Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 30, 1994 TAG: 9401300203
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Edited by Valerie Smith, Lea Baechler, and A. Walton Litz. Collier Books. $15 (trade paper).
Every February teachers and parents encourage students to look more deeply into African American history and literature. This new paperback edition of "African American Writers" will be a valuable tool in that research.
There are 27 solid articles on individual writers from James Baldwin to Richard Wright, with others such as Lorraine Hansberry, Nella Larson and Jean Toomer in their alphabetical order. An essay on the writers of the major slave narratives of the 18th and 19th centuries covers the work of Olaudah Equiano (Gustavus Vassa), Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Jacobs.
Valerie Smith's introduction is focused on the different traditions in the writing and reception of works by African American writers. The politics of the moment have determined how works by many black writers have been received. Slave narratives were written and read as ideological protests against slavery; black women writers were concerned about issues of sexism and racism. It is useful therefore to have a volume in which the literary and critical place of a particular writer is considered as well as the political and sociological impact of a body of work. "African American Writers" is affordable and should be included in any comprehensive collection of reference works in the school or home library.
- LENI ASHMORE SORENSEN
Renfro's Christmas.
D.J.'s Worst Enemy.
By Robert Burch. University of Georgia Press. $14.95 and $19.95.
Back-in-print is always a welcomed phrase for good children's stories, and any title by Robert Burch is specially welcome. "D.J.'s Worst Enemy" and "Renfro's Christmas" are both tales of the Madison family in rural Georgia in the 1930s. D.J. is a 12-year-old boy trying to be a good guy toward his family and friends but never quite making it. Burch gives the reader a strong, clear character of an adolescent who seems to have a mean streak, but, hey, not everybody is perfect and even D.J. knows that. "Renfroe's Christmas" is a short book featuring D.J.'s young brother who learns that both gift-giving and gift-receiving can bring pleasure.
Robert Burch is a notable children's author whose other works include the acclaimed "Queenie Peavy" (Puffin Books. 1987. $3.99) and "Ida Early Comes Over the Mountain" (Viking. 1980. $14.99). All his stories have a quietly humorous tone, making them excellent read-alouds.
- LYNN ERWIN
Grieving: A Love Story.
By Ruth Coughlin. With an introduction by Michael Durris. Random House. $17.
On April 25, 1993, William Coughlin died from cancer. He must have been one hell of a guy; every word of Ruth Coughlin's book about his illness glows with the love she still has for her husband. Her struggles with pain and her attempts to find a reason for getting up each morning are experiences everyone has faced or will face someday. After months of absolute panic, she found her reason . . . writing about him, about them. What a beautiful tribute it is.
While working for a publishing house in New York, Ruth met Bill when she was assigned as editor for the first of his novels to be published in the United States. A widower with six grown children, a lawyer and judge, he lived in Michigan, a place as foreign to Ruth as Uruguay. Even so, she married him and moved to Grosse Point, not to live happily ever after but for about eight years.
Then, the diagnosis - a malignant tumor in Bill's liver - and delight changed to horror. "Grieving" is Ruth Coughlin's cry from the heart but it is much more than that. She expresses with eloquence the joys of love, of friendship, of camaraderie. I read it in one sitting, crying and laughing with her, regretting that I will never know Bill Coughlin and admiring his choice of a help-meet.
- LYNN ECKMAN
\ Leni Ashmore Sorensen is a graduate student at the College of William and Mary.\ Lynn Erwin is a librarian at Hollins College.\ Lynn Eckman teaches at Roanoke College.
by CNB