Synopsis
GOIN'
HOME - A Black Family returns South.
'Murari tells of their journey
with sensitivity and candour, with sympathy restrained by objectivity
His own point of view is that of an outsider - an urbane writer
(novelist and playwright) who shuttles between London and New
York. Murari conveys a complex reaction to Arthur, Alma and the
South he visits. While he recognises pretence and hypocrisy in
southern societies he is at pains to portray the civic leaders
he encounters not as ogres but as basically decent - albeit extremely
provincial - unquestioningly preserving a social milieu they've
inherited from their ancestors. He is enormously sympathetic to
the southern black'. THE WASHINGTON POST.
-This sparely written account of the Stanfords is a poignant account.
A story of a 5th or 6th generation American family - land where
my fathers died - who can't find a home. A story of a myth - among
those are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness- that isn't
working. A lament from sea to sea. THE BOSTON GLOBE
-In this family portrait that spans three generations, Murari
sensitively explores the racial undercurrents that ultimately
lead to this young couple's painful disillusionment. CINCINNATI
HERALD
-The warm, moving, ultimately grim story of one young family's
participation in a growing movement: the black migration back
to the South. Murari draws a telling picture of another black
dream deferred. LIBRARY JOURNAL.
'Goin' Home tells of a dream gone sour. It's the touching story
of Arthur and Alma, a young black couple. For some months, Timeri
Murari had been searching for a black family planning to return
to the South. He went along with Arthur and Alma and this book
is their story, recorded with perception, sensitivity and sadness
by Murari. BIRMIGHAM NEWS.
Timeri Murari has come up with a highly readable, bittersweet
little book that is hard to put down once begun. The author, perhaps
because of his own background, writes with a sort of low-key detachment
that makes for absorbing reading. He also writes with rare perception
as he compares the racial climates in the urban North and rural
South. SUNDAY ADVOCATE.
The book is written with great understanding of the desire of
Arthur and Alma to make it in Arthur's hometown. The book shows
that the left-out feeling that submerged them in Eufaula was more
humiliating and degrading that battling it out with some admitted
rednecks in Boston. St Paul Pioneer Press.
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