UID:
kobvindex_ZLB34938923
ISBN:
9780063031685
Content:
" Passionate, personal, insightful, testy, and unique. 8212 Kirkus (starred review)Verdelle offers us testimony in praise and consideration of life as a literary citizen and Black woman alongside the guiding light of Toni Morrison. This is a holy testimony, indeed, one that deserves to be amen'd forever. 8212 Jason Reynolds, #1 New York Times Bestselling AuthorVerdelle gives us the greatest gift8212 our beloved ancestor returned to us8212 generous and alive, remembered and revered. So grateful for this book in the world. 8212 Jacqueline Woodson, author of Another Brooklyn If you let a black girl loose in a library, you may not recognize the woman who emerges. 8212 from Miss Chloe Toni Morrison, born Chloe A Wofford, was a towering figure in the world of literature when she entered A.J. Verdelle's life. Their literary friendship was a young writer's dream8212 simultaneously exhilarating, intimidating, fulfilling, and challenging. The relationship crossed generations, spanned several cycles in life, exhibited high and low notes, reached and dipped and found its way. Like many women friends, these two writers imagined and built a relationship that was responsive, inventive, and engaged. Miss Chloe powerfully situates the risks writers face and the freedom they find when they put Black women's lives into words. Verdelle chronicles her grief at Morrison's passing, and finds comfort in Morrison's astute advice8212 wisdom Verdelle didn't always recognize at the time. In this pensive and intricately lyrical book, Verdelle honors Morrison among the cultural greats, while illuminating and celebrating the power of language, legacy, and genius. A. J. Verdelle is the award-winning author of the novel, The Good Negress. She teaches Creative Writing at Morgan State University and at the MFA program at Lesley University. "
Content:
Biographisches: " A. J. Verdelle is an award-winning novelist and essayist. She is a recipient of a Whiting Writer's Award and teaches in the low-residency MFA program at Lesley University, and teaches undergraduates at Morgan State University. She remains a working mother, and feels confident that the western, Genuine Cowboy, will eventually have a life in print." Rezension(2): " Kirkus Reviews160" Rezension(3): "〈a href=http://lj.libraryjournal.com/ target=blank〉〈img src=https://images.contentreserve.com/libraryjournal_logo.png alt=Library Journal border=0 /〉〈/a〉: September 1, 2021 The only short story Nobel laureate Morrison ever wrote, Recitatif concerns Twyla and Roberta, friends in childhood, who lost touch as adults but keep encountering each other at places like a grocery store, a diner, and a protest march. One is white, one is black, but readers don't know which is which, Morrison having aimed to craft an experiment in the removal of all racial codes from a narrative about two characters of different races for whom racial identity is crucial. Bearing an introduction by Zadie Smith, this is the story's first-time appearance as a stand-alone. When Verdelle published the Good Negress in 1995, she won early praise from Morrison. The novel went on to claim the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award and PEN/Faulkner finalist honors, but Verdelle's next novel--a Western featuring Black characters--has languished. Nevertheless, the novel led to a friendship with Morrison, detailed here along with Verdelle's early struggles to write and thoughts on what it means to be considered a writer with promise, still struggling. Originally scheduled for September 2021. Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission. " Rezension(4): "〈a href=http://www.kirkusreviews.com target=blank〉〈img src=https://images.contentreserve.com/kirkus_logo.png alt=Kirkus border=0 /〉〈/a〉: March 15, 2022 The joys, challenges, and lasting lessons of a friendship with Chloe Ardelia Wofford, aka Toni Morrison. When I met Toni Morrison in person, I had been her reader and her cheerleader for dozens of years, writes Verdelle. What followed was more than two decades of friendship and hero worship, including delights and resentments big and small (the author is still wondering why Morrison had to steal her favorite scarf), along with two and a half spats dished in detail. Morrison may have been a diva in many ways, but Verdelle couldn't have met her under more auspicious circumstances. In 1997, after she received a copy of Verdelle's first (and only) published novel, The Good Negress, Morrison sent back an unsolicited appreciation, almost unheard of. She went on to get the younger author invited to teach at Princeton, where she herself was ensconced alongside Black luminaries like Cornel West, Nell Painter, and Yusef Komunyakaa. Princeton was a mixed bag for Verdelle, who was ultimately repulsed by the overwhelming privilege on display. (She now teaches at Morgan State, a historically Black college in Baltimore.) Verdelle writes forcefully about the individual novels and about Morrison's achievement as a whole. Relentlessly stripping the hegemonic gaze, she writes, Morrison made us and our human complexities so visible, in language so eloquent and deep, that the whole of world literature could not deny her innovation and brilliance. Elsewhere, she writes, Morrison is to literature as James Brown is to popular culture--the essence of Black and proud. The book is too long in the way of a phone conversation where the other person keeps thinking of one more thing they have to tell you, but luckily enough, that turns out to be interesting, as well. Verdelle is not afraid to grind an ax if necessary, and the one involving the failure of her second novel to see print is sharp indeed. Maybe something can be done about that. Passionate, personal, insightful, testy, and unique. COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. " Rezension(5): "〈a href=https://www.booklistonline.com target=blank〉〈img src=https://images.contentreserve.com/booklist_logo.png alt=Booklist border=0 /〉〈/a〉: May 1, 2022 A writer by definition engages in eternal self-reinvention,a literary genius sparks that reinvention in others. Chloe Wofford recreated herself as the literary titan Toni Morrison, and as Verdelle (The Good Negress, 1995) demonstrates, became the catalyst for a generation. I have seen folk take definite action, in their own best interest, as a result of a Toni Morrison book, writes Verdelle, who developed a worshipful, decades-long literary friendship with Morrison, whom she valued as a mentor. Yet there remained a distance between them. She did not want to 'help me' with my writing . She wanted me to deploy my own agency. Morrison abruptly told a gushing would-be writer, Well it sounds like you don't know what you're doing. While Morrison did not suffer fools, she did celebrate Black courage and artistry with every shimmering word. Verdelle captures Morrison's appreciation for Black female labor in a loving tribute to baking yeast rolls--a lengthy, intricate ritual that nourishes and connects generations and is a tangible embodiment of Black family strength. Verdelle has created a remarkable literary portrait and memoir. COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. "
Language:
English
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