Rating: 
Summary: Absorbing, complex, provocative
Review: Alice Walker writes about the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's through the eyes of Meridian Hill. Walker forces us -- poetically -- to consider our stance on questions of racism, sexism, love and faith. By doing so she causes us to look at how we align ourselves with friends, lovers and family, and what it means to be part of a "community." I read this book the first time 20 years ago and it's themes have stayed fresh for me. A hope-inspiring book, despite the painful issues it addresses. An original novel in all respects.
Rating:
Summary: A triumph for the opressed, and for humans everywhere.
Review: Alice Walker's book Meridian is a passionate, touching book, in a variety of ways. First of all, it depicts the warped minds and hearts of blacks (and non-racist whites) living in the South in the 1960s. Meridian is a young black woman- who is slightly crazy, yet completely involving and entertaining. Meridian is very different from other people- she feels things more acutely, sensitively, and strongly than other people. Her emotions- anger, hate, pain, suffering, are all depicted with startling clarity. Ths book is in some ways like a poem- and is very different from any other book I've ever read- almost as if the story is a series of dream sequences. Meridian, who is a civil rights worker, is deeply afraid that her people, and race, will dehumanize themselves and lose their souls. I disagree with a reviewer who gave it one star, and critized it for having no ''rising action''. The book has rising action, conflict, and literary techniques, they are just related in a different way- this book does not havea standard chapter form- instead it is a book based entirely on emotions, told in three parts, by Meridian, her black on-and-off boyfriend Truman Held, and her white Northern best friend Lynne. The books clearly conveys that all three of these people have parts of themselves missing- bits of humanity that have been desensitized in the civil rights struggle- and the hate passed from whites to blacks. All of these people are shown as simple young adults- none of them entirely evil, or entirely good, simply trying to survive in this tumultous era. The ending is bittersweet, not entirely happy, but not hopeless either. This book is more about a journey of human beings- than anythng else. It focuses more on characterization than plot- the events seem to be less important than the feelings, thoughts and passions of Meridian, Lynne, and Truman. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to read about the worries, cares, and journey of the soul.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful
Review: I love the clarity and directiveness in which Alice Walker writes. You feel the pain of each one of her characters and you feel as though you know them. Wonderful portrayal of an interracial relationship. Real yet still loving. The setting was superb.
Rating: 
Summary: Meridian - a review
Review: I recently had to read this book for a school assignment, I found it very hard to get into and at times I wanted to give up on it as I often managed to lose my concentration of it. The story line jumped about from different times in Meridian's life and I found it hard to know who was who. As I neared the end of the book however, I began to understand the story more, perhaps if I read this book again I would gradually understand it a bit better. 'Meridian' involves a lot of racism, love and social change making the story quite sad. There is quite a bit of poetry in the book to separate parts of her life, this had a good effect but managed to confuse me even more! I think I would read this book again, but I feel I may need to research into Alice Walker to understand the plot and the charcters a little more. If you are not a great book lover or you find reading difficult, I don't think this book is for you as you have to want to read it and want to finish it. The only reason why I finished was because I had to for school!
Rating:
Summary: Good overall.
Review: I recently read Meridian for an AP American History term paper. The plot is difficult, at times, to follow. It goes back in forth from different times during Meridian Hill's, the main character, life. I also had a hard time figuring out who was who when I started reading the novel. After researching about the author, Alice Walker, for my school assignment, the book is a lot more interesting. It wasn't until I gained that knowledge, however, that I was able to comprehend and appreciate the novel. I recommend learning about the book before reading it.
Rating: 
Summary: A Problematic novel
Review: Meridian seems to be a loose collection of events from the life of a female protagonist we can neither admire nor totally despise. The reader is led to believe early-on that the protagonist is a strong civil rights activist whom people admire and celebrate, but her much of her life is spent running from responsibility (i.e. abortions, moving from place to place). Later we become suspicious of the author's motives -perhaps the book was written to elicit sympathy instead of insight. In the end we are left with a novel that is little more than an amateur's manuscript someone was afraid to edit.
Rating:
Summary: Under the microscope
Review: Much as I've enjoyed Walker's more well-known novels, I'm afraid that this one failed to move me. The main problem was that I always felt at least one level of remove from the characters. The reader is informed that such-and-such behaves in a certain way in order to elicit a particular reaction, or because of some or other damaging past experience, but we are never allowed to feel any of the characters' emotions or see them as real people. At one point in the novel, we are informed that Truman thinks that Meridian's problem is her habit of over-analysis (not, frustratingly, through dialogue, but through narration), and Walker could certainly have taken that advice to heart. The book read at times like a lyrical essay.Having finished the book, I know little about the character Meridian other than that Alice Walker worships her and that she suffered through many terrible experiences. The two main female characters seem to have so many horrific problems thrown their way that they become martyrs. Far from empowering these women, Walker has defined them only by their suffering and their mysterious paralytic illnesses; I may as well have been reading a Victorian melodrama. Toward the end, a few passages shone with the kind of honesty and beauty that I had expected from this book, and I was at last allowed glimpses of the characters' inner lives rather than being told what their motivations were - but at that point it was more frustrating than inspiring, because it teased me with what might have been.
Rating:
Summary: this book may be a little too deep for the average reader
Review: the book doesn't move in chronological order, so it's easy to get confused. i couldn't put this book down, i read it in three days. it depicts the struggle of not only black people during the civil rights movement, but the gender struggle of women. this book touches on issues such as spirituality, forgiveness, and truth. through meridian's eyes, we experience some of the hardships she faced.
Rating:
Summary: She has done better work
Review: This book is an enjoyable read if you have nothing better to do. I failed to be captivated by it. The characters lack the heartwrenching dramatic intensity that you find in her other works. Maybe it is because Alice Walker is such a phenominal author that people just expect so much from her. Still, this book is NOT making the cut for my personal library.
Rating: 
Summary: Oh my god!
Review: This book is so bad it defies description. The best way to describe it is to call it a fictionalized essay. At no point does Walker give her narrative over to anything like rising action, metaphor, characterization, or a believable narrative voice. Instead, she harps on her themes about the differences between black women and black men, and the solidarity that can be found between all women (oh, and how a womanist consciousness can be achieved by wearing overalls and a man's hat!) What a scream. With absolutely no ear for dialogue, Walker plods on through banal image after banal image until the final scene, which uses a crazy old woman who thinks she's pregnant as comic relief. This book is as bad in its simplistic/political way as her later work is in its spiritual/overheated way. The only currency Walker has anymore is as a public figue, not as a writer.
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