Meridian [Import] [Hardcover]

Alice Walker (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Deutsch (March 17, 1977)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0233968377
• ISBN-13: 978-0233968377
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Alice Walker is one of the most prolific writers of our time, known for her literary fiction, including the Pultizer Prize-winning The Color Purple, her many volumes of poetry, and her powerful nonfiction collections. Walker's most recent book is The Chicken Chronicles, a memoir. Her advocacy for the dispossessed has spanned the globe. She lives in Northern California.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A triumph for the opressed, and for humans everywhere., November 11, 2000

By 

Lilliana Meredith (New Hartford, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Meridian (Mass Market Paperback)

Alice Walker's book Meridian is a passionate, touching book, in a variety of ways. First of all, it depicts the warped minds and hearts of blacks (and non-racist whites) living in the South in the 1960s. Meridian is a young black woman- who is slightly crazy, yet completely involving and entertaining. Meridian is very different from other people- she feels things more acutely, sensitively, and strongly than other people. Her emotions- anger, hate, pain, suffering, are all depicted with startling clarity. Ths book is in some ways like a poem- and is very different from any other book I've ever read- almost as if the story is a series of dream sequences. Meridian, who is a civil rights worker, is deeply afraid that her people, and race, will dehumanize themselves and lose their souls. I disagree with a reviewer who gave it one star, and critized it for having no ''rising action''. The book has rising action, conflict, and literary techniques, they are just related in a different way- this book does not havea standard chapter form- instead it is a book based entirely on emotions, told in three parts, by Meridian, her black on-and-off boyfriend Truman Held, and her white Northern best friend Lynne. The books clearly conveys that all three of these people have parts of themselves missing- bits of humanity that have been desensitized in the civil rights struggle- and the hate passed from whites to blacks. All of these people are shown as simple young adults- none of them entirely evil, or entirely good, simply trying to survive in this tumultous era. The ending is bittersweet, not entirely happy, but not hopeless either. This book is more about a journey of human beings- than anythng else. It focuses more on characterization than plot- the events seem to be less important than the feelings, thoughts and passions of Meridian, Lynne, and Truman. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to read about the worries, cares, and journey of the soul.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Under the microscope, April 27, 2004

By 

Jess D. (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Meridian (Paperback)

Much as I've enjoyed Walker's more well-known novels, I'm afraid that this one failed to move me. The main problem was that I always felt at least one level of remove from the characters. The reader is informed that such-and-such behaves in a certain way in order to elicit a particular reaction, or because of some or other damaging past experience, but we are never allowed to feel any of the characters' emotions or see them as real people. At one point in the novel, we are informed that Truman thinks that Meridian's problem is her habit of over-analysis (not, frustratingly, through dialogue, but through narration), and Walker could certainly have taken that advice to heart. The book read at times like a lyrical essay.

Having finished the book, I know little about the character Meridian other than that Alice Walker worships her and that she suffered through many terrible experiences. The two main female characters seem to have so many horrific problems thrown their way that they become martyrs. Far from empowering these women, Walker has defined them only by their suffering and their mysterious paralytic illnesses; I may as well have been reading a Victorian melodrama.

Toward the end, a few passages shone with the kind of honesty and beauty that I had expected from this book, and I was at last allowed glimpses of the characters' inner lives rather than being told what their motivations were - but at that point it was more frustrating than inspiring, because it teased me with what might have been.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Absorbing, complex, provocative, May 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Meridian (Mass Market Paperback)

Alice Walker writes about the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's through the eyes of Meridian Hill. Walker forces us -- poetically -- to consider our stance on questions of racism, sexism, love and faith. By doing so she causes us to look at how we align ourselves with friends, lovers and family, and what it means to be part of a "community." I read this book the first time 20 years ago and it's themes have stayed fresh for me. A hope-inspiring book, despite the painful issues it addresses. An original novel in all respects.