Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart

I really loved listening to this. It's about a lot of things, but what I took from it was how great it is to be black, bisexual, and free. On freedom, this most importantly deals with how hard it is to be free and how being free may not best serve you in the moment. Kate and Yolo are both considering giving up certain things like love, companionship, possessions, drugs, foods, and ego. In the story, these things are related to the general concept of bondage, things that keep you from being completely free. Kate and Yolo work on figuring out what they'll let go of and what they'll keep and how to deepen and cherish, make special, the things they're in bondage to.

In format, this book reminded me a lot of Between the Bridge and the River show more by Craig Ferguson, in that it's a spiritual / psychological journey that feels a little time & place jumpy and has little wisdoms sprinkled throughout. The writing style and subject also kind of reminded me of Kazuo Ishiguro's A Pale View of Hills, in that the writing is very clear and crisp and bare, extremely well-edited, and the protagonist in both is an older woman contemplating her past and her options, someone willing to blow up their current existence to find happiness. Very good stuff. This is definitely my jam when it comes to literary fiction. show less

I liked this more than much of Walker's work, and the story was engaging. It isn't necessarily something will stick with me long term, or something I'll go back to, but it is what it is. The writing is strong, and she's kept it short so that it doesn't get so repetitive in theme or subject as some of her books do. If you want a sweet story to fall into for a few days, that won't take much effort, I'd recommend it.

On the surface this novel tells the story of Kate. She recognises she needs to retreat away from life and at the same time her lover Yolo goes off on holiday to revisit Hawaii. Incidentally, Yolo discovers more than he expected from a sun and sand holiday. Kate also dreams a lot and is conscious of her ageing body. However this novel is also about Alice, Alice Walker the grand daughter who has never known her grandmother. Alice suspects that her grandmother, whose life was cut short when she was murdered, given a longer life would have become the psychic explorer which in fact is exactly what Kate becomes. Along the way Kate traverses the Colorado River and then the Amazon, meets a shaman and generally learns more about ‘herself’ in show more the company of a group of women and men who are similarly searching. Under the watchful eyes of the shaman Kate, along with her fellow travellers imbibe the mysterious botanical mixtures that release the person within and illuminate the more incomprehensible aspects of the person and their life thus far.

I am of the view that this book more so than many others, will speak to you and be rated according to where you, the reader find yourself on life’s journey and the extent to which the deeper more spiritual aspects, connections and cultural thinking resonate with your own progress along that path. Just as I am - here and now, that resonance with my own journey along with the beautiful and reflective writing merits the four star accolade. show less

A thoughtful novel, not too long and pleasantly short chapters. I found it a bit confusing at first, but relaxed into her style and went with the flow of the book. As others have said, its the tale of two people on different journeys and how they change. Well structured and written.

Kate, a woman passing mid-life, shrugs off all that she is in order to discover who she might be. Her journey takes her down the mighty Colorado River and through the jungles of the Amazon, but her true journey is within. Alice Walker chronicles Kate's odyssey with a literary rhythm that enchants.

Kate a writer who is has been having dreams about a river which has run dry. After conversations with her therapist, she decides to go on an exploration to discover the meaning of this dream. So she packs up a few of her belongings, leaves her lover, Yolo and sets of with a group of women on a rafting trip down the Colorado River.
Yolo sets off on what he expects to be a more conventional vacation in sunny Hawai. However, he too is placed in circumstances which force him to reflect on himself and the choices he has made, as well as his place in the world.

I should read this book again and then review it, as i was in a strange distracted personal space, but for now, just a few thoughts. This was the first book i have read by Alice Walker. I definitely want to read more by her, purely because i found her writing style to be beautiful. I especially found her weaving of nature/spirituality and the human journey to be compelling. Water, roots, branchs, release, currents, purging, cleansing, searching. Her characters internal journeys are embodied and entwined in the naural world. The questions raised by this book, resonated with me, however, the characters were so steeped in previledge that i found it nearly impossible to take the journey with them. Who gets to really just drop their life and show more go soul searching in the amazon with shaman? No one. Although the questions explored are human to the core, the characters wrestling with them are entirely unrelateable in their priviledge show less