Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
AN AFFECTING MEMOIR OF ANOTHER TIME AND PLACE, May 9, 2006
This review is from: If the Creek Don't Rise: My Life Out West with the Last Black Widow of the Civil War (Hardcover)
Raised by the widow of a man born into slavery, Rita Williams had a childhood like few others. Her mother died of carbon monoxide poisoning soon after her father ran away with another woman. Rita was four-years-old, and the relative who gave her shelter was her Aunt Daisy, the last surviving African American widow of a Union soldier.
Rita came to an unforgiving aunt and unforgiving territory around Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Daisy was a fighter and her enemy was racism. Young Rita received mixed messages, believing in the `60s that doors were opening for blacks and females while instructions from her aunt were to hold back because "uppity niggers" got lynched.
Daisy was a child of her time. She came from a family that she described as so poor that "we had no chairs, we ate standing up." She was 21 when she first met her future husband; he was 79. It was from him that she learned about his life as a slave and how he had run off to join the Union army after another beating by his owner. His father, she learned, lived on a neighboring plantation and was allowed to visit twice a week. His mother was sold when he was six, and he never saw her again. Such heartbreaking reminiscences became part and parcel of who Daisy was.
Daisy believed that she could make Rita stronger - she even washed floors to pay for her neice's schooling so that Rita could be somebody. And, become someone she did. Today she is a former actress, musician and college professor, a thesis advisor for the of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California.
For us she has crafted an affecting memoir rich with not only her amazing coming-of-age story but pictures from the past of racial injustices and a nation, families torn asunder by civil war.
- Gail Cooke
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An exquisite memoir by a master storyteller, May 26, 2006
This review is from: If the Creek Don't Rise: My Life Out West with the Last Black Widow of the Civil War (Hardcover)
From the open lines of "If the Creek Don't Rise," I knew I was in for a treat: "Out my kitchen window, the November wind off the Pacific whipped up light frothy waves on Silver Lake." It felt as if I had fallen into a Raymond Chandler detective novel, so rich was the imagery that I could almost feel the spray of the waves--I was hooked! Williams is a consummate storyteller, drawing you in with her rich descriptions of the landscape (both inner and outer), her insights into highly complex and, at times, contradictory characters, and events that sweep one along as a canoe in the rapids. There is never a false note. I read the book cover-to-cover in one sitting, so anxious was I to see how it turned out, and I felt enriched by sharing Williams' incredible journey. If I did not know this was true, I would swear it was a yarn spun by a true raconteur, but what makes her book so amazing is the inner work she has clearly done to be able to report the story with love and an undeniable quality of forgiveness. Such prose comes only from remarkable people, and Williams is that, and more. I can hardly wait for her next offering. This is great literature!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
5-Star Rita Williams Walks the Talk, June 18, 2006
This review is from: If the Creek Don't Rise: My Life Out West with the Last Black Widow of the Civil War (Hardcover)
How I wish I could have read Rita Williams' book in some type of time warp when we first met in college! If the Creek Don't Rise chronicles Rita's youth up until the moment I met her. Maybe I could have been a better friend to Rita had I been able to read the entire, haunting history of her life long, long ago. But like college kids, I'd blurt out, "Rita, tell me about those scars on your wrist." And she'd answer just as frankly, and we comforted each other's vast emptiness . . . and we'd play like little girls together. We played ike sisters; I always called Rita my sister. And when my biological twin recently completed a family genealogy, Rita asked me, "Am I in it?"
Rita is just like her book---walking, living, breathing poetry. When I first offered Rita a Kiwi fruit in the early 70's, Rita said, "Ummmm . . . That's how a woman should taste!"
I love my friend. She's the real thing--all empathy and laughter and giving. She has put her writing talent above career and ambition, successfully following her heart and sharing her commitment with all of us--her readers. Her metaphors are clean and new and brilliant; they've always been. I recommend If the Creek Don't Rise to you with my whole heart.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
