Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood

By bell hooks

Book Overview

"A canvas of vividly impressionistic splashes of growing up young, gifted, Black, and female." --The Philadelphia Inquirer

In this memoir of perceptions and ideas, renowned feminist intellectual bell hooks presents a stirringly intimate account of growing up in the South. Stitching together the gossamer threads of her girlhood memories, hooks shows us one strong-spirited child's journey toward becoming a writer.

Along the way, hooks sheds light on the vulnerability of children, the special unfurling of female creativity, and the imbalance of a society that confers marriage's joys upon men and its silences on women. In a world where daughters and daddies are strangers under the same roof, and crying children are often given something to cry about, hooks uncovers the solace to be found in solitude, the comfort to be had in the good company of books.

Bone Black allows us to bear witness to the awakening of a legendary author's awareness that writing is her most vital breath.

"With the emotion of poetry, the narrative of a novel, and the truth of experience, bell hooks weaves a girlhood memoir you won't be able to put down--or forget. Bone Black takes us into the cave of self-creation." --Gloria Steinem

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805055126
• ISBN13: 9780805055122
• Release Date: October 1997
• Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.69 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Memories with imagination and maturity

bell hooks is known for her many books on the politics of art and culture. This addition is more about the processing of becoming a mature thoughtful writer. Her road was a painful one but all that she experienced fortified her work process and personality. There is some beautiful visual writing and depth in bell hooks' bone black.

you know her work, now get to know the author

I couldn't stop turning the pages of this brutally honest tale of a black, southern, woman who grows up knowing that she is diffrent. And therefore, her life will be diffrent.This little book gives an intimate look, at the writer some say is the most prolific writer on race, gender and class. hooks, uses words extremely cautiously whick makes this piece on you simply can't put down.Eat this book!

growing up "girl"

...It's always a fascinating pleasure to see behind the lives of such brilliantly outspoken and dedicated social critics like bell hooks. Although the story and it's details always belong to the author's experience, a memoire lends itself to the reader's unique perception. This book brought me back to childhood and slammed my heart against words for feelings I'd never been able to identify while growing through my own "girlhood". Some of the human universe's deepest and most heartfelt emotions of family, sexuality, feminine and personal identity, jealousy, rage, contempt, and spirituality are permitted to ooze from the pages of this multi-faceted story. A wonderful trip through time for all of us who claw scratching through every day of our dreams and our lives.

At home with words

I just finished bell hooks' Bone Black and I had to write something to someone. I have been reading autobiographies for a thesis for the past few months and have found a wealth of styles. None, however, can compare to the complex simplicity of Ms. hooks. Her language is a melding of childhood innocence and adult knowledge. For example, when she says "Only grown-ups think that the things children say come our of nowhere. We know they come from the deepest parts of ourselves" (24), she is able to consider both perspectives because she has lived both. It is touching that she chooses to identify with the children. Ms. hooks allows the reader, though her narritive switches, to follow her search for a home. Through personal and impersonal (first vs. third person) accounts, we come to symapthize with her exile from her family. In the end, when she notes that she "belong[s] in this place of words. This is my home" (183), the reader can only sigh in agreement. Her words are her home, both in Bone Black and later feminist theory. The magic is in the words.

"AN ENCOURAGEMENT TO CAPTURE OUR LIVES IN PRINT."

THIS NEWEST OFFERING FROM MS. HOOKS IS SUCH A SWEET REMINDER OF HOW GROWING UP IN THE SOUTH LEAVES NEVER ENDING MEMORIES. THE MORE PAINFUL THE MEMORY,THE MORE POSSIBLE YOU BECOME