The Third Life of Grange Copeland

Rating:
Summary: A book that can play havoc with your emotions
Review: Even though I thoroughly enjoyed reading "...Grange Copeland," I felt it was another version of "The Color Purple" minus the lesbian story-line. The male characters are harsh (much more so than the male characters in "The Color Purple") and relentless, but as in "The Color Purple" Ms. Walker tries to make the reader feel that they do have a "human" side. The female characters are strong-willed...as most of the female characters in "...Purple" were. What I enjoy most about Ms. Walker is she makes the reader feel so much a part of each character's life. The ending is somewhat a disappointment, i.e., comes too fast and too abrupt.

Rating:
Summary: Who's the bad guy here?
Review: Is the perpetual question that comes up through successive parts of the novel.

Is it the younger Grange Copeland when you see his behavior toward his wife and child?

Is it his son Brownfield, the eventual killer of his wife?

Is it the Jim Crow South that created the poisoned conditions under which such destrction could be wrought on a family?

Is it the Northerners who brought deluded dreams that the black Southerners had of a free and better life in the North?

As expected, this is one of Walker's novels that was written when she was "young and hungry," and the care that she takes to lead the reader in sundry directions is painstaking and evident.

A must read or anyone who is sufficiently cerebral to look for latent meanings.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent early Walker
Review: Often, if an author writes a book that becomes immensely popular and a mainstay in modern literature, their career is then divided up between before and after. For the majority, I'd say their entry point to an author's canon usually is the well-received work, so it's fun to browse an author's "backlog" and experience their earliest achievements. Having been a fan of Alice Walker for many years but only having read two novels (plus a great deal of short stories and non-fiction), I figured it was time to give her first published novel, "The Third Life of Grange Copeland," a try.

Had this been written by anybody but Alice Walker, I'd say this was one of the most impressive debut novels I've read. Since it *is* written by Walker, I should have known to not be surprised by the eloquence, the poetry and the grittiness of this book. Alice Walker is a storyteller with gifts bordering on the supernatural; if the Southern U.S. landscape could talk, it would sound a lot like Alice Walker. This is the story, told in razor sharp prose, of a man and the effect his actions have on his family over a period of many years. It's not an easy novel to read as there are hard truths in the story of Grange and Brownfield but there are lessons that will stay with the reader. This is also an interesting study on the actions of an individual, and who is to blame; society or the man/woman? There are no such easy answers in this book and I found myself wavering between sympathy and outright hatred for some of the characters, but it's the mark of a great read when I can feel so much for a story.