Rating: 
Summary: Five stars for the opening, three stars for rest
Review: First of all, Alice Walker is one of my favorite writers - she's probably in my all-time five favorites, if fact. This book is not her best, but it is very, very good.The opening section, "To My Young Husband," is wonderful and beautiful and brilliant. The rest of the book, unfortunately, is not quite so good - some of the stories are excellant, but some of the others are, at least by Walker's standards, rather mediocre. Still, I'd definitely reccond this book to any fan of Alice Walker's books.
Rating:
Summary: Five stars for the opening, three stars for rest
Review: First of all, Alice Walker is one of my favorite writers - she's probably in my all-time five favorites, if fact. This book is not her best, but it is very, very good. The opening section, "To My Young Husband," is wonderful and beautiful and brilliant. The rest of the book, unfortunately, is not quite so good - some of the stories are excellant, but some of the others are, at least by Walker's standards, rather mediocre. Still, I'd definitely reccond this book to any fan of Alice Walker's books.
Rating: 
Summary: confusing and vague...
Review: I guess a celebrated author such as Walker can receive accolades from a book that is vague to the point of being- pointless. With the exception of the first story about her failed marraige, the rest of these stories don't make a whole lot of sense.
Rating: 
Summary: Reflective and Healing
Review: I happened across Alice's latest while seeking something, anything to read during the weekend immediately after September 11. The introduction simultaneously broke my heart and gave me hope for a better tomorrow. Once I got home, I immediately typed up the majority of the introduction and sent it onto my friends. Many responded thanking me for sending this onto them. While many of the other reviewers are correct in saying that some of the stories are difficult to understand and others scattered and incosistent, I find this part of the books charm. It is unvarnished, sometimes very thoughtful, other times angry, and still other times conciliatory. In short...it is very real. If you don't want to think and be challenged, avoid the book. If you want a challenge, pick it up. Nobody says you have to agree with it all, but I for one am thankful that a person such as Alice is willing to bare her soul in such a way that is so provocotive. I am honestly a bit surprised by the venom of some of the reviews.
Rating:
Summary: What Nothingness!
Review: I picked this book up from my local library after having read a book of poetry by Walker. The poetry was very unique and full of rarely experienced perspectives on being an American of Color. I grabbed this book because the title is evocative of spiritual growth. What I found is a book totally devoid of any redeeming spirituality. There were excerpts from Walkers sexual history which I could have done without reading. This book read like an awful diary than was meant to be thrown away but, was found.......by an enemy intending to stab you in the back! What surprises me is, the fact that this garbage was published at all. It is a bunch of senseless ramblings. The title is very misleading. If you like to make comparisons then, this definitely more Anais Nin than Shirley MacLaine!
Rating:
Summary: Once again, She moved me to laughter & tears
Review: I read constantly and I'm always very excited when Ms. Walker releases a new book. This book, as so many of her others, moved me from laughter to tears and back again with ease. I enjoyed this book so much and the stories were great. I just couldn't put it down. She did a reading here in Austin & I was just thrilled. I have loaned my copy to several friends & bought copies for family memebers who live in other places. This book is well worth the read & you will walk away feeling satisfied.
Rating:
Summary: Waste of money
Review: I regretted purchasing the hardbound book from the 3rd page. I found this book barely tolerable to finish. It is saccharine, written like a junior high school love letter, offers no depth or insight.
Rating:
Summary: Prose And Platitudes
Review: In what seems to be a memoir curiously masquerading as 13 autobiographical short stories, Walker explores the intimate relationships of a world famous African American activist/ feminist/ writer. Linked by this distinctive protagonist, whose name changes with her stage in life (exhausted young divorcée ''Rosa'' becomes confident middle aged bisexual ''Anne''), The Way Forward Is With a Broken Heart resembles a passionate but piecemeal roman à clef -- one marred only by occasional streams of self help platitudes. Nonetheless, the novella length ''To My Young Husband,'' which viscerally fictionalizes Walker's 1960s era ''magical marriage'' to a Jewish civil rights lawyer and their wrenching divorce, boasts Walker's most commanding, moving writing since ''The Color Purple,''. Prose that forges personal and political insights into shimmering poetry.
Rating:
Summary: Alice at her Finest
Review: No matter the story, Ms. Walker is successful at making you feel all sorts of emotions. Her stories touch your soul and have a wonderful flow. Funny thing is she surprises you with stuff like taking a bunch of senior ladies to a porn movie and their reactions. I loved it.
Rating: 
Summary: Not EXACTLY what I expected...
Review: The conversational tone with which this book is written is delightful. You feel like you're having an intimate chat with Alice over a hot cup of coffee, and that's cozy enough. Problem is, she takes a perfectly good beginning (I can hear LTD's "Where Did We Go Wrong" playin' in the background...)and adds to it perfectly confusing detours. I think the story would have read much better had she added no fiction at all. Most want to hear the truth of it all -- or so it seems to me -- more of the life story of this love union and its subsequent heartbreaking end. Who among us hasn't ever struggled over the disbelief that what was once so right somehow slipped through our fingers like oil? Alice is rich and raw in her expression, and her candor is admirable. But the added fiction to a moving memoir is, particularly when the names and circumstances of the ficticious characters keep tripping over themselves, questionable at best. If you're feeling experimental, go ahead and try it. Otherwise, I'd suggest you stick to more authentic, unclouded memoirs.
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