Liberian Literary Magazine
Gorilla, My Love –
by Toni Cade Bambara
Promoting Liberian literature, Arts and Culture
cleverly built around the idea
of
keys,
literal
and
metaphorical. The key to a
house, the key to a heart, the
explores the many possible
answers.
The Black Calhouns: From
Civil War to Civil Rights
with One African American
Family by Gail Lumet Buckley
In these fifteen superb
stories, written in a style at
once
ineffable
and
immediately
recognizable,
Toni Cade Bambara gives us
compelling portraits of a wide
range
of
unforgettable
characters,
from
sassy
children to cunning old men,
in scenes shifting between
uptown New York and rural
North CaroLina. A young girl
suffers her first betrayal. A
widow flirts with an elderly
blind man against the wishes
of her grown-up children. A
neighborhood loan
shark
teaches o white social worker
a lesson in responsibility. And
there is more. Sharing the
world of Toni Cade Bambara's
"straight-up fiction" is a
stunning
experience..
Whether they come from
What Is Not Yours Is Not
Yours by Helen Oyeyemi
Playful,
ambitious,
and
exquisitely imagined, What Is
Not Yours Is Not Yours is
key to a secret—Oyeyemi’s
keys not only unlock elements
of her characters’ lives, they
promise further labyrinths on
the other side. In “Books and
Roses” one special key opens
a library, a garden, and clues
to at least two lovers’ fates.
In “Is Your Blood as Red as
This?” an unlikely key opens
the heart of a student at a
puppeteering school. “‘Sorry’
Doesn’t Sweeten Her Tea”
involves a “house of locks,”
where doors can be closed
only
with
a
key—with
surprising,
unobservable
developments. And in “If a
Book Is Locked There’s
Probably a Good Reason for
That Don't You Think,” a key
keeps a mystical diary locked
(for
good
reason).
Oyeyemi’s tales span multiple
times and landscapes as they
tease boundaries between
coexisting realities. Is a key a
gate,
a
gift,
or
an
invitation? What Is Not Yours
Is Not Yours captivates as it
13
In The Black Calhouns, Gail
Lumet Buckley—daughter of
actress Lena Horne—delves
deep into her family history,
detailing the experiences of
an extraordinary AfricanAmerican family from Civil
War to Civil Rights.
Beginning with her greatgreat grandfather Moses
Calhoun, a house slave who
used the rare advantage of his
education to become a
successful businessman in
post-war Atlanta, Buckley
follows her family’s two
branches: one that stayed in
the South, and the other that
settled in Brooklyn. Through
the lens of her relatives’
momentous lives, Buckley
examines
major
events
throughout American history.
From
Atlanta
during
Reconstruction and the rise of
Jim Crow, to New York City
during
the
Harlem