You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down
by Alice Walker
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Fourteen short stories by the Pulitzer Prize winning author about strong women--their struggles and joys.Tags
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{4.5 *}
I like the style that runs through the short stories in this collection, each one is more than a story and has something to say; and there were moments this felt more like nonfiction than fiction as it voiced ideas that made me look at things from inside out.
I like the style that runs through the short stories in this collection, each one is more than a story and has something to say; and there were moments this felt more like nonfiction than fiction as it voiced ideas that made me look at things from inside out.
This is a great collection of stories. I guess my favorite is the first, "Nineteen Fifty-Five," an entertaining story guaranteed to distress Elvis cultists.
Are you Gracie Mae Still? asked the old guy, when I opened the door and put my hand on the lock inside the screen.
And I don’t need to buy a thing, said I.
What makes you think we’re sellin’? he asks, in that hearty Southern way that makes my eyeballs ache.
Alice Walker is often pigeonholed as a "women's writer," so of course men especially need to read her. Anyway she won't fit in a pigeonhole.
Titles include "The Lover," "Porn," "The Abortion," and "How Did I Get Away with Killing One of the Biggest Lawyers in the State? It Was Easy." If they make you nervous, then you're the show more man I'm talking about who ought to read this book. Go on, it won't bite you. show less
Are you Gracie Mae Still? asked the old guy, when I opened the door and put my hand on the lock inside the screen.
And I don’t need to buy a thing, said I.
What makes you think we’re sellin’? he asks, in that hearty Southern way that makes my eyeballs ache.
Alice Walker is often pigeonholed as a "women's writer," so of course men especially need to read her. Anyway she won't fit in a pigeonhole.
Titles include "The Lover," "Porn," "The Abortion," and "How Did I Get Away with Killing One of the Biggest Lawyers in the State? It Was Easy." If they make you nervous, then you're the show more man I'm talking about who ought to read this book. Go on, it won't bite you. show less
Possibly the best short stories I've ever read. Beautifully written, profound, inspiring.
Kya has been abandoned in the North Carolina marsh as a 6 year old. She will be labeled the "Marsh Girl" by others in the town. She learns to survive on her own.
Tate is a friend and comes to visit with her and teaches her how to read and write.
She is always writing things about the birds, grasses, mushrooms, etc in her environment. The walls of her shack are covered with her collectings. Tate claims to love her and tells her that he is going to college, but he stands her up for his last meeting with her before that happens. This makes her feel very alone.
She then meets Chase, who is the town's football quarterback, but gets used by him. He seems to believe that it is OK to visit and "play" with Kya, saying he wants to marry her and show more build her a house. Chase is then found dead. The sheriff is looking for answers and comes to the conclusion that Kya is probably the suspect.
This is less of a murder mystery than touted. This is really a story about Kya and all that life throws her. show less
Tate is a friend and comes to visit with her and teaches her how to read and write.
She is always writing things about the birds, grasses, mushrooms, etc in her environment. The walls of her shack are covered with her collectings. Tate claims to love her and tells her that he is going to college, but he stands her up for his last meeting with her before that happens. This makes her feel very alone.
She then meets Chase, who is the town's football quarterback, but gets used by him. He seems to believe that it is OK to visit and "play" with Kya, saying he wants to marry her and show more build her a house. Chase is then found dead. The sheriff is looking for answers and comes to the conclusion that Kya is probably the suspect.
This is less of a murder mystery than touted. This is really a story about Kya and all that life throws her. show less
From the RABCK-box that CC sent me, 'just because'. Look forward to read this book :-)
Reserved this book for a fellow BC'er that also takes part in the wishlist tagging game.
An now I have read it, it is time for a review. Although, that a hard thing to do, because this book has many short stories. I won't write about all. Just say some general things about the book and which story I liked best.
To start with the latter: I liked the first one best: Nineteen Fifty-five. I think it came closest to what my imagination can handle about the subjects.
The stories are all about black women in the fifties / sixties of the 20th century. The lived in different circumstances, their stories were very different, but the basic facts of feminism, black show more women, very different time in a country that doesn't look like what we are presented nowadays are the same. And I think that are just the reasons why I did not like the book very much, found it hard to read.
The way of speech / write was different than what I am used to, strange words, strange way of writing like the main characters were speaking, that came on top of the above. show less
Reserved this book for a fellow BC'er that also takes part in the wishlist tagging game.
An now I have read it, it is time for a review. Although, that a hard thing to do, because this book has many short stories. I won't write about all. Just say some general things about the book and which story I liked best.
To start with the latter: I liked the first one best: Nineteen Fifty-five. I think it came closest to what my imagination can handle about the subjects.
The stories are all about black women in the fifties / sixties of the 20th century. The lived in different circumstances, their stories were very different, but the basic facts of feminism, black show more women, very different time in a country that doesn't look like what we are presented nowadays are the same. And I think that are just the reasons why I did not like the book very much, found it hard to read.
The way of speech / write was different than what I am used to, strange words, strange way of writing like the main characters were speaking, that came on top of the above. show less
Beautifully written this classic by Alice Walker captures the experiences of African American women. Walker boldly writes about subject matters that are usually ignored. I absolutely enjoyed this book.
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Alice Walker won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award for her novel The Color Purple. Her other bestselling novels include By the Light of My Father's Smile, Possessing the Secret of Joy, and The Temple of My Familiar. She is also the author of two collections of short stories, three collections of essays, five volumes of poetry, and show more several children's books. Her books have been translated into more than two dozen languages. Born in Eaton, Georgia, Walker now lives in Northern California. Like so many characters in her fiction, Alice Walker was born into a family of sharecroppers in Eaton, Georgia. She began Spelman College on a scholarship and graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1965. While still in college, Walker became active in the civil rights movement and continued her involvement after she graduated, serving as a voter registration worker in Georgia. She also worked in a Head Start program in Mississippi and was on the staff of the New York City welfare department. She has lectured and taught at several colleges and universities and currently operates a publishing house, Wild Trees Press, of which she is a co-founder. Walker began her literary career as a poet, publishing Once: Poems in 1968. The collection reflects her experiences in the civil rights movement and her travels in Africa. Her second collection of poetry, Revolutionary Petunias and Other Poems (1973), is a celebration of the struggle against oppression and racism. In between these two collections, she published her first novel, The Third Life of Grange Copeland (1970), the story of Ruth Copeland, a young black girl, and her grandfather, Grange, who brutalizes his own family out of the frustrations of racial prejudice and his own sense of inadequacy. Walker's first collection of short stories, In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women (1973), established her special concern for the struggles, hardships, loyalties, and triumphs of black women, a powerful force in the rest of her fiction. Meridian (1976), her second novel, is the story of Meridian Hill, a civil rights worker. In her second collection of short stories, You Can't Keep A Good Woman Down (1981), Walker again portrays black women struggling against sexual, racial, and economic oppression. Walker's third novel, The Color Purple (1982), brought her the national recognition denied her earlier works. Through this story of the sharecropper Celie and the abuses she endures, Walker draws together the themes that have run through her earlier work into a concentrated and powerful attack on racism and sexism, and produces a triumphant celebration of the spirit and endurance of black women. The book received the Pulitzer Prize and was made into a successful film. Walker describes her most recent novel, The Temple of My Familiar (1989) as "a romance of the last 500,000 years." The book is a blend of myth and history revolving around three marriages. As the married couples tell their stories, they explore both their origins and the inner life of modern African Americans. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Een vrouw een vrouw, een woord een woord
- Original title
- You can't keep a good woman down
- Original publication date
- 1993 (Nederlands) (Nederlands); 1981 (Engels) (Engels)
- Epigraph
- It is harder to kill something that is spiritually alive than it is to bring the dead back to life.
—Hermann Hesse - Dedication
- This book is dedicated to my contemporaries
I thank my sister Ruth for the stories she tells.
I thank Bessie Head, Ama Ata Aidoo, Buchi Emecheta, Wa Thiong'o Ngugi, Okot p'Bitek and Ousmane Sembene for the storie... (show all)s they write.
I thank Gloria Steinem, Joanne Edgar and Suzanne Braun Levine of Ms. magazine, who greeted each of the many stories Ms. published from this collection with sisterly welcome and enthusiasm.
I thank Ma Rainey, Bessie (A Good Man Is Hard to Find) Smith, Mamie Smith and Perry (You Can't Keep a Good Man Down) Bradford, among others of their generation, for insisting on the value and beauty of the authentic. - Original language*
- Engels
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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- Reviews
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- (3.71)
- Languages
- 5 — Danish, Dutch, English, German, Portuguese
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 19
- ASINs
- 15
