The Good: A Perfect Novel! An amazing character study!
The Bad: None!
The Basics: Buy this book because it's unlike anything you've read and it perfectly characterizes the quest to find that missing element in your life!
The voice that is seldom heard often produces the most compelling literature simply because it is new and different. While that is true of Zami, the sole novel by Audre Lorde (who also wrote poetry and essays, as collected in The Complete Poems Of Audre Lorde reviewed here!), the transitional nature of the literature of the Other is not a trait of this novel. That is to say that audiences periodically pick a demographic group that is "other" and will pump the market full of works by that group and within a year, no one remembers their name. They are being read simply because they come from a demographic group that is the "other," not because of the quality of the literature.
That is not the case with Zami. The novel not only traces the coming of age of a single woman but it reveals to the reader deeper truths about all humanity. In her quest to become a poet, the novel's Audre Lorde drags from one job to another in the socially confused mid-twentieth century. In the process of forming and losing relationships familial and romantic, the reader is taken on a picaresque journey through life, not just of the narrator, but the general life cycle of all people.
Zami then tells the story of Audre Lorde, a fictionalized account of the author's life. Audre grows up in New York City in the 1930s as a minority in a minority as both a black woman and lesbian. Her mother is the ultimate matriarch and becoming a powerful woman under her guidance, Audre ends up leaving home to find her place in the world. This takes the form of Audre rebelling in school, becoming socially active and discovering - as best she could - young love in the late 40s. She moved about the City taking a job at an x-ray factory, writing poetry and surviving the death of her best friend or first true love.
The novel is a magical intertwining of social upheaval in the United States mirroring personal upheaval and growth in Audre's life and the way the two intermingle is expert. Lorde has a clear vision - an irony considering the character Audre is legally blind - an executes perfectly the literary techniques and devices to not make this a novel about outsiders alone, but rather about all humans everywhere.
The strength of the novel is clearly in the narrative voice which is often whimsical, sometimes confused, and as often bitter. This is the ultimate "Triumph of the Outsider" novel and I've yet to meet anyone who has read it that did not like it. It's not a novel that puts down the "mainstream" society while glorifying the outsider, but rather one that explores the nature of being on the fringe and living free and true to yourself.
Zami is one of those novels to pick up at any point in your life, but it's one I tend to return to when I'm lost. Reading Zami is a wonderful way to never be alone again. And Audre Lorde - the author and her fictionalized representation - is good company!
For other works by black authors, please check out my reviews of:
Juneteenth - Ralph Ellison
Liliane: The Resurrection Of The Daughter - Shange
The Souls Of Black Folk - W.E.B. DuBois
10/10
For other book reviews, please check out my index page!
© 2010, 2002 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
No comments:
Post a Comment