Maud Martha

by Gwendolyn Brooks

Overview

September 2003 marked the 50th anniversary of Maud Martha, the only novel published by esteemed poet Gwendolyn Brooks. Initially entitled "American Family Brown" the work would eventually come to symbolize some of Brooks' most provocative writing. In a novel that captures the essence of Black life, Brooks recognizes the beauty and strength that lies within each of us.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780883780619
Publisher:	Third World Press
Publication date:	10/01/1992
Edition description:	THIRD WORLD PRESS ed.
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Gwendolyn Brooks was the first African American to win the Pulitzer prize (1950), and she was the poetry consultant for the Library of Congress and the Poet Laureate of Illinois.

What People are Saying About This

George Kent

Acts of coherence, imposing upon the lawless surge of life the creative image…a quiet power.

Toni Cade Bambara

The pauses, the unsaids cause internal bleeding…a new movement and energy, intensity, richness, power of statement and a new stripped, lean, compressed style.
—(Toni Cade Bambara, author of Gorilla, My love, The Salteaters, and The Black Woman.)

Dudley Randall

A style simple and direct…yet rich and deep.

Richard Wright

There is no self—pity nor a striving for efforts. She takes hold of reality as it is, and renders it faithfully. The whimper of the wounded, the tiny accidents that plague the lives of the desperately poor. Color prejudice.

Ann Petry

I read [Maud Martha] with absolute delight from start to finish, delight in the beautiful structure of the book, delight in the way Maud Martha comes alive as a person caught up in timeless elemental situations.
—(Ann Petry, author of The Street and The Narrows)

Editorial Reviews

Maud Martha was the first novel by world_class poet Gwendolyn Brooks. It is the story of a woman with doubts about herself and her place in an indifferent world. It is also a story of triumph, the triumph of the lowly. Through Brooks's straightforward and honest portrayal of the novel's heroine, the reader is forced to come face_to_face with Maud Martha and recognize that her essence resides deep within every one of us. Within this honest and intimate story of one woman's struggles and failures, Brooks's incandescent poetic language shines through.

The book is not driven by any specific plot, but collects thirty_four vignettes from Martha's life, taking her from age seven to the time of her second pregnancy. Brooks focuses on Martha's domestic life, first as a child, then a wife, then a mother. Through the seemingly small but poetically described incidents of Martha's life, we see how her childhood dreams meet with disappointing results because she is crippled by her own poor self-worth and the incompatibility of her desires and her reach.

Critic David Littlejohn said of the book: Maud Martha is a striking human experiment.., a powerful, dagger of a book, as generous as it can possibly be. It teaches more . . . than a thousand pages of protest. Brooks herself has said that much of Maud Martha is autobiographical. She didn't want to write about somebody who turned out to be a star cause most people don't turn out to be stars. And yet their lives are just as sweet and just as rich as any others and often they are richer and sweeter.

Sacred Fire