Alice Walker Essays

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Having just finished that soaring piece of literature, it was this element that I found most intriguing.

So many of these essays I would give 5 stars for, but I skimmed some other shorter selections or journal entries, losing focus at times.

Many of the essays seemed as if they were written during a period of hibernation. Some of them are just journal entries, private thoughts made public. If you didn't pick up this book to read someone's very personal thoughts and feeling, you'll probably be left disappointed.

It seemed that for Alice Walker, major writing projects were a source of great physical strain as if the act of writing some works was a battle for her soul. If you're hoping for a "book" in the sense of a coherent sum of its various parts (in the same way songs make up an album), then I think you'll be disappointed.

", "Coming in from the Cold", "A Name is Sometimes an Ancestor Saying Hi, I'm With You", "Everything is a Human Being", and "The Universe Responds: Or, How I Learned We Can Have Peace on Earth".

There are so many fantastic quotes from these essays, especially the last two, that made me think about life differently, question why things are the way they are, or made me appreciate the little things more. Living by the Word is a collection of essays and journal entries spanning the years from 1973-1987.

What struck me about "Living by the Word" was just how much the book seemed a process of healing.

Many of the essays seemed as if they were written during a period of hibernation.

I feel the same way about some of my writing projects..it's interesting that I write similar types of small essays as a way of recuperating from these larger exertions. If you're looking for deep, soulful, honest writing -- then I think you've found exactly what you need. Of course there were a couple of essays that didn't do it for me, but the great thing about anthologies is you can skip something if you don't like it after a page or five.

Some of the essays are acts of mourning or celebrations of triumphs. "We grow, including the intellectual and the spiritual, without being deeply aware of it.