The strong talent of Paule Marshall has matured in this, her second book. Woven through these four diverse and fascinating short novels is a theme that unifies them despite sharp differences of character and background.
In each a man moving toward the later reaches of life experiences a climatic confrontation. In each a woman is involved as both a creative and a destructive force. In each a man is reaching out desperately to grasp at his life before it is gone. None succeeds, but the moment involves is presented with such vividness and dramatic force that it reveals and illumines depths of human experience.
Paule Marshall writes a singing, effortless prose. Her insights into men and women are extraordinary: whether she is dealing with a small landowner in Barbados and the girl who is little more than a domestic slave; with a discredited college professor in Brooklyn and the lovely student he wants as consolation for a wasted life; with the last of a proud family of mixed blood in British Guiana and the woman who he feels robbed him of a crucial opportunity to prove his manhood; or a famous nightclub comedian and his woman partner in Brazil.—Print ed.