Glorious by Bernice McFadden... A Review

"God balances the sheet in time"

... Zora Neale Hurston

Back of the Book... Glorious is set against the backdrops of the Jim Crow South, the Harlem Renaissance, and the civil rights era. Blending the truth of American history with the fruits of Bernice L. McFadden’s rich imagination, this is the story of Easter Venetta Bartlett, a fictional Harlem Renaissance writer whose tumultuous path to success, ruin, and revival offers a candid portrait of the American experience in all its beauty and cruelty.

Bernice McFadden wants you to pay attention to the words you're reading on the pages. She wants you to feel what it was like to live during the cruelty that existed in the South during the early 20th century. She brings you into Harlem so you can see and feel the world around you during the civil rights era... She shocks you by showing you what could have been glanced over by a less honest writer, and she wraps her arms around you and brings you into the story.

Bernice McFadden creates wonderful women characters. They are strong, resilient and complicated. Easter Bartlett is one of those women. She is Glorious. Her life is heartbreaking, cruel, and gripping. Glorious is thought-provoking, as we are immediately thrown into the rape of Easter's sister, the horror of a lynching of a pregnant girl, and a back room abortion. I felt like she slapped me across the face to make sure I was looking so I could see, really see how it was... But through all of this Easter never loses her self, her pride, and her dream, her dream of writing... Getting past the shocking start to Glorious was a challenge, but well worth it. Easter is such a wonderful character I found myself becoming protective of her, wanting to make sure she was alright, so I kept turning those pages. And her life was so varied and interesting. Bernice is a master storyteller. Her stories are filled with living breathing characters, characters that are flawed, feel love, and feel pain... Characters that will wrap themselves around your heart... The characters in Glorious are no different, and you will be drawn into the story immediately. Glorious is great writing, a powerful story, and in the hands of Bernice McFadden, haunting...

Bernice blends fact and fiction as she creates Easter, a fictional Harlem Renaissance writer. The story of African-American writers who, during the era of segregation, were discounted simply because of their skin color is true. One such wonderful writer that comes to mind is Zora Neale Hurston, who died in virtual obscurity in an unmarked grave, but thanks to the efforts of the writer Alice Walker, had her own renaissance.

I want to thank Bernice McFadden who sent along a copy of Glorious for me to review. Thank you Bernice, Glorious is such an incredible story! I enjoyed reading it!

*P.S. This Book is Kindle Ready!

Sugar by Bernice L. McFadden... A Review

Sugar by Bernice L. McFadden

From the Publisher... When a young prostitute comes to Bigelow, Arkansas, to start over, far from her haunting past. Sugar moves next door to Pearl, who is still grieving for the daughter who was murdered fifteen years before. Over sweet-potato pie, an unlikely friendship begins, transforming both women's lives--and the life of an entire town...

Sugar brings a Southern African-American town vividly to life, with its flowering magnolia trees, lingering scents of jasmine and honeysuckle, and white picket fences that keep strangers out--but ignorance and superstition in. To read this novel is to take a journey through loss and suffering to a place of forgiveness, understanding, and grace.

I didn't know what to expect from Sugar as I read the opening scene of a horrendous murder of a young black girl named Jude and the devastated mother she left behind named Pearl. The year was 1940, the place was a southern black town, and it was the era of segregation...

"No one cared except the people who carried the same skin color"

Bernice McFadden made me feel the anguish of a mother who lost her child; the injustice of the times as it was known nothing was going to be done about it... And then she whisked me ahead 15 years. Pearl is still mourning the loss of her daughter, Jude, in her quiet reserved manner... But there's a new girl in town, and her name is Sugar - a young prostitute looking to change her life. Sugar exudes sex, with her short short skirts, spiky high heels, and BIG attitude. Pearl is a quiet obedient church-going wife. Their unlikely friendship creates amazing changes in both of them... much to the dismay of Pearl's church going friends, but to the delight of Pearls family.

Bernice is a master storyteller. Her prose is beautiful. As the layers of this story unfold, of murder, secrets, jealousy and pride, Bernice seamlessly weaves it all together to an amazing ending. I felt a whirlwind of emotions as I read Sugar; I laughed, I cried and I felt anger. I saw past those short skirts Sugar wore and found a little girl struggling to catch her breathe. And I walked through a small town scared to open its arms to someone who obviously wasn't 'one of them'... or was she? I kept turning those pages... Graphic in nature at times, but not gratuitous, you will appreciate Sugar's sincerity. You'll appreciate the rich, complex and strong female characters fully fleshed out and who don't shy away from sharing their feelings. Bernice has also captured the feel of small town life, with the soft whispers heard between small clutches of people. The story will grab your attention, and your heart, and will not let you go until the very last page.

Sugar is friendship... it's honesty wrapped up in the poetry of words... it's redemption and it's powerful...

Would you like to read an excerpt? Read the first chapter at the publisher's website! You can also learn more about Bernice and her writing at her website, bernicemcfadden.com. There you will also find discussion questions, because Sugar would make an excellent reading group pick! I want to thank Bernice for sending me a review copy! I just loved reading Sugar! And I want to thank Bernice for also letting me know that there is a sequel to Sugar! The story continues with This Bitter Earth! I'm so happy because I wasn't quite ready to give up visiting Bigelow, Arkansas and spending time with Sugar! A wonderful story & wonderful characters, what more can you ask for?!

*P.S. This Book is Kindle Ready!

*P.S.S. Hey, I'm sharing this review with Cym Lowell's Book Review Party!

Banned Books Week! National Reading Group Month! and a Book that fits into BOTH catagories... their eyes were watching god by Zora Neale Hurston

"I have the nerve to walk my own way, however hard, in my search for reality, rather than climb upon the rattling wagon of wishful illusions."

Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) was one of the most significant collectors and interpreters of Southern African American culture, writer, folklorist & anthropologist. A graduate of Howard University and Barnard College, she then spent 2 years in graduate studies in anthropology at Columbia University. Her other love was writing , which she combined with her research in folklore and anthropology.

"She refused simply to record the ways of her people and thereby condemn her “studies” to dusty library shelves where only researchers would consider them. Rather Zora used her creative genius to being the unique and wonderful culture of African Americans to mainstream America via captivating novels, short stories and dramatic presentations. The woman from Eatonville, Florida, has captured the attention of a worldwide audience with her interpretation of African American culture as a part of the human saga."

She worked with Langston Hughes, influenced writers such as Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison and Alice Walker. But she was also a controversial writer... Thinking like a folklorist, Hurston strove to represent speech patterns of the period which she documented through her research. But other African American writers criticized her for using language that represented a "stereotype". Eventually she fell out of favor with the times and wound up broke and working as a maid at the time of her death. She was buried in an unmarked grave. A terribly sad ending. The writer Alice Walker went to pay her respects to Zora Neale Hurston who's book their eyes were watching god "speaks to me as no novel, past or present, has ever done." and decided that the writer deserved more than an unmarked grave. Her writing was so inspiring to Ms. Walker, that she brought Zora Neale Hurston out of obscurity and back into the limelight...

their eyes were watching god is the best known work by Zora Neale Hurston. Initially published in 1937, this novel about a proud, independent black woman's quest for identity, a journey that takes her through three marriages and back to her roots, has been one of the most widely read and highly acclaimed novels in African-American literature. It's a story about Janie Crawford, an attractive, confident, middle-aged black woman, who returns to Eatonville, Florida, after a long absence. The black townspeople gossip about her and speculate about where she's been and what happened to her husband, Tea Cake. They take her confidence as her being snobbish, but Janie’s friend Pheoby sticks up for her. Pheoby visits her to find out what happened. And that's the beginning of a story filled with failed marriages, strong women and finally true love... And a CHALLENGED BOOK! Why? Because of it's language and sexual explicitness. Most recently challenged in 1998.

Have you read their eyes were watching god? It's been on my bookshelf waiting for me to crack the spine! Time magazines literary critic listed their eyes were watching god as one of the 100 best English-Language novels from 1923 - 2005. Would you like to read an excerpt? Here's a link to Chapter One! their eyes were watching god has a reading group guide available from Harper Collins HERE. Zora Neale Hurston's choice of writing style & dialect, and use of folklore are some of the discussion points.

*P.S. This Book is Kindle Ready! AND at a BARGAIN price of $3.95!