A Matter of Souls

by Denise Lewis Patrick

Overview

From the shores of Africa to the bowels of a transatlantic ship to a voting booth in Mississippi to the jungles of Vietnam, all human connection is a matter of souls.

In this stirring collection of short stories, Denise Lewis Patrick considers the souls of black men and women across centuries and continents. In each, she takes the measure of their dignity, describes their dreams, and catalogs their fears.

Brutality, beauty, laughter, rage, and love all take their turns in each story, but the final impression is of indomitable, luminous, and connected souls.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761392804
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/01/2014
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.70(d)
Lexile:	810L (what's this?)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Denise Lewis Patrick grew up in Louisiana and now lives in New Jersey. She has been both a writer and editor in various areas of the publishing industry. Visit her online at www.deniselewispatrick.com.

Editorial Reviews

★ 2014-01-15
Eight short stories with long memory cut to the quick—all the more as they could be true. Patrick's tales from the distant and not-so-distant past shed fresh light on interracial and intraracial conflicts that shape and often distort the realities of African-Americans. The youthful characters possess passion and purpose, even if they remain misguided or too proud to live safely within their historically situated habitats. In one story, "Colorstruck," Hazel absorbs everything Miss Clotille, her light-skinned, middle-class Negro employer, has taught her: how to say etiquette instead of manners and teal and magenta instead of green and purple, and to wear shoes in public. Living in the shadow of Clotille and her five fair-skinned sisters, Hazel believes that blackness will impede her upward social mobility. She loses her job and nearly loses her life by placing her faith in "Beauty Queen Complexion Clarifier…guaranteed to brighten, lighten and heighten your natural beauty!" As the visage of the "ideal Colored woman" floats through this tale, it illuminates the multifaceted sources of self-hatred and enmity within black families around skin color. The plots and characters change from one story to the next, but each one artfully tells a poignant truth without flinching. Shocking, informative and powerful, this volume offers spectacular literary snapshots of black history and culture. (Short stories. 12-18)

Kirkus Reviews

"Shocking, informative and powerful, this volume offers spectacular literary snapshots of black history and culture." —starred, Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher