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Rosa Guy (1922–2012)

Autor(a) de The Friends

20+ Works 886 Membros 16 Críticas 2 Favorited

About the Author

Rosa Guy was born Rosa Cuthbert in Diego Martin, Trinidad on September 1, 1922. When she was 7, she and her older sister joined their parents in New York City. By the time she was 14, both of her parents had died. Before becoming an author, she studied acting at the American Negro Theater. She was mostrar mais among the founders of the Harlem Writers Guild in 1950. Her first book, Bird at My Window, was published in 1966. She wrote books for both young adults and adults. Her young adult books include The Friends, Ruby, and Edith Jackson. Her books for adults include A Measure of Time, Children of Longing, and My Love, My Love: Or, The Peasant Girl, which was made into a musical entitled Once on This Island. She died of cancer on June 3, 2012 at the age of 89. (Bowker Author Biography) mostrar menos

Includes the name: Rosa Guy

Image credit: Banyan

Obras por Rosa Guy

The Friends (1973) 307 exemplares
Ruby (1976) 100 exemplares
The Disappearance (1979) 78 exemplares
Mother Crocodile (1949) 64 exemplares
A Measure of Time (1983) 55 exemplares
Edith Jackson (1978) 39 exemplares
Billy the Great (1992) 34 exemplares
Bird At My Window (1966) 25 exemplares
The Sun, the Sea, a Touch of Wind (1995) 22 exemplares
New Guys Around the Block (1983) 20 exemplares
Paris, Pee Wee and Big Dog (1984) 18 exemplares
The Ups & Downs of Carl Davis III (1989) 17 exemplares
And I Heard a Bird Sing (1987) 14 exemplares
The Music of Summer (1992) 7 exemplares

Associated Works

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Membros

Críticas

What a sad and bittersweet book.
Told from the perspective of Phyllisia Cathy, a young girl in middle school who has recently emigrated to Harlem from The Island (unsure of which Caribbean Island they are from originally) in the 1970s, we see Phyllisia struggle to navigate this new, and at times, violent environment. She's bullied mercilessly by her classmates and teacher, fights with her sister and father, and struggles feel the same bond with her mother they shared on The Island, but hesitantly forms a friendship with Edith, a girl that Phyllisia has some shame admitting is her friend. Family issues from both Phyllisia's family and Edith's family pull them apart, but as all true friends seem to do, they find their way back to each other.
I had a hard time finding Phyllisia to be a sympathetic character through most of the book. However, she does redeem herself in the end. If you're struggling with that as I was, I encourage you to continue reading. The resolution was incredibly bittersweet but satisfying.
I think something else to note is the language and some situations used in the story are from a different time, a different era. I think some young readers (this was picked out of a middle school library by one of my students) may struggle with understanding some of the circumstances and motivations behind the characters actions. However bullying, neglect, racism, classism, these are all sadly timeless issues, and some young readers may be able to identify with these battles themselves.
After some research, it appears The Friends is the first in a set of a trio of books, all in this same world, but each focusing on a different girl's perspective: Phyllisia, Edith, and Phyllisia's sister, Ruby. These books don't seem to have been published recently, so if you're interested in reading any of them, you may need to look for second hand book sellers, though I was able to find copies through Amazon.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
acligon | 4 outras críticas | Dec 19, 2022 |
This is a good book for young readers, possibly grades 1-4. This book describes a mother crocodile that once snapped at the monkeys and then the monkeys convinced the whole jungle including her children that she is crazy. I would use this book to show my students how words can hurt and that spreading rumors can cause various problems.
 
Assinalado
HunterBartoo | 1 outra crítica | Apr 19, 2021 |
This beautifully-written story is an interesting modern rendition of Hans Christian Anderson's "The Little Mermaid" and compared together, bring about important comparisons. They share the same main ideas, yet the distinct difference that help emphasize the different themes expressed by both stories.

In My Love, My Love, the teenaged dreamer here is named Desiree Dieu-Donne, an island Ti Moune (or orphan) who, while without parents, is raised by her affectionate adoptive parents, Tonton Julian and Mam Euralie. Just like the character namesake in "The Little Mermaid," Desiree's life is changed when she falls in love with a comely young prince, Daniel Beauxhomme, a youthful rich mulatto who she nurses back to health after he is in a car accident. Daniel, just like the mermaid's prince, is of a different world, and not meant to be a love interest at all, and Daniel, just like the prince, must return to his old world, taking with him the simplistic heart of his young lover.

Both girls in these stories go to extreme lengths to be reunited with their sweethearts. Desiree leaves her family and village and places her life in the blood-stained hands of Papa Ge, the island's horrid messenger of the sea. An interesting feminist symbol is utilized as Desiree, forced to wear a new pair of shoes, endures the immense pain in her feet even though each step was "a new experience in torture." While the mermaid gives over her voice for freedom, Desiree is a mute in her own sense since she knows not the languages of the foreign diplomats.

The interloper who moves in the way of the two "star-cross'd lovers" in both stories is everything the protagonist is not: confident, articulate, and rich. Desiree, like the mermaid, realizes that she has endangered her life over a man who looks lost to her.

Hidden in My Love, My Love is the sometimes sad and total cost of challenging established circumstances and status quo. It shows how high the price can be for selfless love.

It is interesting to note the commonalities between "The Little Mermaid" and this modern rendition. Throughout, there are subtle, and less-than-subtle allusions to that well-loved, later-Disney-fied classic. Just note the allusion made by one of the characters, Mama Euralie: "She [Desiree] gives up her honor to this man, born of a world as different from hers as land is from the sea."

For good comparisons and a more interesting reading experience, read this novel after, or alongside, the version of Hans Christian Anderson (and no, it is quite different from Disney's cartoon!). I recommend this for adolescents and adults, as well as anyone interesting in modernized fairy tales, or in the true non-Disney versions of the stories we love.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
irrelephant | 2 outras críticas | Feb 21, 2021 |
What a story. This is very much a typical Great American Novel of a young protagonist making it in the big city against the backdrop of various historical events. The only difference here is that our protagonist is a young black woman from the American South of Montgomery in the early 20th century, seeking to make her mark in Harlem. And what a difference that makes to the whole perspective of a typical GAN.

The book traces Dorine Davis' beginnings in Montgomery, to her second beginning during the Harlem Renaissance - her life, her loves, her family, the sacrifices she had had to make -, while not shying away from incorporating the racism that affected her everyday life. This was doubly interesting when I think of the GANs I've read set during a similar time period. How many of them have had to navigate through the complicated racial laws and etiquettes of the time, or even had to take notice of it at all?

Yet the story isn't going for a model "minority" who through sheer hard work achieves the American dream. Davis is most certainly no model minority and nor should she be. She makes bad decisions and her rag-to-riches story is certainly very morally grey. Perhaps weirdly, Davis' life reminded me of Theo's in Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch in an overly-engorged and opulent way.

For a book this heavily condensed, (over forty years in under 400 pages), the pacing is expectedly uneven (sometimes years pass within one paragraph) but never jarringly so and the large cast of characters all satsifyingly individually treated and explored. A great record of a life, especially that of a black woman, in America during the early 20th century.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
kitzyl | Oct 13, 2019 |

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Estatísticas

Obras
20
Also by
6
Membros
886
Popularidade
#28,920
Avaliação
3.9
Críticas
16
ISBN
111
Línguas
5
Marcado como favorito
2

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