Helpful Score: 1
This book was a little hard to stick with at times, only because the writing was so different than anything I have ever experienced. After reading it though the book was such a blessing to me and changed the way I think about life. The writing was absolutely beautiful and brought tears to my eyes at times. A very beautiful book!
Very complex will keep your attention
From Publishers Weekly
Part love story, part fable, part feminist manifesto, part political statement, Walker's novel follows a cast of interrelated characters, most of them black. and each representing a different ethnic strain that contributes to the black experience in America. Marred by didacticism, theorizing and pontificating, "the book never achieves the narrative power of The Color Purple ," noted PW.
From Library Journal
Nothing in Walker's extraordinary new novel is fixed. Time and place range from precolonial Africa to post-slavery North Carolina to modern-day San Francisco; and the characters themselves change and evolve as their stories are told, their myriad histories revealed. Most often present are Miss Lissie, an old woman with a fascinating host of former lives; her companion, the gentle Mr. Hal; Arveyda, a soul-searching musician; his wife Carlotta, who was born in the South American jungle; Fanny, a young woman who has a tendency to fall in love with spirits; and her husband Suwelo, who tries hard but simply does not understand her. Out of the telling of their stories emerges a glorious and iridescent fabric, a strand connecting all their lives and former lives and seeming to pull all of existence into its folds. Walker's characters are magnetic, even with their all-to-human flaws and stumblings; they seem to contain the world, and to do it justice. Highly recommended.
Part love story, part fable, part feminist manifesto, part political statement, Walker's novel follows a cast of interrelated characters, most of them black. and each representing a different ethnic strain that contributes to the black experience in America. Marred by didacticism, theorizing and pontificating, "the book never achieves the narrative power of The Color Purple ," noted PW.
From Library Journal
Nothing in Walker's extraordinary new novel is fixed. Time and place range from precolonial Africa to post-slavery North Carolina to modern-day San Francisco; and the characters themselves change and evolve as their stories are told, their myriad histories revealed. Most often present are Miss Lissie, an old woman with a fascinating host of former lives; her companion, the gentle Mr. Hal; Arveyda, a soul-searching musician; his wife Carlotta, who was born in the South American jungle; Fanny, a young woman who has a tendency to fall in love with spirits; and her husband Suwelo, who tries hard but simply does not understand her. Out of the telling of their stories emerges a glorious and iridescent fabric, a strand connecting all their lives and former lives and seeming to pull all of existence into its folds. Walker's characters are magnetic, even with their all-to-human flaws and stumblings; they seem to contain the world, and to do it justice. Highly recommended.
Alice Walker refers to this as a romance of of the ages. It explores the interwoven lives, loves of several characters and is a sequel to the Color Purple. It explores identity, race, sex and relationshps. A worthwhile read.
If you haven't rad Alice Walker, you should, powerful writing
a great book
This book, filled with the author's unique combination of magic and reality, is a sweeping yet intimate novel about people who are tormented by the world's contradictions--black vs. white, man vs. woman, sexual freedom vs. sexual slavery, and past vs. present. Transcending the conventions of time and place, Walker's novel moves from contemporary America, England, and Africa to unfamiliar primal worlds, where women, men, and animals socialize in surprising ways.
I loved The Color Purple but have not been able to struggle through any of the other of her books I have tried to read, including this one. It's like she's trying to cover the whole black experience over hundreds of years, plus lives older than that. I read 140 pgs in this effort but will not try her books again.
''The Temple of My Familiar'' again bears a message from Africa, but this time in a far more determined manner. The message reaches us via Miss Lissie, an ancient goddess who has been incarnated hundreds of times, usually as a woman, sometimes as a man, once even as a lion. Less a character than a narrative device, Lissie enables Alice Walker to range back in time to the beginnings of (wo)man.
Afraid I didn't have a chance to read this one.
Written by the author of The Color Purple, this novel is an exploration of visions, dreams, and life in Africa.
Alice Walker is a goddess
A good one by the author of The Color Purple. Signed by the author.
Another Alice Walker wonderful book.
