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Roadwalkers Shirley Ann Grau 9780679432333 Books

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Roadwalkers Shirley Ann Grau 9780679432333 Books

I read other reviews before buying the book. The writing is very good but the characters seemed shallow. I didn't like anyone in the story including the two main characters. There were actually three or more stories with only a slim thread of connection. Each one could have been expanded upon to make three or more novels. Overall, I found myself skipping over parts of the dialog and felt a sense of disappointment. The story also left me wondering how and why things happened. I think because there were so many missing pieces.


Tags : Roadwalkers [Shirley Ann Grau] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Chronicles the lives and fortunes of two extraordinary black women--Baby and her daughter, Nanda--as they struggle to make places for themselves in the South,Shirley Ann Grau,Roadwalkers,Knopf,0679432337,General,African American women;Fiction.,Homeless persons;Fiction.,Mothers and daughters;Fiction.,African American women,Fiction,Fiction General,General & Literary Fiction,Grau, Shirley Ann - Prose & Criticism,Homeless persons,Modern & contemporary fiction,Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945),Modern fiction,Mothers and daughters,Non-Classifiable,Southern States

Roadwalkers Shirley Ann Grau 9780679432333 Books Reviews

This book is all over the place, which is confusing and annoying. Further more, people don't change like the two women do. Let me explain. The book starts with an exposition on the deep plantation South, and it takes place primarily there. Poverty, a depressed economy, poor land, few choices--we get it. Life is hard. We start with Charles, who grows up here dirt poor but with hard working parents who are resourceful and teach their many children how to farm, keep a home, maintain a garden, get an education, learn manners, learn how to get along in the world. These children grow up, maintain connection and even take care of one another. This family is white. Next family (black), which is most of the book, is about a child no one could bother to name until nuns named her Mary. Father of many children finds life hard and leaves. Mom finds life hard and leaves. Siblings all find a path of least resistance. Finally, one very young boy is left with the toddler and they survive. But not well. Apparently there are lots of these "road walkers" in the South, children stealing without compunction, living without society, forming no bonds. Boy comes upon beautiful home and is filled with so much rage that he commits increasingly brazen and ugly vandalism and a small band of men(white and black) go looking for the culprit. They find the toddler--who behaves much as an animal since she's been raised without language, love or anything. She is taken to a doctor, to an orphanage and raised by nuns, but with a benefactor of the homeowner her brother vandalized and Charles, who works for him. We never find out what happens to the brother. This girl remains
primarily without language, resists all efforts at education and socialization, is unable to develop a moral code even though she's raised by nuns, but shows a knack for art. Ages out of the orphanage and runs away rather than find out what her benefactor has planned. Big skip in time but appears she chooses prostitution. We get minute details of Mary's life and then huge chunks are missing. Mary becomes a clothing designer who cannot read nor write--an incredibly successful, almost Chanel like designer. Much of the book is about rage filled, intelligent, beautiful, promiscuous Nanda, whose skin is very, very black. Nanda hates, and hate and anger is her motivation for everything. She has no
empathy and cannot make attachments. This book about racism and rage. Love and lack. What makes a human. The writing is very good, but the main story is about two women who are wretched, and the way they change - and don't change - does not ring true. It's hard to say if the author is shining a light on racism (both ways) but this is a very unsettling read.
Grau is a writer of remarkable achievement. I only regret that I am late discovering her. This book equals her others, and it surpasses them perhaps in taking the risk to give voice to African Americans of her time. It is bold and on point with every stroke.
A very promising beginning and then the author tacks on a different middle and an insipid ending. I'm speculating that the author just tacked on the sections of different books she had to complete a contractual obligation with her publisher.
My mom grew up during this time and her parents were so poor they weren't able to feed all their children so gave them to relatives to take care of. This book tells a similar story of children learning to take care of themselves because their parents couldn't. I enjoyed it very much and couldn't put it down.
I loved this book along with all her others. I just discovered Shirley Ann Grau and love love love her writing, her subject matter and her characters. She can create a scene in one or two words. I can’t believe it took so long for me to find her.
The prose was beautifully written. However, the story rambles too much for me to give it anything higher than two stars. I am confused as to why the author included the back history of characters that played such a little part in the novel. It was if an editor said that the book is too long and took out chunks of the book, but left in enough to just make it confusing and not flow like a story I like to read should.
Although this book gives insight into areas I have no personal knowledge of (How it feels to be black in white America) it left me looking for more. I wanted to find out what happened to Mary's brother. I wanted to know what happened to Mary after she left the convent. I enjoyed reading about Nanda's experience integrating her school, but I couldn't like Nanda as a character, and I was disappointed in the ending as everyone turned out like white-bread. Charles's story was boring and didn't add anything to the novel. Poor editing? Mediocre read at best.
I read other reviews before buying the book. The writing is very good but the characters seemed shallow. I didn't like anyone in the story including the two main characters. There were actually three or more stories with only a slim thread of connection. Each one could have been expanded upon to make three or more novels. Overall, I found myself skipping over parts of the dialog and felt a sense of disappointment. The story also left me wondering how and why things happened. I think because there were so many missing pieces.