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Summary: Excellent book that opened my eyes
Review: I got this book out of curiousity, and it changed my life. I didn't even know about female circumsision until I read it. it opened my eyes and showed me how much women of other races and countries have to endure in growing up. I began to value my womanhood alot more. I gave a review of this book to my english class near to tears. It is an astonishingly powerful book.
Rating: 
Summary: This Book Opened My Eyes to Something I Never Knew Exsisted.
Review: I had picked up this book for no real reason I just needed a book to read. I had no idea what it was about. Boy was I surprised when I began it for only two days before hand I had seen a Law and Order episode about female circumcision. I had never heard of it before that time and for me to just coincidentally have picked up this book was extraordinary to me. From reading this book I learned about something I believe every woman should. It is apalling to me that I have reached this age and have never been made aware of this hideous tradition. I commend Alice Walker for writing about this controversial issue and so doing her part to stop this institution. Everyone needs to read this book, but especially women.
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Summary: Narrow vision may be necessary
Review: I listened to the tape version of this book in my car. The subject is disturbing,and also very complex. I have great respect for Ms. Walker as a master writer and storyteller and as a woman of integrity. Sometimes her views are a bit too feminist for me (I think fathers do have value in a child's life, for instance), and I agree the issue is much more complex than man's will to dominate women (although it would be hard to argue that this practice stems from anything else.) However, sometimes to fight against a tradition this ancient and so firmly imbedded in an ancient culture, one has to have a narrow vision. I had some trouble keeping up with the time line while listening, and although the speakers were announced, that got a bit tedious to keep track of as well. Maybe that was clearer in the written text. Certainly the elders' conversation that Tashi heard as a girl did not come across well in the tape: it would have been better to act it out with different voices than identify as "number one" "Number two," etc. One of the best things I liked about listening to the tape version was Alice's silky velvet voice. My oh My! Her co-reader does a fine job with dialects with the exception of Benny, who sounds very cultured and educated and not at all "slow" despite pauses. I loved the conclusion, and the last two poetic lines took my breath away. This issue came to our town several years ago when a family insisted on the operation in a local hospital. Despite efforts to stop it, the doctors (do no harm? ) went ahead with the procedure; to my shame.
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Summary: beautiful tears
Review: I loved this book - deeply - but could not really express what it did to me. It stayed with me for weeks after I shut its pages, crawling under my skin, its words coming up to my mind, disturbing and comforting at the same time ... So I gave it to a friend of mine whose sensibility touches me, and I watched her as she read the last chapters of the book. I watched her smile a beautiful smile, then frown, then cry beautiful tears, and close the book with this sad disturbed and thankful expression on her face. And I saw, then, what I felt.
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Summary: Womynhood is a gift. . one must learn to appricate as such.
Review: I read this book almost six years ago, and I still can remeber the feeling I got when I first picked it up. I consumed Alice's book. .refused to leave my room. .and still sell its praises to anyone who willing to hear & feel the passion, pain & loss from this book.
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Summary: SECRETS UNDERSTOOD
Review: I READ THIS BOOK FOR THE FIRST TIME A YEAR AGO IT WAS RECOMENDED TO ME AND I WOULD DO THE SAME FOR EVERYONE ELSE IT HAS ALSO BECOME THE TOPIC OF A VAST RANGE OF ESSAYS AND COURSE WORK FOR SCHOOL. IT WAS COMPELLING AND IMPOSSIBLE TO PUT DOWN. IT WAS ACE!!!!!!!!!
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Summary: An absolutely incredible view on African traditions
Review: I think that Alice Walker in this book gives a great and quite detailed view on this real bad African tradition that, badly enough is still practized in alot of African countries. It is amazing who she, as an African-American woman describes with such an intensity the pain that these women go through. It is another interesting example of how people do anything to just not go against the crowd just because of fear of being eliminated. I think it is good to know that there are women who fight against initiation because it is one of the worst evils that can be done to a female. I understand that Tashi says she is guilty of having killed that woman because that is the only way she can escape all the pain that her life has brought. This book is one of the best books I have ever read because it deals with a subject that many people deny is existing in a very realistic, but also exciting way. You just can't get enough of it once you have started reading.
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Summary: If you're a woman and want to change your life. . .
Review: I was DEEPLY moved by Possessing the Secret of Joy--not just because of Tashi's plight as a vicim of female circumcision or the difficulties she approached in adapting to an American lifestyle. I was touched because of how she dealt with her position, refusing to justify anything for the sake of sailing easily through the future or dismissing the past. Tashi's life didn't just happen to her--she lived it, in spite of her predicament. Also, there were so many good quotes in this book that I had post-it notes crowding my refrigerator for a month. In my opinion, none of Alice Walker's books compare (though I've only begun The Temple of my Familiar).
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Summary: The most harrowing yet uplifting book I have ever read.
Review: If there is a single book that could convince anyone of Alice Walkers place as one of the most important writers and thinkers of our time, I feel it has to be Possessing the Secret of Joy. The narrative is constructed from the various viewpoints of all the main characters, allowing the reader several perspectives on a chain of events.
The story itself thus acquires a kaleidascopic feel with shifts in person narrative and time, yet through Alice Walkers brilliance, retains a homogenity and seamless power, which gains pace, and in the end completely drains you emotionally. The main character in the hands of a less skilful writer could seem to be a victim and powerless, but although what happens to Tashi is tragic and a crime, she never seems weak or directionless in the book. Tashi makes choices for herself in direct relation to how she perceives her oppressive cultures and takes direct action.
The amazing love for her Tashi seems to enable in those around her is very moving to read, and I have to say that long after finishing the book Tashi continued to live in me, and my grief at her life felt real, such is Alices' attention to emotional and intellectual characterisation.
As a male I feel this book is enormously important to read, it geniunely changed me, and although I wept many times throughout the book (I haven't cried since I was 12 - I am now 30), and it depressed me terribly to think of millions of women worldwide going through this torture, I do feel a better person and more of a human being for having read this vital book.
For my soul to be temporarily torn apart is a small price to pay for learning about cruelty and oppression against women that men perpetuate all around the world.
Rating:
Summary: Possessing the Secret of Joy
Review: In this book, Alice Walker takes an important social issue and shows just what kind of horrific effects it can have on not only an individual, but society as a whole....It does an excellent job in showing the severe psychological effects it can have on a girl who is subjected to this unsanitary and demoralizing practice. Anyone who is unfamiliar with the practice of FGM or African cultural practices would greatly benefit from this work. The style in which Walker writes draws attention away from the simple before and after aspect of the practice, and focuses on the internal struggles that the women who are affected by this must face.
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