the political. Among the contents are essays about
other writers, accounts of the civil rights movement of the 1960s and the
antinuclear movement of the 1980s, and a vivid memoir of a scarring
childhood injury and her daughter’s healing words.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2238714 in Books
• Published on: 2004-05-17
• Format: Bargain Price
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 360 pages

Review
Along with the early novels (cited above), Harcourt is reprinting collections of Walker's poetry and essays. Like the fiction, these focus on her pet issues, ranging from civil rights and feminism to the antinuclear movement. (Library Journal )

About the Author
Bestselling novelist ALICE WALKER is also the author of three collections of short stories, three collections of essays, six volumes of poetry, and several children’s books. Her novel The Color Purple won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, and her work has been translated into more than two dozen languages. Born in Eatonton, Georgia,Walker now lives in northern California.

Customer Reviews

A great nonfiction collection
I have loved Alice Walker since I was 14. Granted, it has not always been an easy love. She speaks truths that I do not always find easy to hear. She makes statements that I have a difficult time agreeing with. At the same time, I find her writings wonderful, warm and insightful. She has a way of taking an everyday situation and making it resonate. Of special note in this book is Walker's (to me) classic essay on Flannery O'Connor. What could very easily have been a "what this author means to me" type of story, Walkers manages to tie it up with her own past, her relationships, the legacy of the South and Catholicism. It's one of my favorite essays of all time, and I am so glad to finally have my own copy to hold onto and read over and over again. This book is a good start for those who may have only read the Color Purple, but would liek to know more about Walker. Highly recommended.

I've often re-read this book as nourishment for my spirit
On difficult days, which are more numerous than the peaceful ones here in South Korea, I re-read In Search Of Our Mothers' Gardens. I am always re-inspired, re-juvenated, re-centered and re-minded when I again encounter the soothing and healing words of the woman I have decided to claim aloud as my sister: Alice Walker. I take great pleasure in reading Be Nobody's Darling. This poem has affirmed me on those especially dismal days when I examine my differentness and wonder if it's worth the pain to have an outlook that is different from that of the mainstream. For more rigorous cleansing I enjoy her essay What Can I Give My Daughters Who Are Brave. This essay has been like a soothing balm for my battered spirit after a day of battling the various "ism's" (racism, sexism, homophobia etc. the list goes on) that are a part of everyday living on our modern planet. Alice Walker continues to give me so much.

Outstanding critical essay writing!
This collection of essays by Alice Walker is arguably even superior to her best novels (fine though they are). "In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens" is a collection of essays - personal, political, poetic, and autobiographical - ranging through the decades, mainly the 60's thought the early 80's. Ms. Walker's style of writing is exactly what the pretentious, pseudo-technical theorists of the flaccid poststructuralist and "semiotic" schools of criticism are missing: she is lucid, precise, engaging, and intelligent without being bogged down in jargon or labrynthine obscurities. Refreshingly, Ms. Walker is politically engaged and decisive without having an "axe to grind" - her maturity and experience in a world beyond the ivory tower prepare her to speak honestly and courageously - without the single minded ("me me me!") resentment and hostility that can characterize some other writings on such volatile topics can emphasize. While acutely aware (first-hand) of the profound injustices implicit in race, gender, and class relations in our country, her voice is one that looks for clarity, inspiration, and ultimately something USEFUL to be learned - the only way any actual progressive change or social/political revolution can be posible. She places personal experiences in the larger, tangled, context of our country's racial and economic tragedies. Above all, her writing style is EXCELLENT and her combination of intelectual/academic learning with deepst sympathy and wisdom sets a superb example for those interested in writing in the essay form. Her ability to organize thoughts present them coherently and concisely - yet with humor and wit - is something all student could learn from. No matter what you my think of her novels and fiction, these essays are some of the best in the form and content that I;ve ever read. Her specific, recurring focus on art, being and artist, and the creative process are particularly moving - even painfully so. My suggestion: forget the flimsy, jargon-infested volumes of "feminist/gender theory" (Lacan, Derrida, Foucault, and all that rot) and read "In Search of Our Mother's Gardens" - as a prfoessional artist and activist myself, I find more of actual USE and VALUE in Alica Walker's essays than in most hip, chic semioticians.