Now is the Time to Open Your Heart - Alice Walker

http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=17-9780812971392-0: When I was in college, I did a fellowship in the African-American studies department. My thesis was called "Survival Through Storytelling" and it focused on Alice Walker's The Color Purple and Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God - both of which are stories told by one female character to another female character. The basic point was that women survive the pain of abuse, the loss of a child, illness, love, and ultimately life by telling their stories to other women. Writing that paper transformed the way I view my relationships with other women - in a very positive affirming way. But, as much as I savored every word written by Walker and Hurston in those books, after I finished my paper I could never bring myself to read another book by either of them. I wanted to, but I think I worried that it would shatter this perfect memory I had of their influence on my life. So, it was with great hesitation that I started to read Now is the Time to Open Your Heart. This novel is the story of Kate, a woman in her mid-fifties, who embarks on a journey of self-discovery along the Colorado River. Her story (and those of the people in her life) are told through dreams, flashbacks, and memories. Walker's writing is poetic and I was happy to be reading her again, but this is no Color Purple. I do think, however, that I am going to make more of an effort to seek out other books by Walker and Hurston - I think they will be a wonderful reminder of the influence stories have had on my life, and how lucky I am to have so many amazing women to share all of mine with!