Walker, Alice "The Temple of My Familiar"

Walker, Alice "The Temple of My Familiar" - 1989

As anything written by Alice Walker, this novel is absolutely brilliant. A mix of magic realism, historical fiction, women's lib, just Alice Walker, I guess. ;-)

A story of a couple of people whose lives are interwoven. Several characters from "The Color Purple" appear, you could say it is a sort of sequel to it. Or - you could say it is a story of hundreds of people during the centuries. Any kind of people turn up, any colour, any state, slaves, slaveholders, rich and poor.

I love how the author, I love her ambition, her determination, her views, her style. This is just another brilliant piece of her.

I also really loved her comment "We must have a world language … before we can have world peace." I've been speaking Esperanto for 35 years and I know she is right. Only, we do have that language already.

Apparently, "Possessing the Secret of Joy" is a also a novel including characters from "The Color Purple". Certainly on my wish list.

From the back cover:

"An ambitious and multi-narrative novel containing the interleaved stories of Arveyda, a musician in search of his past; Carlotta, his Latin American wife who lives in exile from hers; Suwelo, a black professor of American History who realizes that his generation of men have failed women; Fanny, his ex-wife about to meet her father for the first time; and Lissie, a vibrant creature with a thousand pasts."