I was a child in Rev. Jordan's church in Colorado Springs, when he wrote and compiled the sermons in the book. We could hardly wait to see what he would take out of his brown bag each Sunday. I was in junior high school I think, when he was convinced to whrite these sermons in to a book . They are a wonderfull resource for anyone doing childrens sermon. Mary L. Anderson's ilistrations are wonderful as well, she was a lovely lady.

An excellent source of information for the medical student. Concise, informative, and easy to understand.

Could the book move any slower? Or should I put that statement in words the author would use? " The heartbeat of the book was buried under an ever so faint pile of descriptive nonsense that tore away at the very lining of my soul and left me empty, with only remnants of an unbridled fear of a sequel to bide me..." And really, no matter how you look at it, the book is just that, descriptive nonsense. It was so hard to follow that I felt like I was reading a book that was written in French. The characters? Flat, each and every last one of them, especially that misguided Selena. There was no exploration into the motives of the characters whatsoever, for the life of me I can't understand the relationship between Selena and any of the characters, it was almost like the whole thing was a rough draft, and none of the characters and their paths were clearly established. And talk about boring! What exactly was the point in reading this? What in the heck was Paule trying to say through her novel? That Barbadians are similar to this? That this novel was somehow representative of Barbadian adolescent girls coming of age in New York? I sure hope not. I have written better things in my sleep. In the end I've read better, try The Bearnstein Bears, that is literary art at it's finest, this chick and her story can't compare.

Oh yeah, the ending... What ending?

In this book Paule Marshall blends an overly expressive and even awkward narrative with an almost incomprehensible and pretentious dialogue. Marshall wrote the dialogue of the Barbadian characters with an unrealistic slang. It used some words or phrases that had actually been used by Barbadian immigrants of the 30's and 40's, but she overused them. This and her unreadable colloquial spellings made her dialogue quite bad. The juxtapostion of her nonsensicle dialogue and her failled attempt at an elloquent narrative make this book an annoyance to read. The writing wasn't good, even though it did have it's moments, but what was even worse was the characters, every character in this book, including Selina to some degree was completely flat. Silla was bitter and underhanded, Deighton was lazy and after he joined the cult he was a souless religious fanatic. Ina was weak and Selina was independent, confused about growing up and immotionally strong. What made things worse was, none of these characters were likable at all, apart from Selina. However Selina was not likable most of the time because she seemed to be rebelling against Silla while at the same time Silla was the only reason Selina was remaining well and not dying of starvation. Besides being ingrateful to her mother she was completely unaware of what she stood for. She was a rebel without a cause (how original). In conclusion, besides having a depressing and exasperatingly slow moving plot, the book was so badly written that I couldn't wait until it was over. So, Paule Marshall, I apologize if you may have been offended by any of my statements in this review, but it is the way I feel. This book did had some good moments, but it was still not my cup of tea.

No Hard Feelings,

Andrew Nisinson

This book deals with an aspect of the African American experience which gets very little notice outside of the black community, namely that of the black immigrant. We hear a lot about immigrants from Europe who came here and helped build america. However, immigrants also came here from places like Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad, Panama, etc. Most whites will identify themselves as irish, polish, italian, german, etc ancestry. However, African Americans seem to be allowed only one ethnicity. It's as if in the darkness only one variation can be discerned. Like most immigrants, the Barbadians described in this book are highly motivated towards material success for themselves and their children. As seen in this book, sometimes this quest occurs at all costs even at the expense of outward expressions of love and affection. For example, Silla is referred to as 'the mother' throughout. As in many families, the ambitions of the parents for their children don't coincide with the children's as seen in the conflicts between Selena and her mother. Unlike white immigrants, their ambitions also run afoul of racism.

I found the narrative sometimes overly descriptive, especially in the preoccupation with sunlight and shadow. The brownstones and the streets often seemed like dark and brooding places.

My maternal grandparents were from Bardados, while my paternal grandfather was from St. Eustacia. I also grew up in Brooklyn (in a brownstone). Therefore, the landscape and the characters were very familiar. In fact, Claremont Sealy and Clive Springer are probably my cousins! A most enjoyable and thought provoking book. I look forward to reading more of Ms Marshall's book.

Thurgood Marshall does a remarkable job in arguing a very controversial case against all the odds. This is a classic court case because Marshall had to be very concise in his arguments due to the racial tensions of the time. This case does get a little long and may come across as quite technical for those not truly interested in the case, but for anyone who loves the law, this is a great book.