Glorious is set against the backdrops of the Jim Crow South, the Harlem Renaissance, and the civil rights era. Blending the truth of American history with the fruits of Bernice L. McFadden’s rich imagination, this is the story of EasterVenetta Bartlett, a fictional Harlem Renaissance writer whose tumultuous path to success, ruin, and revival offers a candid portrait of the American experience in all its beauty and cruelty.
Glorious is ultimately an audacious exploration into the nature of self-hatred, love, possession, ego, betrayal, and, finally, redemption.
MY REVIEW:
Bernice McFadden’s GLORIOUS is the story of the life of one, Easter Bartlett, who starts out in Waycross, Georgia, and winds up all the way in Harlem and the upper class townhouses of New York. From abuse and heartache to love and success during the fabulous Harlem Renaissance, GLORIOUS is the amazing story of a woman who discovers early on that her unfulfilled resolve is what gives her strength to carry on. This inner strength is one that is to be followed so that when she does her best and follows her heart, many great things are possible. The most important thing is that she can always find peace in reading and her ability to write.
From the first chapter of GLORIOUS, I was immediately intrigued by Easter as I read about her starting out in 1910 in Georgia where she witnessed her father and sister put through their own personal tragedies and watched as her mother followed by dying of a broken heart. As she does throughout her life and the story, she left that behind to move on to another encounter where unrequited love is Easter’s torture this time. One experience after another, one love, one heartbreak…all come together to become Easter’s path in life as she makes her way up to New York and finally back to Georgia where it all began. Characters such as Rain, Colin, and Meredith are as heartrending and moving as is Easter as she encounters them because Bernice McFadden has a way with words that make the story and its characters powerful and moving, tragic and beautiful…most of all captivating as you can’t stop turning the pages to see what happens next with these well developed, multi-layered characters’ lives. Throughout all of the story, the one constant you cheer for is the comfort of Easter’s writing until there comes a time when even that is taken from her.
Whether Easter is working for a rich white woman or teaching school, or working in a traveling sideshow or with her beloved writing, the reader is transported by McFadden’s superbly written narrative. Drawn into the characters’ lives as never before, it is easy for me to give this book a high recommendation and to see why Oprah named it one of the top most promising books of this new decade and compared it to our last decade’s phenomenal hit, THE HELP.
THANKS TO BERNICE MCFADDEN
FOR THE TWO AUTOGRAPHED COPIES
OF EACH OF THESE AMAZING
BOOKS TO GIVE AWAY, SO TWO
WINNERS WILL WIN BOTH SUGAR
AND GLORIOUS !
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*******************************************
39 comments:
I would choose Sugar first.
lkish77123 at gmail dot com
It is a blending of truth and fiction.
lkish77123 at gmail dot com
I also entered the Lemon Tart giveaway.
lkish77123 at gmail dot com
It is interesting that the main character finds inner comfort in reading and writing, even after so many tragedies and heartbreaks in her life. She is a strong woman.
mtakala1 AT yahoo DOT com
That's a tough choice...both books sound wonderful to me! But I guess I would pick Sugar, simply because the characters are common people and it would be interesting to see the friendship develop.
mtakala1 AT yahoo DOT com
I think the book sounds like a good story with an accurate historical background. I love it when writers do that.
debp
twoofakind12@yahoo.com
I would choose Sugar first, because I like a novel about friendshipss and how the characters change and evolve because if it.
debp
twoofakind12@yahoo.com
Entered for 1 Cents a Dance.
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Entered for 1 Cents a Dance.
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Entered for the Lumby Series.
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Entered for 212.
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Entered for 31 Bond Street.
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When you said it was also a story of unrequited love you drew me in. Stories of love like that are so heartbreaking.
aksimmo at brainerd dot net
I would choose Glorious. First of all, her name and the title are so beautiful. Second I love that it is so much a story of redemption.
aksimmo at brainerd dot net
I also entered to win Lemon Tart
aksimmo at brainerd dot net
Also entered for She-Rain
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entered for My Sister's Voice
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Entered for Lemon Tart
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Sugar would be my first choice. saubleb(at)gmail(dot)com
Interesting historical and unique novel.saubleb(at)gmail(dot)com
I entered Lemon Tart. saubleb(at)gmail(dot)com
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The Dr. writes from the heart and feels that owners are as involved in the health of the animals as the dogs.saubleb(at)gmail(dot)com
As always I love your reviews they keep me coming back day by day. Thank you for that and also for introducing me to new to me authors.
The review peaked my interest in the fact that you said throughout the story her writing brings her comfort until that is ultimately taken away. Makes me want to pick the book right up and start reading.
Love & Hugs,
Pam
pk4290(at)comcast(dot)net
Both books sound intriguing I would choose Sugar. The reason being I love the premise of Sugar being taken in by her next door neighbor and both of them dealing with their past hurts.
Love & Hugs,
Pam
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I entered My Sister's Voice giveaway.
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I entered I thought you were dead giveaway.
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I entered Middle Place & Lift giveaway.
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I entered Love is the best medicine giveaway.
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