Overview
In Liliane: Resurrection of the Daughter, Ntozake Shange brings the strands of memories, dreams, and expectations of a young black woman's life into ours. Through the voices of her childhood friends, Roxie, Lollie, and Bernadette, we encounter the last moments of legal segregation in Mississippi and the beginnings of class war within the black community of Queens. The voices of her lovers, Victor-Jesus, Zoom, Thayer, and Sawyer, reveal Liliane in the more closeted dynamics of romance, both colored and not so colored. But it is in her own works as an artist that Liliane reveals most of what she knows about herself to her world and our own. Yet what Liliane does not know of herself, that which is buried, the underneath, the riches of the unconscious, become present during the years and hours of Liliane's classic analysis. By brilliantly interweaving the voices of Liliane and her analyst with monologues from the friends and lovers who have formed the geography of her experience, the actualities and eccentricities of Liliane's past come to use through her, and what were pieces of a young girl's life become the landscape of her future.Through the polyphonic voices of Liliane Lincoln's childhood friends and lovers, and conversations with her psychoanalyst, Shange reveals the life of a very remarkable young woman--an artist who exposes what she knows of herself to the world through her bold and colorful artwork.
Editorials
From the Publisher
"A standing ovation for Ntozake Shange. This is her finest work of fiction so far."—Clarence Major, Washington Post Book World"What a pleasure it is to hear Ntozake Shange singing in so many different keys, so many different tempos. Her Liliane is a dense, ambitious, worthy song."—Valerie Sayers, The New York Times Book Review
"Beautifully written and deftly crafted . . . a novel that is as sensual as it is sexy, that serves up as much lyricism as it does laughter."—Valerie Boyd, Atlanta Journal
"A powerful vision and perfect ear . . . Shange brilliantly captures . . . disparate places and times."—Samuel Shem, Boston Globe
"A daring portrait of a black woman artist recreating herself out of social and psychological chaos, the fragmentation that haunts our time, our nation. Ourselves."—Kelly Cherry, The Los Angeles Times Book Review