Meridian
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Product Details
- Outfit: USED - Very Good
- ISBN13: 9780156028349
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Description
Meridian Hill is a young woman at an Atlanta college attempting to find her place in the revolution for racial and social equality. She discovers the limits beyond which she will not go for the cause, but despite her decision not to follow the path of some of her peers, she makes significant sacrifices in order to further her beliefs. Working in a campaign to register African American voters, Meridian cares broadly and deeply for the people she visits, and, while her coworkers quit and move to comfortable homes, she continues to work in the deep South despite a paralyzing illness. Meridian's nonviolent methods, though seemingly less radical than the methods of others, prove to be an effective means of furthering her beliefs.
Customer Reviews
Amazing!
One of the best books I have ever read! This book should definitely leave a permanent mark on the Afican American Literary Canon. Alice Walker has an incredible story and journey to share. This book is perfect for any research on cultural studies or feminism and gender theory!
2010-06-10
| Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5
Probably not the best introduction to Walker.
I have procrastinated about reviewing this book, largely because I feel as though I did not really understand it. There are some books that you just know from the get go have to be read more than once before you start to get the picture. I think that Meridian is one of those books. So take this as a series of preliminary notes to a review, if you will.
In a way, it was a pleasant surprise. I sometimes have the feeling from Walker's prose that she is a little too literal-- more message than character driven. Meridian is precisely the opposite. Extremely strong characters, with a plot that feels more like an impression of a time than a clear story. Although and then again, there is a story. Something about the madness of a bereaved mother. Something about civil rights work in the 1960s South. Something about friendships between black and white and how that translates into romantic relationships. Part of why I would probably need a second read has to do with how far this is past my personal experience.
Reading the reviews online, it seems that this book is inflicted on unwilling teenagers across the US. Too bad, since I think it is one of the most difficult of Walker's books to read. Something like The Color Purple is much more accessible.
It may be that this book is too disjointed, relies too much on the shared experience of the potential readers. It may also be that I simply need to read it again, and then it will become more clear. There is a lot of good stuff here, and I'd still call it worth the time to read despite feeling that I missed much (most?) of the book.
2009-07-31
| frumiousb (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 4
incandescent story and writing, but disjoint and unsatisfying structure
"Meridian" is set in post civil rights black America but reaches back deeply at least two generations, and sometimes as far back as 1800's slavery. Ms. Walker's language is incandescent, her story incendiary, her characters thoughtful and deeply provoking. Like when I read James Baldwin for the first time, I was moved to racial rage many times, and I learned so much about how it was (is) for people of colour, and for those who loved them. I especially loved the writing, clear and sparkling, and the treatises on women and child bearing and relationships and race were point blank and heart breaking, displaying a kind of progressiveness far beyond most women I know.
Despite all this amazingness, I found the book to be disjoint and unsatisfying. I don't mind non-chronological narratives, nor shifting perspectives, but the way it was done here felt incomplete to me. It was like character sketches or vignettes mashed together, not like a novel. By the end, I had a sense of the strange ill beautiful principled hero, Meridian, but not in a way that built tension or developed plot or underscored historicity. "Meridian" is yet a quick read, but "The Colour Purple" is a cut (or more) above.
2009-07-27
(New York City) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 3
Meridian - womanism?
This is probably the single worst book I've ever read. I had to read it for a class so I couldn't quit.
Meridian, the main character in the novel, is very naive and stupid for a person with an IQ of 140. According to Alice Walker, Meridian not only had to study very hard for her classes but also didn't know why she was having sex with her first boyfriend. She didn't understand that she could get pregnant. She didn't understand that her new boyfriend, Truman (when she was about 18 years old) wasn't wearing a condom (no, she wasn't drunk). She couldn't convince a doctor to look at her head when she was blind instead of her vagina.
At one point Meridian watches a guy have sex with a married woman. Meridian gets wet. The author denounces the act of sex and the man who has sex yet somehow praises Meridian who is watching the act secretly from the married woman. Then the author says that she is not even interested in it and the only reason she is there is because there is nothing better to do on a Wednesday afternoon.
All the negative descriptions of the characters in the book are highly biased and unrealistic.
Most male black characters are not admirable while the girls are.
The philanthropists who sent her to school are not appreciated while random homeless girl that can't even talk is appreciated.
Too many sex scenes that contribute nothing to the novel.
2008-10-06
| Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 1
Not an easy read, but courageous, heartfelt and very real.
Alice Walker's second novel, 'Meridian' (published 1976), is huge in scope but well-orchestrated and written, and she compresses a 25-year span into just 242 pages.
'Meridian' is tricky to get into. It's not at all that clear what's what & who's who to begin with & it would be easy to put the book down without going quite far enough to hold your interest. Persevere though, and you are rewarded with snippets of Meridian's story - her struggle into adulthood, to self-awareness, public-awareness, and ultimately her struggles for civil rights.
Meridian, as a young 17-year-old - married, divorced, one baby son, all of which happened almost without her even realising - kind of unintentionally stumbles upon some civil rights activists in her home town in the deep South... and from there, as she awakens into a world she has been sheltered from during her childhood, her involvement gets deeper and deeper. Reading just a little about the author's own life, you can see it's impossible to separate book and author here, as a number of parallels with Alice Walker's life in the 60s and 70s run through the novel.
Parts of the story are revealed in a non-chronological way, with themes running through that tie all the threads together - about losing children, inter-racial stuggles both in friendship and marriage and outside of it, the tensions between love and friendship, violence and peace, and of course the very human struggle for human rights. There are a few more themes to contemplate besides these.
It's a powerful and enlightening novel. Personally, I couldn't get on with the ending. I don't want to give anything away, but it doesn't really do justice to the Meridian we've followed haphazardly throughout a 25 year span - not quite a satisfying conclusion to an otherwise fascinating read.
2008-02-28
(UK) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 4
CharlotteObserver.com'Purple' rises on strength of love, faithPAUL KOLNIK PHOTO The Broadway musical about a 1930s black Southern family draws on Alice Walker's novel and Steven Spielberg's film. When: Various times through Sunday, then Aug. 25-30, when the tour returns to Charlotte. Live review: The Color Purple The Color Purple's in town
Providence Journal'Color Purple' musical is coming to PPACHe just had to convince Alice Walker, the author. But Sanders, 52, is not one to take no for an answer. He remembers visiting Walker in her Berkeley, Calif., home and talking up the project. Walker was “very kind and respectful,” he said, “but said 'no