Let me say that being able to hold this treasure in my hands and to feel the souls of both the artist and those within, provides an experience I never thought I would have. This book is a road map to the soul of all of us and it is my wish for everyone who is fortunate enough to see it that the door to the inner self that shines from Bergman's work is opened to them. It is a rich feeling indeed to be able to open the book at any point and see the face and love of God. Bergman is blessed with a vision that has brought this to Everyman. A KIND OF RAPTURE is a great and universal gift.

These are images that go beyond being visually powerful, they also have a profound spiritual, emotional and intellectual meaning. Toni Morrison's provocative meditation, "The Fisherwoman", is an integral part of this great work of art and provides a perfect entree into a gallery of sacred beauty.

This superb book is nearly uncategorizable. The portraits contained in this volume, described as "color pictures of everyday people" taken with "a simple 35-mm camera, amateur film, no tripod, and no special lighting" are unlike any other photographs ever published. On a technical level, Robert Bergman's work equals the best of any of photographer now working (including any of a number of celebrity lensmen) while his painterly use of color, texture, and composition is unrivaled. This in itself would be enough for most photographers: in sensual terms there's much to startle and delight the eye. But for Bergman, the revelation of the inner life of the subject reigns supreme, and his masterly technique is entirely in the service of his manifest sympathy for each person whom he presents to us. It's here that these images depart so markedly from what we are used to seeing in a photograph of a person--each individual is revealed with the most penetrating gaze, but with such tenderness of spirit as to leave his or her human dignity unsullied. It's not photography, it's art. As Toni Morrison concludes in her Introduction, "Occasionally there arises an event or moment that one knows immediately will forever mark a place in the history of artistic endeavor. Robert Bergman's portraits represent such a moment, such an event."

The theoretical framework that Page provides is thorough, insightful, and compelling. He then offers brilliant readings of all six of Morrison's novels. Altogether, this is a wonderful critical approach, and one every teacher and student of Morrison should read.

The Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA) chose this book as a 1997 Nonfiction Honor Book. The awards recognize excellence in adult fiction and nonfiction by African American authors

Although we are to never judge a book by it's cover, I am so glad that I did just that. I instantly fell in love with this book's famous print of "The Three Ages" by Gustav Klimt on the jacket. As I scanned the pictures within I knew the book was coming home with me, and that I would be ordering and sending a copy to all of my friends and family. As a mother and an obstetrical nurse it was a pure pleasure to find that in most of the portraits selected the mother is shown nursing her infant, the perfect bond. The phrases, quotes and narrations are beautifuly chosen and arranged as progression through a childs life. A superb gift for any woman and a delight to find on any coffee table!

Toni Morrison's 1993 Nobel Lecture in Literature has a potent message for any age. It is enabling because it directs a reader toward a means of becoming accountable for the well-being of one's own mind and soul.

The "lecture" is a tale of young people who visit an old, blind wise woman. They come with a mocking question emblematic of those whose pleasure is the discomfiture of others. Their question "Is the bird we have alive or dead?" tells her their souls are distressed. Yet she refuses to mock their condition and tells them a powerful truth. "The bird is in your hands, you know if it is alive or dead."

They respond that there is no bird and that her reply burns their hearts. She helps them to understand that there IS a bird.

The bird may be taken to be a mind, a soul, a life. It is symptomatic of the malaise of the '90s that people lack the courage to be accountable for their minds, souls and lives. To find the courage to inspect one's OWN life, to imagine how OTHERS might feel, is to unearth one's own intelligence and determination. Soul-enriching external social and internal spiritual connections are the treasure found in the discovery of the "bird."

It does not matter if there is no bird as a physical being. There is content in a spirit that always requires courage, intelligence and imagination to nurture. The act of inward seeing, the courage to face uncertainty and the willingness to experiment in the presence of others who may or may not understand you is the "bird" that will stay alive in the mind. The act of understanding in communion with others ensures a realm where souls may feel trust.

At the end of the tale, the old woman and her visitors have made a journey on which they found the "bird' and created a a comforting bond among themselves. That they might be "slaves" or "free" is irrelevant: their human condition allows them the conjoined energy to imagine and to create.

Take one overwhelmingly male-centered and predominantly white society, add huge portions of power, racism, sexism, a misinformed public and gross displays of injustice, and you've got a recipe for the American way. This collection of essays written at the time of the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas hearings holds every bit of relevance now as it did nine years ago. Highlighting earlier civil rights legal battles and connecting their influence to the hearings themselves, each essayist examines in progressive detail just how pervasive--indeed, how dangerously latent--racism and sexism are in our society. How the volatile and often avoided issue of race can blind the equally volative and often dismissed issue of sexism in any race. In these essays, we are given a shockingly clear image of the circus that was the mishandling of the hearings. Explosive, revealling, and thought-provoking, this book yanks the proverbial rose-colored glasses from our collective American conscience and dares us to think for ourselves.

When facing the question of love (is it possible?) this book should be your manual. Just like "Beloved" deals with parental love and "Paradise" deals with love between man and his God, "Jazz" is the ultimate in romantic love. It is romantic, sometimes even funny, and all through reading it makes you feel like you`re standing on the edge of a cliff, hearing the most important thing to make the rest of your life livable, or at least give you the option to fly. It`s sad, on the verge of tragedy all through the book but somehow it keeps missing the tragic by a few inches and becomes if not optimistic, at least moral enough to make you belive in love (and the possibility of ethics) again. Though it is placed in early 20th century NY City, it is never nostalgic or cliche or preechy - Tony Morissons writing has such an air of urgency and blunt observation about it that it never falls into any of these traps. Read it, it amazing!!!!

First of all: Tally's book is listed in the wrong category - it has nothing to do with music but is a study of Toni Morrison's novel 'Jazz'.
The Story of 'Jazz': Toni Morrison's Dialogic Imagination, is a worthy sequel to Justine Tally's previous monograph on Toni Morrison's 'Paradise'. With refreshing clarity Tally discusses structure, theme, and the intricate subtleties of Morrison's literary discourse in this novel, without ever losing sight of her main hypothesis, i. e. that 'Jazz', though set in the Harlem of the 1920s, is not primarily a book about African American music or the Harlem Renaissance, but rather one about story-telling itself, about how our knowledge of events is created, changed, received, and (mis)understood. Mikhail Bakhtin's ideas about the 'dialogic imagination' in literature serve as congenial theoretical tools for this analysis. In fact, Tally's use of Bakhtin's theories is one of the most convincing and illuminating applications of Bakhtinian thought one can find in the fields of literary criticism. On the side, Tally also makes readers aware of the affinities of 'Jazz' to the 'hard-boiled' detective novels of Raymond Chandler, whose laconic style and implicit social criticism Morrison employs but also subverts in the second novel of her trilogy. At the end, the narrator has no definite story but rather acknowledges the importance of the dialogic nature of language and its consequent shaping of our perception; this includes the recognition that the "self" can only be formed and perceived through the "other." The story of 'Jazz' is ultimately the story of the relationship of language to the conceptualization of the self. For Morrison as for Bakhtin, "[a]n independent, responsible and active discourse is the fundamental indicator of an ethical, legal and political human being."
A very rewarding read, highly recommended for everyone who is interested in literature and stimulating scholarly criticism.

Toni Morrison received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993 for her writings dealing primarily with the experience of women within the black community. Her first book, "The Bluest Eye" was published in 1970 and she came to national attention with her 1977 novel "Song of Solomon." Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize for her 1987 novel "Beloved." All of her works display a poetic style that is fused with elements of fantasy and myth that give them great power. "Good Fiction," says Morrison, "should be beautiful, and powerful, but it should also work. It should have something in it that enlightens, something in it that opens the door and points the way."

This juvenile biography of Morrison by Amy Robin Jones tells us about the life of one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Morrison was born Chloe Wofford in the suburbs of Cleveland, so that her experience of racism growing up was that of the more subtle but no less hateful Northern variety. In college Morrison studied the work of William Faulkner and Virginia Woolf, developing her belief that writing should be beautiful and simple. Morrison taught black culture and politics at Howard University before becoming a senior editor at Random House in 1967. Three years later her first novel was published. Eventually, after 20 years as an editor, Morrison returned to teaching becoming a professor at Princeton University.

Students will find it interesting to learn the path Morrison took to becoming a writer. Of course, teachers and parents will need to provide some guidance for young readers who want to read one of Morrison's novels after reading about her life, because they really should not begin with "Beloved," even if it is the best known. Morrison is a writer where going through her works chronologically has greater value than most, so "The Bluest Eye" would be my recommendation. This is another excellent volume in the Journey to Freedom series, which seeks to educate students about the achievements and contributions of noted African Americans. I would also recommend the book on Maya Angelou from this series as well.

Justine Tally's brief and insightful study of Toni Morrison's Paradise (1998) is provocative and multi-dimensional. It usefully situates the novel in relation to Morrison's oeuvre especially to Jazz (1992) and Beloved (1987) the two earlier novels in her trilogy about post-emancipation African American culture and society and to Morrison's own critical writing which suffuses her discussion. This makes the book as much a summary of where Morrison has taken us to at century's end as a specific critique of her latest novel. There is a welcome use of Morrison scholarship from Europe, too often ignored by Morrisonians in America, although there are some surprising Stateside ommissions. Philip Price's wonderful Dangerous Freedom (1997) is not cited and Jill Matus's Toni Morrison (1998) with its interesting work on trauma which could have illuminated aspects of the discussion here is ignored (too late to use?). Meanwhile, Linden Peach's rather derivative discussions - in Toni Morrison (1995) - are afforded too much space. As would be expected considering the novel's recent provenance, there is much use of newspaper and magazine reviews that Tally skilfully uses to show the often narrow nature of their concern with Morrison and their inability to deal with the complexity of a difficult novel. Tally astutely foregrounds "History" in its numerous guises as key to a discussion of Paradise giving the reader useful contextualisation and yet showing the limitations of a traditional literary historical approach to such a demanding postmodern novel. Most interestingly she discusses how important arguments about essentialism are to understanding this novel, making what is often an arcane discussion, clearcut and stimulating. Morrison is often accused of being difficult, Tally's clearly written and sensitively argued monograph supplies some dynamic answers to these postmodern puzzles.

Justine Tally's "Paradise" Reconsidered: Toni Morrison's (Hi)stories and Truths is the first monograph exclusively devoted to Morrison's most recent novel, Paradise. The reader finds a comprehensive and thoughtful discussion of history in Paradise, history of Paradise, history and Paradise, and the book concludes with an examination of Paradise in the context of Morrison's other prose works. A contribution to the Forum for European Contributions to African American Studies, a new scholarly series produced in collaboration with the international Collegium for African American Research, this concise book impressively combines close reading with a thoughtful examination of the role of memory in historical fiction and with pressing questions on isues of race and gender.

Paradise Reconsidered is an elegantly written and tightly argued analysis of concepts of history, memory and narrative in Toni Morrison's Paradise. This will be an invaluable teaching resource for those of us who have included Paradise in our course lists, given not only Tally's knowledge of the field of African-American literature but also her ability to discuss complex concepts in lucid intelligible language.