Things I Should Have Told My Daughter BOOK REVIEW)
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Things I Should Have Told My Daughter:
Lies, Lessons and Love Affairs
by Pearl Cleage
Atria Books
Hardcover, $23.99
320 pages
ISBN: 978-1-4516-6469-0
Book
Review by Kam Williams
“In
addition to being one of the most popular living playwrights in America, Pearl
Cleage is a best-selling author with an Oprah Book Club pick and multiple
awards to her credit… In this deeply personal work, Cleage takes readers back
to the1970s and ‘80s, retracing her struggles to hone her craft amidst personal
and professional tumult…
Lies,
Lessons and Love Affairs charts not only the political fights, but also the
pull she began to feel to focus on her own passions, including writing… as she
grappled with ideas of feminism and self-fulfillment.
In
the tradition of greats like Susan Sontag, Joan Didion, and Nora Ephron,
Cleage’s self-portrait raises women’s confessional writing to the level of
great literature… This fascinating memoir follows her journey from a columnist
for a local weekly to a playwright and Hollywood
scriptwriter whose circle came to include luminaries like Richard Pryor, Avery
Brooks, Phylicia Rasha, Shirley Franklin, and Jesse Jackson.”
--
Excerpted from Book Jacket
Pearl
Cleage is the daughter of Reverend Albert Cleage (1911-2000), the legendary Detroit cleric and
founder of the Shrine of the Black Madonna. The author of such groundbreaking books
as The Black Messiah (1968) and Black Christian Nationalism: New Directions for
the Black Church (1970), he also spearheaded a
seminal movement to reposition Jesus Christ as a darker-skinned man of African descent.
Given the
times and her charismatic father’s prominence, it only makes sense that Pearl would develop an
interest in the Civil Rights Movement during her formative years. In fact, she
would become fascinated with the tactics and philosophy of progressive student
organizations like SNCC and SDS.
We are now
privy to this because, beginning in 1970, Pearl
kept a detailed diary of her intimate insights about her day-to-day life. And
like a lot of sisters, she had her concerns about the patriarchal attitudes of
leaders which left females feeling marginalized.
For
example, on March 27, 1970, she mused, “What a revolution. Stokely [Carmichael]
said the place of the woman in the revolution should be prone.” So, it is no
surprise that Pearl,
would eventually tire of such sexist subjugation, and reject being relegated to
second-class status in favor of a path of self-fulfillment. Her
ensuing transformation into a feminist writer juggling marriage and motherhood
is the subject of Things I Should Have Told My Daughter: Lies, Lessons and Love
Affairs. The memoir is essentially a series of refreshingly-frank journal
entries recorded by the author between 1970 and 1988, covering periods of both
quiet reflection and tremendous upheaval in what’s been a very eventful life
thus far.
A revealing
peek into the ever-evolving soul of an African-American literary icon.
To order a copy of Things I Should Have Told My Daughter,
visit: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1451664699/ref%3dnosim/thslfofire-20
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