{"product_id":"toni-morrison-critical-perspectives-past-and-present-amistad-literary-series","title":"Toni Morrison: Critical Perspectives Past and Present (Amistad Literary Series)","description":"\u003cp\u003eToni Morrison has been described by the New York Times as \"the closest thing the country has to a national writer.\" Her third novel  Song of Solomon  earned her the National Book Critics Circle and the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters awards  and was the first novel written by an African-American writer to be selected for the Book-of-the-Month club since Richard Wrights Native Son. With six published novels  two anthologies  a volume of literary criticism  plays  and other published works behind her  she is one of the most celebrated American writers of her time. Henry Louis Gates  Jr.  writes in the preface of Toni Morrison: Critical Perspectives Past and Present  coedited with K. A. Appiah  that \"Morrisons greatest capacities as a writer are her ability to create a densely lyrical narrative texture that is instantly recognizable as her own  and to make of the particularity of the African-American experience the basis for a representation of humanity tout court.\" These critical perspectives are reviews from the popular press  essays - by such noted scholars and authors as Houston A. Baker  Jr.  author of Workings of the Spirits  and Roberta Rubenstein  author of Boundaries of the Self - and interviews with Morrison that present her own perspective. This unique and revealing collection  which also includes a chronology of her life and career  offers insight and information useful to academic and lay readers alike. The critical essays explain how Morrisons work is influenced by writers such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez  William Faulkner  and James Baldwin; by Biblical scripture; and by Black music and speech rituals. They examine why Morrisons writing is \"at once difficult and popular \" says Gates. When Sara Blackburn reviewed Morrisons first novel  The Bluest Eye  for the New York Times  she wrote that the novelist \"reaped the benefits of a growing middle-class womens movement that was just beginning to acknowledge the reality of its black and poor sisters. As a result  her novel probably attracted more attention than it otherwise might have in the publishing industry and reviewers.\" The factors of her success are debatable  but most agree that her place in the pantheon of the worlds greatest literary figures is guaranteed.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44968091320373,"sku":"ByrdShop_1567430120","price":60.02,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781567430127.jpg?v=1770646270","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/toni-morrison-critical-perspectives-past-and-present-amistad-literary-series","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}