First published in 1990, The Temple of My Familiar, Alice Walkers follow-up novel to her iconic The Color Purple, spent more than four months on the New York Times Bestseller list and was hailed by critics as a major achievement (Chicago Tribune).
Described by the author as a romance of the last 500,000 years, The Temple of My Familiar follows a cast of interrelated characters, most of African descent, and each representing a different ethnic strainranging from diverse African tribes to the mixed bloods of Latin Americathat contribute to the black experience in America.
From Publishers Weekly
Part love story, part fable, part feminist manifesto, part political statement, Walker's novel follows a cast of interrelated characters, most of them black. and each representing a differ ent ethnic strain that contributes to the black experience in America. Marred by didacticism, theorizing and pontificating, "the book never achieves the narrative power of The Color Purple ," noted PW .
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Nothing in Walker's extraordinary new novel is fixed. Time and place range from precolonial Africa to post-slavery North Carolina to modern-day San Francisco; and the characters themselves change and evolve as their stories are told, their myriad histories revealed. Most often present are Miss Lissie, an old woman with a fascinating host of former lives; her companion, the gentle Mr. Hal; Arveyda, a soul-searching musician; his wife Carlotta, who was born in the South American jungle; Fanny, a young woman who has a tendency to fall in love with spirits; and her husband Suwelo, who tries hard but simply does not understand her. Out of the telling of their stories emerges a glorious and iridescent fabric, a strand connecting all their lives and former lives and seeming to pull all of existence into its folds. Walker's characters are magnetic, even with their all-to-human flaws and stumblings; they seem to contain the world, and to do it justice. Highly recommended.
- Jessica Grim,
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Library : General
Formats : EPUB
ISBN : 0547480008