The Healing [Audio Cassette]

Gayl Jones (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 28, 1999

A literary event, "The Healing" is the first novel by the author of "Corregidora" in more than a decade. The story of Harlan Jane Eagleton's transformation from a minor rock star's manager to a traveling faith healer, "The Healing" is a lyrical and at times humorous exploration of the struggle to let go of pain, anger, and even love.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Beautician, anthropologist's wife, rock-star manager, racetrack gambler, and now itinerant faith healer: the heroine of Gayl Jones long-awaited new novel has traveled a long and difficult road from her grandmother's Louisville beauty shop to the bus stops and "tank towns" of the rural South. As she spools back through her accumulated memories, Harlan Jane Eagleton weaves a complex stream-of-consciousness tale that at second glance turns out not to be chaotic at all. Jones has an unerring ear for dialogue and the rhythms of everyday speech, and Eagleton makes poetry out of even the detritus of pop culture--although her narrative is also rich in allusions from Chaucer to Gayl Jones herself. From Eagleton's grandmother, who believes she was born as a turtle, to the paranoid German-African businessman who becomes Eagleton's lover, the novel is filled with memorable characters and multilayered relationships. The Healing is the first book in more than 20 years from Jones, the reclusive author of two seminal narratives of violence, slavery, abuse, and black rage, Corregidora and Eva's Man. Like these two novels, The Healing has its fair share of violence and tragedy, but--as the title might suggest--here it's tempered with a surprising portion of humor, forgiveness, even faith. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Jones's first major American publication since Eva's Man (1976) is prickly, frequently tendentious and occasionally brilliant. From the opening pages we know we're in the presence of a masterly writer whose life experiences have sharpened her edges rather than softened them. The narrator, African American faith-healer Harlan Jane Eagleton, travels from small town to small town working her miracles. But, as we soon learn, being a healer is only her latest incarnation after stints as a beautician in her hometown of Louisville, Ky., as a racetrack gambler and as a business manager for the rock-'n-roller Joan Savage. Harlan is more sure of what she's not (anybody's fool) than what she is, and underneath her "countrified" voice is a shrewd observer of human nature. She is also remarkably well read in theories of art, science, literature and music?and she proves it at every opportunity, in long-winded diatribes too often explained away with a coy "I read about that somewhere." Despite Harlan's tiresomely false naivete (and the tedious political speechifying of the people she meets), readers will care about her and will eagerly follow her journey to heal herself first before she can touch others ("If I wasn't the one doing the healing, I'd be among the tough nuts"). It is through her flawed but gravely human voice that Jones's flinty work is quietly redeemed. (Feb.) FYI: The Healing is the first novel Beacon has published in its 143-year history. The press plans to issue another novel by Jones, as well as a book-length poem of hers, in 1999.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Books on Tape, Inc. (May 28, 1999)
• ISBN-10: 0736645659
• ISBN-13: 978-0736645652
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,682,452 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Confabulatory Realism, November 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Healing (Hardcover)

Something told me I should read this book. What had initially caught my attention were the news stories about Jones and her husband. But the descriptions I was reading of The Healing also made me curious, and when I read the first page of the book, I immediately found better reasons for wanting to read it. I enjoyed the time I spent privileged to overhear the constant chatter passing through main character Harlan Jane Eagleton's head, repetitions and all. I laughed at the long, omnivorous reading lists put together by her client Joan. (I recognized some of my friends and myself in that.) This is a very funny book, a mythic--a confabulatory--tale written with a great deal of literary sophistication. And if you like this one, make sure you read Mosquito too.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars All things considered...., July 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Healing (Bluestreak) (Paperback)

...this wasn't such a bad read. Like the reviewer before me, I was anxious to love this book. I had read about Gayl Jones' dramatic recent past with her possessive late husband, and about her re-emergence into the literary world with this work. It did, however, fall short of my expectations. Jones is clearly in possession of a great gift, and many of this book's passages are profound, but only in a topical, static way. The writing is masterful, but the story itself is lacking in the kind of depth that I was hoping for. The tale of Harlan, the supposedly low-profile manager of Joan, the caricature of a feminist rock star (and formerly brilliant chemist) is completely unbelievable. I couldn't figure out why the two continued to stay together, in spite of the bad blood between them which resulted from Harlan's having slept with Joan's former husband (and possibly the most one-dimensional of all the characters in this book). In spite of all this, I finished the book and I still respect the writing, but I am now interested in reading her first books, which are the ones that determined her literary stature in the first place. I'm sure I won't be let down. It's a hit-and-miss world after all.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth the Wait, August 7, 2000

By 

c.w. - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Healing (Hardcover)

Gayl Jones speaks the truth like no other writer. Her characters go on long, entertaining and insightful rants. They burst into soliloquies and reveal the inherent racism in America with humor. Her text shows how American culture legitimizes and perpetuates cultural insensitivity at every point. The main character, Harlan Jane Eagleton, discovers she can "heal" people of all sorts of ills, but she can't tackle society's ills. Her own path toward self-healing takes her all around the world, where she meets up with various stereotype-breaking people. The only minor flaws in this book are an inconsistent narrative voice and confusing narrative structure, but Jones playfully addresses both criticisms in her text, thus subverting any complaints. A book of the ages for the ages.