Corregidora (Paperback)

by Gayl Jones (Author)
Key Phrases: supper show, Gayl Jones, May Alice, Great Gram (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
When Ursa Corregidora is five years old and questions the truth of her great-grandmother's stories, her great-grandmother tells her, "I'm leaving evidence. And you got to leave evidence too. And your children got to leave evidence. And when it come time to hold up the evidence, we got to have evidence to hold up. That's why they burned all the papers, so there wouldn't be no evidence to hold up against them." Ursa's great-grandmother was raped and then used as a whore by her white slave owner, Corregidora, as was her daughter after her. Ursa had a black father, but her skin more closely resembles the color of Corregidora, the man who is both her grandfather and great-grandfather. Ostracized by darker-skinned women who resent the added value her light skin gives her among black men, and unable to trust any man, black or white, because of the stories she was raised on, Ursa Corregidora sings the blues and fights both the past and the present to maintain mental and physical autonomy. Internal monologues, dreams and remembered stories intermingle with present-day reality until it becomes difficult for the reader or Ursa to draw the lines between them, a task made doubly difficult when black men echo the proprietary attitudes (and sometimes words) of dead slave owners. Gritty and full of pain, a combination of snarl and moan, Corregidora presents a searing denunciation of racism and sexism in both white and black communities. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. -- From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Erica Bauermeister

Review
"Corregidora is the most brutally honest and painful revelation of what has occurred, and is occurring, in the souls of Black men and women." -James Baldwin

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Product Details

• Paperback: 185 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press (February 15, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807063150
• ISBN-13: 978-0807063156
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #277,634 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A "Blues" Novel, A Stunning Debut, December 22, 1998

By A Customer

I read the book after I'd already gone through The Healing and it made me understand why her debut astonished the literary community. She created a deep bluesy world in which to explore themes of love, geneology, black matriarchy, memory, forgiveness, loyalty...One wishes she could have told more stories, had a career trajectory like Morrison's but her personal life did not accomodate her gift. Ursa Corregidora is a beautiful blues singer in 1930's middle America. A tragic accident (or is it?) leaves her unable to bear children and tormented by the twisted lineage of a line of women that will end with her. I would recommend the book for anyone interested in women's fiction, black historical fiction, American fiction. Similar theme to Beloved but much more spare prose style, much is left for the reader to infer, improvise. A slim, powerful book.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one of the most powerful books I ever read, March 24, 1998

By A Customer

This book gripped me in a way few others have - the intermingling of past and present, slavery and so-called "freedom," drove home the realities of oppression. When a woman whose only source of power is the ability to "make generations" is unable to have children, it echoes with a scream of despair. I recently read an article about the author, who was apparently in an abusive marriage that ended recently with her husband's suicide - and attempted murder of her. No wonder she was able to convey pain in such a vivid way.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Deep, Dark, and Gripping!, April 5, 2003

By	Phyllis Rhodes (Orlando, FL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

From the time that Ursa Corregidora is able to listen, she is told by her great-grandmother that she must retain "the evidence" in order to pass it on to her children. Initially, one would think this is a harmless request. However, "the evidence" is an oral history of how her great-grandmother was raped and then used as a whore by her white slave owner, Corregidora, as was her daughter (Ursa's grandmother) after her. Corregidora then impregnates Ursa's grandmother (his biological daughter) to produce Ursa's mother. Not only is this a disturbing history for a child to commit to memory, but her great-grandmother's resentment and distrust of men were also passed onto a young Ursa.

Although Ursa had a black father, she resembles the Portuguese Corregidora. Her light skin and fine hair causes her to be ostracized by black women and desired by black men. She expresses her lifelong frustrations in the form of song and has moderate success as a blues singer in the small local club circuit. Ursa finds herself suffering emotionally, verbally, and physically at the whim of her husband, Mutt, who begins to exhibit the same jealousy, possessiveness, and envy that her great-grandmother shared regarding her relationship with Corregidora.

Through flashbacks and internal memories, we understand Ursa's mental anguish when trying to discern between the painful slave legacy and her present day household situation. True to the mindset of the time, a woman's childbearing ability is looked upon as her only source of power and we see Ursa's torment further exacerbated when her ability to pass "the evidence" to her children is jeopardized.

This book addresses racism, slavery, and sexism on several different levels. Be warned-- it grips the reader from the beginning and goes deep in a very "Alice Walker-ish" kind of way. I experienced difficulty following the dialogue at times but I hung in there and relied on inference to follow the author's insinuations; and despite this one `snag', I was not disappointed with Ms. Jones's first novel. This is a short but complex read; it is not for everyone, however I found it was a worthwhile literary departure from the "norm."

Reviewed by Phyllis
APOOO BookClub
April 4, 2003