Rating: 
Summary: Surprisingly flat and one-dimensional
Review: There are gems in this book, hidden amongst the rather flat, bardo-like excursions through various realities before and after physical death. As contrasted to "The Colour Purple" and "Possessing the Secret of Joy", I found this story to have all the depth of a deflated balloon. Perhaps this is due to the perspective of several key characters -- they, celestial voyeurs, observe the carnal goings-on of those still alive, and comment on humanity's self-inflicted blessings and curses. I got the sense that no one in this story, despite all the sex, really *touched* (except, perhaps, Irene and Susannah, during their marvelous conversations). Brief gems include, "It takes only one lie to unravel the world" and " 'What does it mean to be saved?' 'I think it means becoming aware.' " What I'm left with is an awareness of a sad lack of passion and colour -- if anything, Walker has thoroughly brought home the alienation and loss of soul in both the novel's characters and in European, androcentric culture.
Rating: 
Summary: Bravely done and extremely needed but ...
Review: This book gathers up so much of women's history and experience, all previously ignored or misrepresented and takes this history/experience as an important given, uses it to explain our human quest to seek sexual and spiritual fulfillment, to know ourselves. Speaking so honestly about female sexual hurt, female sexual maiming, female sexual shaming within the family, within the father/daughter relationship and imagining a way to heal this experience was powerfully brave of Walker. I felt like I was is a long darkened and forbidden room now amazingly and lovingly explored, revealed. I felt such relief to read this attempt at restoring female sexuality to an altar of acceptance, respect, love, social esteem. It seemed almost possible to live in a society, a family that really could anticipate female sexuality with joy, freedom and respect on an equal footing with male sexual importance. But my awe and gratitude for the subject and Walker's attempt is still tempered by my real sense, in the reading of it, that it was not entirely successful. I'm not sure why. Some of the sexual imagery, the dominating type sexual play in some scenes seemed artificial, unreal. If it were real, it wouldn't be so undisturbing to the participants, it would raise issues, it would be unsettling, not just accepted as part of their sexual bliss identity. But over all, the story reads like a fable, a fairy tale, really and that is fine with me. We need this new kind of fairy tale and fable.
Rating: 
Summary: This was a challenge
Review: This book has a dream like quality as it slips between time and place. It moves seamlessly from one narrator to another just as Susannah moves between lovers. This is a novel about love, life and death. I am glad that I read it. I am unlikely to recommend it to my mother in law, but I feel that it is a novel which all fathers should read.
Rating: 
Summary: An Experience for the soul
Review: This book transcends most novels. The raw use of metaphor, the language in which she pulled me into the character's experience, and the gift of letting me see things from many different angles, rather than only one viewpoint, left me full at the end of the reading. Recommendation HIGH
Rating:
Summary: An Experience for the soul
Review: This book transcends most novels. The raw use of metaphor, the language in which she pulled me into the character's experience, and the gift of letting me see things from many different angles, rather than only one viewpoint, left me full at the end of the reading. Recommendation HIGH
Rating:
Summary: i felt immersed in a womb of cultures, spirits and love
Review: This is the first book I've read by Alice Walker and I feel fortunate that it just caught me by surprise in the public library. The adoration and the pain expressed by the characters was tremendous. I could barely manage to put it down. This should be on everyone's gotta-read-it list. Angel-spirits travel with you as you roam from the US to Greece to Mexico. Good stuff!!
Rating:
Summary: Out Of This World...
Review: Very interesting characters but too bad they had to die to reconcile with one another. The only strong charater in this novel is the little person Irene, whom in spite of a very disturbing childhood manages to become a winner, which goes to prove that you have to do the best with what you have. Alice Walker has a different approach on expressing the joys and pains a family lives through with lasting consequences. A very entertaining book.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful tale...
Review: Walker tells a wonderful story about freeing oneself from the constraints of societal strictures and family baggage, both as a child and as a parent. The style is reminiscent of some of Gabriel Garcia Marquez' delightful magic.
Rating:
Summary: A subject worthy for high school and college classrooms
Review: What makes Alice Walker's writing special is her ability to never detract from communicating women's suffering, herstory, sexuality, or the paths sought towards enlightenment and at times, disappointments. Although slightly different from her earlier works--The Color Purple or Possessing the Secret of Joy--By the Light of My Father's Smile is a dramatic love story with all the ingredients of trust and distrust, jealousy, betrayal and interacial relationships that teaches us that until we are at peace with ourselves on earth, we will never rest in peace in the afterlife. I'm glad I had the opportunity to give the book a chance.
Rating:
Summary: The Light of My Father's Smile is an amazing inner journey.
Review: When I finished this book yesterday night after teaching English and pausing to complete a painting, it left me with a feeling of connectedness. Most of us who live between cultures are rarely given a voice where all parts of our being have a chance to be sun-drenched, moon-drenched, water-sparkled and yet this book has that amazing ability to link these parts independently with a sharp interdependence. It is also about forgiving in a way so akin to old tears in a new body. It is a refreshing wait and I want more. She makes me greedy for more of that insight and diligence. Please continue to promote work of this magnitude and command and thank you Alice for being a channel to your gift and giving it space to thrive.
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