The Way Forward Is With A Broken Heart
by Alice Walker
List Price: $14.00
Pages: 240
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0345407954
Publisher: Ballantine Books
"These are the stories that came to me to be told after the close of a magical marriage to an extraordinary man that ended in a less-than-magical divorce. I found myself unmoored, unmated, ungrounded in a way that challenged everything I'd ever thought about human relationships. Situated squarely in that terrifying paradise called freedom, precipitously out on so many emotional limbs, it was as if I had been born; and in fact I was being reborn as the woman I was to become."
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1.
In the Jim Crow South, whites had daily, often intimate contact with blacks whom they trusted to work in their homes and care for their children. Given that context, what was their rationale for en-acting laws against interracial marriage?
2.
What are some of the societal messages put forth about interracial relationships today?
3.
How does the epistolary technique have an impact on the narrative in 'To My Young Husband"?
4.
What can be learned from the experiences of biracial children in an increasingly diverse society?
5.
In 'Kindred Spirits' the narrator makes reference to Cuban immi-grants in the United States. Discuss the Cuban revolution and its impact on American politics.
6.
Discuss the relationship between Marcella, Angel, and Sally as depicted in 'There Was a River.' How would you handle such a scenario?
7.
How is the subject of pornography addressed in 'The Brotherhood of the Saved'? Is it possible to limit access to pornography without breaching First Amendment rights?
8.
If you brought your gift to Alice Walker, what would it be?
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"Swift, compelling, moving, irresistible."
—The Baltimore Sun
"Goes much further than even The Remains of the Day in its examination of the roles we've had handed to us... His fullest achievement yet."
—The New York Times Book Review
"You seldom read a novel that so convinces you it is extending the possibilities of fiction."
—Sunday Times (London)
"Poignant... When We Were Orphans may well be Ishiguro's most capacious book so far."
—Pico Iyer, The New York Review of Books
