Brown Girl, Brownstones - Softcover

Marshall, Paule

4.07

3,428 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1558611495 ISBN 13: 9781558611498

Publisher: The Feminist Press at CUNY, 1996

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Set in Brooklyn during the Depression and World War II, this prize-winning 1959 novel chronicles the efforts of Barbadian immigrants to surmount poverty and racism, and to make their home in a new country. Selina Boyce, the novel's sturdy heroine, is caught between respect for her hard-working, ambitious mother and deep love for her easy-going, romantic father. As she grows into young womanhood, she must forge her own identity, sexuality, and sense of values.

"Marshall brings to her characters . . . an instinctive understanding, a generosity, and a free humor that combine to form a style remarkable for its courage, its color, and its natural control."-The New Yorker

Suggested for course use in:
African-American studies
Immigration
New York City
U.S. literature

Paule Marshall is the author of the novels The Chosen Place, The Timeless People; Praisesong for the Widow; and Daughters. She is Hellen Gould Sheppard Professor of Literature and Culture at New York University. Mary Helen Washington is professor of English at the University of Maryland, College Park, and editor of three collections of fiction by African-American women writers.

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From the Back Cover:

"An unforgettable novel, written with pride and anger, with rebellion and tears."—Herald Tribune Book Review
"Passionate, compelling . . . an impressive accomplishment."—Saturday Review
"Remarkable for its courage, its color, and its natural control."—The New Yorker
Selina's mother wants to stay in Brooklyn and earn enough money to buy a brownstone row house, but her father dreams only of returning to his island home. Torn between a romantic nostalgia for the past and a driving ambition for the future, Selina also faces the everyday burdens of poverty and racism.
Written by and about an African-American woman, this coming-of-age story unfolds during the Depression and World War II. Its setting—a close-knit community of immigrants from Barbados—is drawn from the author's own experience, as are the lilting accents and vivid idioms of the characters' speech. Paule Marshall's 1959 novel was among the first to portray the inner life of a young female African-American, as well as depicting the cross-cultural conflict between West Indians and American blacks. It remains a vibrant, compelling tale of self-discovery.
Dover (2009) unabridged republication of the edition published by Random House, Inc., New York, 1959.

About the Author:

Paule Marshall grew up in Brooklyn and barbados. She has published four novels and a book of short stories in career dating back to Random House's publication of BROWN GIRL in 1959. She has received the John Dos Passos Award for Literature and an American Book Award, and was an honoree of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. Marshall teaches creative writing at New York University.

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