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Long Distance Life by Marita Golden β€” book cover

Long Distance Life

by Marita Golden
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Overview

"A novel of impressive artistry and power." The Washington Post Caught in the web of history, generations of an African-American family play out their parts on a world stage that constantly changes, protected always by the love of one another, which never will.

Three generations of a black American family come to vivid life, against an authentically rendered backdrop of triumph and tragedy, in this powerful new novel by the acclaimed author of Migrations of the Heart and A Woman's Place.

Synopsis

"A novel of impressive artistry and power." The Washington Post Caught in the web of history, generations of an African-American family play out their parts on a world stage that constantly changes, protected always by the love of one another, which never will.

Publishers Weekly

In intense, luminous prose, Golden ( A Woman's Place ) deftly blends the experiences of one black family into the tapestry of 20th-century black history in America. Having grown up up in poverty as the daughter of a North Carolina sharecropper, Naomi Reeves moves to Washington, D.C., in 1926; there she begins a more promising life and eventually acquires a boarding house. Spunky, intuitive and proud, Naomi weds a teacher who cares deeply about black advancement and, following his death, rears their daughter, Esther. After dropping out of college, Esther becomes involved with a married man and bears his child. She later works for civil rights in the strife-torn South. Esther's older son, Logan, reflects her hard-won pride and courage; Nathaniel, her other boy, turns to drug dealing. Naomi's words are charged with the determination, vigor and stoicism that fueled the struggle for black equality. (Oct.)

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In intense, luminous prose, Golden ( A Woman's Place ) deftly blends the experiences of one black family into the tapestry of 20th-century black history in America. Having grown up up in poverty as the daughter of a North Carolina sharecropper, Naomi Reeves moves to Washington, D.C., in 1926; there she begins a more promising life and eventually acquires a boarding house. Spunky, intuitive and proud, Naomi weds a teacher who cares deeply about black advancement and, following his death, rears their daughter, Esther. After dropping out of college, Esther becomes involved with a married man and bears his child. She later works for civil rights in the strife-torn South. Esther's older son, Logan, reflects her hard-won pride and courage; Nathaniel, her other boy, turns to drug dealing. Naomi's words are charged with the determination, vigor and stoicism that fueled the struggle for black equality. (Oct.)

Book Details

Published
March 1, 1995
Publisher
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Pages
336
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780385521994

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