Possessing the Secret of Joy by Alice Walker 1992

This is the second time I have journied through the pages of this riveting book, picking up new nuances and concepts along the way. This book is one of my all time favourites because it hits an emotional chord and attachment to the charcaters and their inherant obstacles develops through each page to well after the book is finished and one is left musing the strangeness of certain customs and how mutilation can become culturally acceptable until individuals questions it. "Resistance is the secret of Joy..." in this case is an apt finale to the book.

The whole concept of genital mutilation is abhorrant to me and I have been active in the past over male infant circumcision, so it is a subject that moves me. Walker has the ability to address the psychological impact of female circumcision from many angles - not just Tashi's husband, lover, their children, family and even Carl Jung. (I love how Alice Walker, in her "Thanks" states she "gives" Jung Tashi... and yes, what a complex and intriguing character she is!

Walker makes copious use of dreams and symbols throughout the book, engaging the reader to think through her ideas to try and work out exactly where she is leading. Mental illness, or rather, the psychological impact female genital mutilation has is deeply examined, not just the effects on Tashi but those around her. Tashi chooses to go through the initiation as an adult to become accepted by her Olinka tribespeople, as her association with the white missionaries has caused a distrust of her she seeks to regain. The consequences of this are riveting.

I highly recommend this book for the inherant statement made about an issue through which me might better understand the current political & cultural climate in the Middle East, extreme as that sounds. The subjugation of women is not something of the past, and one CAN wonder at it's impact today on how these countries face the world when mutilating their young girls is par for the course. Highly recommended book!

BLACK ANNA by K.M. MacAulay

You'd be surprised how often you doubt your own sanity when you don't understand your own capacities.

A book that deeply moved me... published in 1976 under a Literary Arts grant. Aussie. I googled Kenneth, but couldn't find a thing - most mysterious. Like this novel.

To encapsulate the themes in this poignant tragedy - race, greed, ambition, control, abuse (racial, sexual & environmental), sexuality, social propriety and conventions, violence, activism, mysticism & a spiritual journey 'home.'

This book leaves the reader totally re-evaulating their perceptions of Life in a way that is both confronting and challenging. With the pain of the shadow side of abuse, death and the impersonal sequence of Life's events out of one's personal control, this book manages to rock the foundations of one's perception of reality.

Who hasn't experienced deja vu or at least thinking about someone only to have them call? MacAuley manages to confront contemporary views on extra-sensory perception (ESP), visionary experiences and telelpathy 40 years ahead of his time. Another overpowering theme is the Aboriginal viewpoint the earth is a living sentient being, and our inconnected relationship with it.

This perceptive novel follows the intertwined journies of 4 wounded beings with many subplots and interconnecting relationships. An intelligent novel.

If I were to liken this book to contemporary literature examples, I would say it puts all others out of the running. It is intelligently written - very stimulating metaphors and descriptive passages coupled with acute observations that brings this novel to high literature standards. Pushed into a corner, I would put it in the personal and spiritual transformative visionary genre - is there such a thing? It is way above the works of James Redfield "Celestine Prohecy" series; "Conversations with God", etc. I don't label these books as 'literature' but as 'popular fiction'; however their messages have had such a huge impact on Western consciousness, and this is where "Black Anna" implicitly fits the pseudo genres I allude to. These bestselling books' capacity for insight is incomparable when compared to the shining light of MacAulay's words.

To imagine this novel was typed on paper to almost 80 000 words TWICE, then intentionally burnt, reveals MacAulay's pefectionism and attention to detail. There is an emphasis on the many interconnecting relationships between the characters, the nuances between them and their impact on the course of events. This book will shift your outlook and views about fate, and leave you deeply thinking, versus complete admiration for the genius of the author.

I don't know if K.M. MacAulay wrote anything else, as I would dearly relish reading more of his creative writing. It would be amazing to know if he were still alive and lucid...maybe I need to try a telepathic connection? I do know a very few things - like he was born in 1927 - luckily the informative dust jacket was still on the book when I purchased it at the opp shop - and to think I was almost deterred by the dusty cockroach stains! Goes to show, don't judge a book by the grime on its cover! I regret to say, after my google search, this book would be VERY hard to obtain easily. I think this is an outrageous shame (reprint! reprint! reprint!) because it is an EXPERIENCE worth the journey thru its pages.