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.