Alice Walker: A Life (Paperback)

~ (Author) "WHY YOU wanna waste $250 getting your sister's eye fixed?..." (more)
Key Phrases: hattie gossett, electronic correspondence, subsequent quotes, New York, Sarah Lawrence, Willie Lee (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this vibrant narrative, White strives to go beyond simply mapping the movements and accomplishments of the first black female Pulitzer Prize winner. While White relies heavily on interviews with Alice Walker (b. 1944), her family and friends, the stories are always told in a historical context. Walker's childhood as a daughter of Georgia sharecroppers is framed by what it meant to be a poor black female in the Jim Crow South. White particularly focuses on an accident that transforms the eight-year-old Walker from talkative and precocious to introverted and sad. Walker was shot with a BB gun and left disfigured and blind in one eye, and her father was refused a ride to transport the injured girl into town and swindled out of $250 by a white doctor. These events, according to White, brought the young Walker to a new level of understanding of the inhumanity of Southern racism and later moved her to search and reveal, through her writings, the depths of human suffering. This understanding also drove Walker to become active in various causes, most notably the Civil Rights and black feminist movements. From beginning to end, White (The Black Women's Health Book), in her first biography, meticulously traces and analyzes the stages of Walker's life, emphasizing the impact on and importance of her literature in American culture.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Walker's probing writing and serene manner have been a fixture on the literary scene for decades. White traces the roots of that serenity and probing spirit in this penetrating look at a woman who rose from a family of Georgia sharecroppers to an esteemed career in literature. A childhood accident blinded Walker in one eye, setting her on an approach to a life of close observation. Stifled by the rigidity of Spellman, Walker moved on to Sarah Lawrence, and eventually became a civil rights volunteer in the cauldron of racial tension that was Mississippi in the 1960s. Drawing on interviews with Walker, her family, friends, lovers, and colleagues, White chronicles Walker's illegal abortion, interracial marriage, bisexual and multiracial relationships, abiding championing of women's causes, and support of black women writers, notably Zora Neale Hurston. Walker paid a personal and professional price for eschewing the orthodoxy of race and sex, primarily following the uproar attending the publication of The Color Purple. Admirers of Alice Walker's honesty, integrity, and talent will love this book. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. (November 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393328260
• ISBN-13: 978-0393328264
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.7 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #452,819 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Work, Miss Alice and Miss Evelyn!, October 27, 2004

By	Jeffery Mingo (Homewood, IL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Alice Walker: A Life (Hardcover)

Minus the footnotes, this book has approximately 450 pages of text. I was expecting to read this during winter break because I couldn't possibly read it outside of off-time. However, once I started, I couldn't put it down. It just took a few days to breeze through.

Whether you love or hate her, Alice is a powerhouse. Even outside of the book and film The Color Purple, she invented the term "womanist", she fought female genital mutilation, she revived Zora Neale Hurston. Alice is a major player in the history of African-American women. In fact, this book tells even more. She taught the first college course on black female authors in the country. Langston Hughes and James Baldwin sought her out, as opposed to the other way around. One of the reasons that I couldn't put the book down is because every 10 pages something would come up that I would find fascinating and feel that I was a better person for having known about. Sometimes this book is a little gushy, but that's not surprising since Miss Alice is a born genius. Maybe this is just a result of the biographer really enjoying her subject.

The biographer took ten years to create this book. Sometimes I think journalists should stick to articles rather than books, but Evelyn White is an exception to my rule. In fact, I think her journalism background helped to make the book move quickly. I worship Frida Kahlo, but it's taking me forever to wade through Herrera's definitive biography on her. White saved me and other readers from that challenge here. She makes a point of letting people know that Gwendolyn Brooks is the first black woman to win a Pulitzer, not Alice. She is a cool sista that all readers should keep their eyes on.

This book can be disheartening. White details stories that make female artists look sooooo hypersensitive, vindictive, gossipy, and catty. Later for "sisterhood is powerful!" cliches. In this non-fiction work, older female artists bicker with younger ones. Black women and white women duke it out. Lesbian writers and bisexual ones roll their eyes at each other.

At the end of the book, the biographer straight up admits it: Alice can be grounded and non-plussed by the forces against her, but she can also be shady and she reads men and women, of many racial backgrounds, left and right. For example, she wrote to a critical reader, "I take what I find useful from people and discard the rest. Have you ever thought about doing that?! SNAP!" [She didn't really snap, but I added that for diva! effect since it's such a shady, attitudified comment. LOL!]

This book concentrates on the beginnings far more than the ends. Thus, much is made of Alice's younger years while the last 15 years or so are summarized in a chapter or two. Much is written on "Meridian" and "The Color Purple", but nothing is said about "The Same River Twice" or "Anything We Love Can Be Saved."

The chapter titles will be meaningless to any person just flipping through the table of contents. You will only understand the titles' meanings once you are well into the meat of the chapter. Thus, there's no "Color Purple Chapter" or "Alice Marries Interracially Chapter" for those who just want to skim for key books and events. Unlike most authors who start with a bang to get your attention, White saves the best till last. She concludes chapters with a bang I imagine in hopes that the reader will be encouraged to keep going.

No person interviewed in this book ever says, "Yeah, I knew Alice, she was coo'." Every person is quoted as if they sounded as witty, sophisticated, and profound as Walker's writings. The biographer surely must have touched up quotes. There are long cites of poetry and book reviews. This gets tiresome after awhile.

The issue of sexuality is incredibly scant here. In "The Same River Twice", Alice said she wanted homophobic readers to experience a gay character, thus she made Celie. She freely admits that she has had relationships with both men and women. Yet the biographer doesn't mention Alice's same-sex relationships until the end of the book, makes it sound like it only became an issue late in Walker's life, and only mentions the topic scantily. I was surprised to read that Walker was more of a "political lesbian" than an actual one. I think those who want to hear more about non-heterosexual matters will be disappointed. I also wish there was more on Walker and her admiration of Fidel Castro.

My aunt, who has a Masters, once said, "I've only read two books cover to cover: the Bible and the Color Purple." Alice is really an icon. Anyone interested in all the themes that she has spearheaded must read this text. I especially think that anyone majoring in English, women's studies, or African-American studies must experience this text. I give great applause to Alice Walker and Evelyn White despite any critique I may have formulated.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Evelyn C. White Wins!, December 8, 2004

By	LeSojourne (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alice Walker: A Life (Hardcover)

Well now, here I am on page 316 of this biography, over 100 pages to go, yet I felt compelled to scream, shout and holler about it! Evelyn C. White's expertly crafted, brilliant portrayal has lifted me up in much the same way that Alice Walker's poems, essays, and novels send me soaring.It is a celebration of not only Alice Walker's genius, but an affirmation of many unheralded black women writers as well. While riding a crowded subway, I found myself scraping the bottom of my purse for a scrap of paper in which to jot down the names of authors and works that I've overlooked, forgotten about, and/or never heard of. What an absolute JOY! Throughout this biography, I am reminded of why Alice Walker's work is so important, so necessary. I am astounded by her courage and bravery and genorosity. Where in the world would we be without an Alice Walker? Now, I must press on and finish the book, though I am conflicted--I don't know whether to go slowly to savor every single sentence and stretch out my experience for a few more days, or to hurry up so I can bask in the feeling of being utterly inspired.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Color of Inspiration, September 23, 2005

By	Michael Sainte-Andress - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alice Walker: A Life (Hardcover)

This is really more of an acclamation than a review. It is simply the most inspirational book I have ever read. It deeply and personally touched me on so many levels and recalled many memories of my own life and childhood.

I became aware of Ms. Walker with "The Color Purple" and loved it but had never read any of her other work and did not know much else about her life. Ms. White clearly shows her to be a woman of uncommon intellect, divine talent, genuine
compassion and sterling integrity.

After reading the book I recommended it to everybody I knew because I thought it was so powerful in its message and lesson about struggle, redemption and the power of love.

It also rekindled my desire to become a serious and successful writer.

It is truly phenomenal!

Michael Sainte-Andress