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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
An informative but flawed list, October 19, 2001
Here's a handy rule: always be wary of any person or institution who claims to have produced a list of "essential" items in any field. A case in point: "Sacred Fire: The QBR 100 Essential Black Books," by Max Rodriguez, Angeli R. Rasbury, and Carol Taylor. The book is a list of 100 books from the African Diaspora, each with a brief descriptive commentary. The book features a foreword by Charles Johnson. While informative to a degree, this list is, in my opinion, seriously flawed.In his foreword, Johnson mocks other recent attempts to create "essential" lists. He complains, for example, of the "nervous tokenism" of the "100 Best English-Language Novels" list from the Modern Library. Ironically, such criticisms could also be applied to this book! How did they come up with the list? Rodriguez is fuzzy on that point in his intro. He notes that the list stems from a request, addressed to individuals, to name 10 Black books that had the greatest impact on them. Rodriguez claims, "We asked everyone," then immediately admits that such an absurd statement is false. But he does note that he asked his sister! Most of the books chosen are indeed essential classics. But I found the list as a whole too "safe," unimaginative, and narrow of vision. Johnson acknowledges the omission of such writers as Samuel Delany and Rita Dove in his foreword. Books with an experimental, cutting edge quality seem to be absent. I was also dismayed by the failure to include many historic literary milestones by African-American women. Books by Black gay men that deal directly with the black gay experience are also largely absent. Black lesbians are represented by a token appearance by Audre Lorde (with her book "Sister Outsider"). A number of groundbreaking anthologies also fail to appear. And where are the Afro-Hispanic writers? Even the remarkable science fiction author Octavia Butler is solely represented by "Kindred" -- an excellent book, but probably the "safest" and most conventional choice from her incredible personal canon. Just a few books I would add to an expanded edition: Adrienne Kennedy's "In One Act," an anthology of plays by this award-winning, boldly experimental pioneer of drama; Phillis Wheatley's "Poems on Various Subjects," an 18th century landmark in poetry; Harriet Jacobs' "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl," perhaps the most important autobiography by a 19th-century Black woman; "Nine Plays by Black Women," a stunning anthology edited by Margaret Wilkerson; and Ann Allen Shockley's "Loving Her," a novel which broke new ground for the portrayal of sexuality in the Black novel. Also try Audre Lorde's poetic, moving "Zami"; Alexis De Veaux's "Don't Explain: A Song of Billie Holiday," an amazing biography told in poetic form; "Brother to Brother: New Writings by Black Gay Men," the anthology edited by Essex Hemphill; "A Puerto Rican in New York and Other Sketches," by Jesus Colon, who proudly claimed a Black Latino identity decades before it was politically correct; Anna Julia Cooper's "A Voice from the South," a pioneering collection of essays; "Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology," edited by Barbara Smith; Pat Parker's "Movement in Black," the rich poetic testament of an outspoken Black lesbian; and Samuel Delany's "Dhalgren," an enigmatic epic which extends the boundaries of both science fiction and the African-American novel. I could go on, but I'll quit here.
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