In these pages Ward contemplates the writers and novels of her youth and adulthood—the transformative power of discovering Octavia Butler as a twenty-something, the mirror that Richard Wright’s novels held up to her own childhood, and of course, her lifelong love for Toni Morrison.
A collection of essays, profiles, introductions and speeches ... Hit-or-miss, as such assortments usually are ... Her writing about blue-collar Black life in the South, and about her family, comes alive because it is shrewd and vexed; Ward’s feathers are ruffled and she is more present on the page. She keeps everyone in the frame, and deals out facts and impressions so deftly that she makes you recall Saul Bellow’s comment that a fact is a wire though which one sends a current.
Ward’s essays frequently leave us gasping—amazed, ashamed. Not only does the author bear witness, but she also simultaneously seeks to move to a position of what she terms 'respair,' by which she means renewed hope in the face of despair. While our society has not yet come to grips with the evils of slavery and ongoing racism, Ward nevertheless finds moments of human connection ... Ward, finally, believes in love. Her own life, as these essays demonstrate, is testimony to those who have loved her, and though anger courses through her words, she ultimately writes out of love. Despite everything, she still believes.
An invaluable collection for Ward’s fans and a terrific introduction to one of the most powerful, and graceful, voices in American literature today ... There’s a few skippable essays here: promotional profiles of Regina King, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Ava DuVernay. Though engaging when they first appeared in print, they feel inessential years later ... We should all bear witness to Ward’s words. Read and respair.
