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HerStory: fiction - Bookshelf - The Dew Breaker - Eden, Ohio - Too Much of A Good Thing - In My Bedroom - Would I Lie to You? - Shades of Black: Crime and Mystery Stories by African-American Writers - Shaking the Tree: A Collection of New Fiction and Memoir by Black Women - Proverbs for the People - Book Review
Ebony, March, 2004
THIS month, as we recognize and celebrate the strength, wisdom and courage of Sisters in all walks of life, it just makes sense to take a closer look at current and recent titles generated by African-American women--women who are writing across all genres and who know that history would be incomplete without full exposure to all dimensions of HerStory.
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The connecting link to our past is present in two new works of fiction. The Dew Breaker (Alfred A. Knopf, $22.00) is the latest by best-selling author Edwidge Danticat, acclaimed for her works on her native Haiti, which is celebrating the 200th anniversary of its independence. The title derives from Danticat's translation of the Creole expression for a brutal regional leader who reigned during the regimes of Francois (Papa Doc) and his son Jean Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier. Here Danticat brings together the lives of neighbors, family and victims of the dew breaker, a man trying to shroud his past crimes in Haiti in his new identity in America. She also fuses the beauty and tragedy of her native land, a land her characters want to forget and remember all at once. Eden, Ohio (Dutton, $23.95) by Shawne Johnson is the story of a town and its citizens who are bound together by their secrets and their remarkable gifts. Named after paradise by the 12 runaway slaves who established the town, Eden is a place offering hope and redemption to the descendants who are burdened by the blessings of the town's matriarch Eliza, a powerfully intuitive woman who had guided the original 12 runaways to freedom.
Personal relationships always make for good storylines. In Too Much of A Good Thing (William Morrow, $23.95), award-winning author Kimberla Lawson Roby brings back the handsome, charismatic, philandering minister Curtis Black, who was introduced to readers in Casting the First Stone. Now his marriage is in shambles, he has lost his church and renewed temptation could risk his very life. In My Bedroom (St. Martin's Press, $19.95) by Donna Hill explores the connection among three unforgettable women. In this latest offering by Hill, the best-selling author of 18 books, we see richly drawn characters and the strength, passion and healing that bind them, as deep secrets are unlocked, possibly freeing them all in the process. Would I Lie to You? (Crown Publishers, $22.00) by Trisha Thomas is the long-awaited sequel to Nappily Ever After, featuring heroine Venus Johnson in a continuing struggle to find meaning in her successful professional life while still wanting for more on the personal side. Crime pays, at least in reader satisfaction, with Shades of Black: Crime and Mystery Stories by African-American Writers (Berkley Prime Crime, $23.95) edited by Eleanor Taylor Bland. It's the first anthology featuring exclusively contemporary African-American mystery authors--Sisters in crime like Grace Edwards, Penny Mickelberry, Evelyn Coleman and Bland, as well as notable Brothers like Walter Mosley, Hugh Holton, Gar Anthony Haywood and Christopher Chambers, with a preface by Lerone Bennett Jr. The 22 stories explore different aspects of the Black experience in gripping whodunits.
The next generation of contemporary Black women writers come together in Shaking the Tree: A Collection of New Fiction, and Memoir By Black Women (W. W. Norton, $24.95), edited by Meri Nana-Ama Danquah. The book features a stellar lineup that includes Veronica Chambers, asha bandele, Lisa Jones and ZZ Packer, women who were weaned on the works of legendary Black women writers, and now are defining a new era of American literature. Proverbs for the People (Dafina Books/Kensington, $24.00), edited by Tracy Price-Thompson and TaRessa Stovall, is a collection of short stories by such writers as Pearl Cleage and Donna Hill, based on ancient African, African-American and Biblical proverbs, with unifying themes, wit and wisdom to inspire and educate a new generation.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Johnson Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group
