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Long Distance Life
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Following her classic memoir, Migrations of the Heart, and her widely praised first novel, A Woman's Place, Marita Golden returns with a novel that explores the poetry, irony, and drama of the "domestic life" of four generations of a Black American family.
Long Distance Life moves from North Carolina in the 1920s to the emerging Black middle class of Washington, D.C., of the '40s and '50s, continuing through the civil rights movement, and culminating in a contemporary tragedy.
Naomi Johnson is the spiritual and emotional center of her family. After marrying to get away from her sharecropper-father's house, Naomi leaves Spring Hope, North Carolina, in the 1920s and becomes part of the Black migration North that transforms America. "The story of my family's no different, really, than the story of yours. I'm so old now, every day I live is a surprise to people who think old folks die on some sort of schedule."
Esther, Naomi's daughter, inherits both her mother's fierceness of spirit and the privileges that Naomi's newly earned success can give. When Esther flees the confines of her mother's dreams, she heads South and the civil rights movement, but not without leaving her son Logan behind. And when she returns, she brings freedom and renewed hope for her life and that of her family.
As we hear the richness of Naomi's voice and watch her family grow and unfold before our eyes, the transformation of a culture becomes evident. Ms. Golden's characters are forever memorable, their voice urgent with meaning.
Praise for Long Distance Life:
"Marita Golden writes with a fine hand. Both her subject matter and her prose style are reminiscent of Gloria Naylor's novel The Women of Brewster Place."
-Newsday
