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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great start to learning about an extraordinary woman,
By
This review is from: The Black Rose: The Dramatic Story of Madam C.J. Walker, America's First Black Female Millionaire (Paperback)
I have a new heroine. Not only did she rise above being black in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but also she rose above being a black woman to become America's first female millionaire. It's an incredible story.Her name is Madame C. J. Walker and her story is fictionalized in Tananarive Due's historical novel, The Black Rose. Based on the research and an extensive outline complete by famed author Alex Haley before his death in 1992, Due weaves a fascinating account of Walker and her times. Madam C. J. Walker was born Sarah Breedlove to freed blacks in 1867. Sarah is proud that she is learning to read and write, and dreams of reading her mother's Bible and someday attending college. Her dreams are crushed when her parents, now tenant farmers on the same Delta, Louisiana, farm where they were once slaves, die of yellow fever in 1874. Eight-year-old Sarah and her siblings are left to struggle for survival on their own. By 1878, the crops were failing and their shack was all but falling down. A year later, Sarah and her sister, Lou, move to Vicksburg, Mississippi, to become washerwomen. The work is grueling but mind numbing. At 14, Sarah marries Moses McWilliams, a man she grows to love with all her heart, but who is killed less than a year later in one of Mississippi's infamous race riots. Devastated and left with a daughter, Lelia, to care for, Sarah moves to St. Louis. Life there is hard, but Sarah still dreams of college, of learning to read without having to struggle with each word. She has her own washing service and begins to save money so that Lelia can someday have the education she was categorically denied. St. Louis' Annie Malone begins a beauty supply business, hiring black women as representatives to sell the products door-to-door. Sarah admires Annie, but her products do not bring relief to her own itchy dandruff and dry scalp that have tormented her since childhood. In an effort to find relief, Sarah and Lelia being concocting different remedies in their kitchen. Thanks to the help of a dream about a field of black roses and the treatment of sulfur to an injury Lelia sustains, Sarah stumbles onto the secret formula that make hair grown-she is a living example that it works. A new business if founded! During this time she meets and marries C. J. Walker, an advertising whiz, and moves her business to Denver. With the help of C. J., but more of her own ambition and determination, Sarah begins her beauty supply business, recruiting women to sell it door-to-door. Before long, Sarah is the most sought after, most powerful woman, in America. Eventually she moves her business to Indianapolis and New York, where there is a more concentrated population of blacks. But the more time she spends working, the less time she has for Lelia and C. J. The three grow estranged and by the time of her death in 1919, Madame C. J. Walker was the wealthiest, loneliest woman in the United States. The Black Rose is more fiction than fact, according to Due who was in St. Louis recently. Scads of papers remain from The Madame C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company, which existed until the 1960s, but little personal documentation about this powerful woman have survived the years. Due reviewed thousands of interviews, documents, and papers that Alex Haley has complied before she began writing. "I tried to be true to the spirit of Sarah Breedlove McWilliams Walker," Due said. And from everything else I've read about this remarkable woman, Due has done as excellent job in capturing her essence. The Black Rose is a powerful, captivating tale of a real-life heroine.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Didn't sleep a wink just kept on reading,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Black Rose (Hardcover)
Even though I will probably feel it in the morning when I go to work it was worth it. This has been the first book in a very long time I have felt so good about. Despite a length of about 350 pages, this book drew me into the world of Sarah Breedlove daughter of sharecroppers who takes a cue from a former employee and reinvents herself as Madam CJ Walker, the 1st black female millionare. It is hard to find a postive African-American woman in books as well as any other media that is not portrayed as someone's trusty old maid, a tragic heroine, or just a woman who sits on the sidelines whether she is the main character or not. I will have to warn, the reader, since this book is not a straight biography, which caused me to shy away from it at first, but more like bio-fiction half novel half biography. The use of this bio-fiction device makes the book more interesting because Due paints the scenes so marvelously. The way Due portrays her main character as child who has to overcome hard circumstances and uses tragedies in her earlier life to become a stronger and successful woman reminded me of Arthur Golden's MEMORIES OF A GEISHA.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Incredible Story!,
By
This review is from: The Black Rose (Hardcover)
I had only heard of Madam C.J. Walker by way of hearsay that she was the first black female millionaire. I never knew anything more about her life, her struggles or her cause. So my curiosity got the best of me and I recommended to my bookclub that we educate ourselves on some history. Albeit The Black Rose is a fictionalize account of Madam Walker, I believe that the author did the necessary research to make her account as true to fact as she possibly could.With that said, this is definately by far, the best historical novel I have EVER read. The author did an incredible job with taking us back to Sarah's (nka Madam Walker) childhood so that the readers could understand the very beginning of her life struggles. The book literally walks you through Sarah's life of who she was and who she became but don't let this fool you. Sarah never lost sight of where she came from and even after she gained her wealth, she remained the same well grounded person of whom she grew from. As a reader, you find out about each and every person that Sarah encountered, many of which had some affect on her life in one way or the other. You learn of her family and how they affected her struggles, whether negative or positive. But most important, you learn of Sarah's strength. Considering the time frame that Sarah lived, she surpassed obstacles that not only women but even some men couldn't even dream of. This is a very enriching tale that every African American should read. This book is not just about making money. It's about a real life struggle to make a better life for not just self but for the entire black generation! Once you've read this story, you will immediately realize that had it not been for Madam C.J. Walker, us African Americans would not be where we are today (you'll have to read the book to figure out exactly what I'm talking about because I don't want to give it away). Ms. Due................you have truly outdone yourself with this literary piece of work and I still get goosebumps when I think about reading the last words of your story and recognizing the history I just gained by simple curiosity. Thank you.
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