Alice Walker

Children's Literature - Leila Toledo

The primary reason many people read Alice Walker's works is that they can come away with a better understanding of characters whose environment, culture and upbringing are different than theirs. Alice Walker has explained it this way: "Because I'm black and I'm a woman and because I was brought up poor and because I'm a southerner....the way I see the world is quite different from the way many people see it." Personal criticism can help the reader and the author understand the effect that culture has on the writer, although the author's statements may be taken as a representation of a specific group. Literary critics have pointed out that black men in Walker's works are struggling (mostly unsuccessfully) to become whole and that her negative as well as her positive experiences in the south give a richness to her writings. Among those who present critiques in this work, Marcia Noe and Michael Jaynes cite sources that an instructor can use to teach a college undergraduate literature class about issues of race, class and gender. I found these sources to be quite powerful and valuable in stimulating thoughts of others and eroding misconceptions that young people have. Harold Bloom has written thirty books and edited numerous critical reviews, including volumes about Homer, Agatha Christie, Arthur Miller, James Baldwin, Charles Dickens, Joyce Carol Oates, and Ernest Hemingway. This is part of the "Bloom's Modern Critical Views" series. Reviewer: Leila Toledo

School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up-A complete research and study guide in one volume. This title includes detailed plot summaries that will be helpful to readers struggling with the books, lists of characters, and excerpts from 25 critical essays on two of Walker's novels-Meridian and The Color Purple-along with a brief biography of the writer and a thematic index. The list of critical voices ranges from Marge Piercy's praise of Walker's writing to Richard Wesley's criticism of the writer's portrayal of black men in The Color Purple to bell hooks's "The Erotic Metaphysic." However, the essays are somewhat limited in that the critics tend to address the subject matter and social concerns of Walker's works more than their artistic merit. Students doing research on one of these books will be glad to have all their work done for them and grateful for the compact package it comes in and libraries will find it chock-full of resources. Serious researchers would be better served by Bloom's Alice Walker (Chelsea, 1990), which includes full-length essays with a little meat on them.-Herman Sutter, Saint Agnes Academy, Houston, TX Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|