Reviews

• A strong, bitter and beautiful dose of truth

  I will borrow these words from the item page for this book: "The Black Notebooks is one of the most extraordinary and courageous accounts of race in this country, seen through the eyes of a light-skinned black woman and a respected American poet. It challenges all our preconceived notions of what it means to be black or white, and what it means to be human." These words seem true to me, but do not bear witness to the immense pain captured in this book. It is originally the multiple pains experienced and captured by the author, but it is also the pain we all share living in this racist (though also astonishing, beautiful, great and unfathomable) society we call America. I have read this book twice, each time in a concentrated interval of one or two days. Once read it weighs heavily on the mind and soul. The number of words consumed in reading it is not large, but those words form a potent dose of truth, one that I have difficulty handling. I started reading it again today but put it aside as I do not wish to undertake the difficult effort of absorbing that dose of truth on this particular day. I expect to have to read this book again and again to do it justice by eventually having my mind accept the bitterness of the truth it contains. It is fortunate that this book contains great beauty as well, for when I am finally able to accept its bitter truth, I will also have possession of its beauty.

• Toi tells all

  I joined a reading group at the university and The Black Notebooks is one of the required reads for the discussion. I quickly searched Amazon for this book and found it in hardcover and was excited. I recently attended the group and Toi was our guest speaker--she signed the book for me and now I feel as though I have a treasure to keep. Many thanks for your quick delivery.

• I feel you

  It is going to take me a while to read this book because it is deep and the author has a highly developed mind and I don't want to miss anything. At every other sentence I want to write the author and tell her so much about how I agree with her and to add more to what she has said. Then I remember that I must restrain myself because I believe there is nothing to be done about our unique & emotion packed situation. Few people even talk about it. The author is just another unsung heroine. But...there will be another day !

• Eye opening Heart awakening insights

  Powerful read

• Five Stars

  Beautiful and moving! Very generous and difficult.

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