- Hardcover: 270 pages
- Publisher: John Wiley & Sons (24 April 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0471415189
- ISBN-13: 978-0471415183
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14.6 x 2.8 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 5,547,798 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Come By Here: My Mother's Life
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
Using his poet′s eye for detail and his novelist′s ear for speech, Major (who was shortlisted for a 1999 National Book Award for configurations) mutes his voice to create his mother′s memoir. With authentic plainness, Inez – who is "light, not white"– relates her journey to self–fulfillment through a world of demented racial complexity. "In a country where a white woman could give birth to a black child but a black woman could not give birth to a white child," Inez lives a "secret life as a white woman." Issues of race (as she deals with the employment opportunities available to her only as a white woman) and issues of gender (as Inez deals with an abusive husband) occupy, by virtue of their social significance, the core of this skillfully written book. The rich details of growing up (school, games, friends, church) and of family life (courting, marriage, babies, dying) give Majors book particular vitality. Captured through the vision of one woman, "interchangeably black or white" in a time and place where she "could not be both," Inez′s memoir moves from plantation to segregation to migration. As one generation′s smallpox becomes another′s measles, as Aunt Saffrey′s "fancy horse–drawn buggy" is outmoded by "Pa′s new Chevrolet;′ as Inez moves from tiny Dublinville to the big city of Atlanta, a whole history of African–American life unfolds. Women readers will find Inez′s resilience and perseverance inspirational. (May) Forecast: In academia, the study of" passing" (looking white without being white) is a longstanding favorite. Specialists and students in cultural studies and women′s studies will want this book. (Publishers Weekly, May 6, 2002)
"Women readers will find Inez′s resilience and perseverance inspirational." (Publishers Weekly, May 6, 2002)
"Women readers will find Inez′s resilience and perseverance inspirational." (Publishers Weekly, May 6, 2002)
Product Description
Lavish praise for come by here
"With elegant simplicity and uncommon wisdom, Clarence Major gives us not just the truth of his mother′s life but the unspoken truth behind the lie of color in the American story. A compelling narrative."
–– Rilla Askew, author, Fire in Beulah
"A brilliant rendering of a rich and eventful life. With creative insight, love, and admiration, Major shows us how in family life down through the generations, race really matters."
–– Andrew Billingsley, author, Climbing Jacob′s Ladder:
The Enduring Legacy of African American Families
Critical acclaim for Clarence Major
"Clarence Major has a remarkable mind and the talent to match."
–– Toni Morrison, Nobel Laureate
"One of America′s most gifted and versatile writers."
–– Library Journal
"With elegant simplicity and uncommon wisdom, Clarence Major gives us not just the truth of his mother′s life but the unspoken truth behind the lie of color in the American story. A compelling narrative."
–– Rilla Askew, author, Fire in Beulah
"A brilliant rendering of a rich and eventful life. With creative insight, love, and admiration, Major shows us how in family life down through the generations, race really matters."
–– Andrew Billingsley, author, Climbing Jacob′s Ladder:
The Enduring Legacy of African American Families
Critical acclaim for Clarence Major
"Clarence Major has a remarkable mind and the talent to match."
–– Toni Morrison, Nobel Laureate
"One of America′s most gifted and versatile writers."
–– Library Journal
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
The train's chugging put me to sleep. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
The train's chugging put me to sleep. Read the first page
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Concordance
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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3 reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Come By Here: My Mother's Life
15 April 2002
Format:Hardcover
This intimate look at race and its implications captured me the minute I opened this book. Clarence Major, the well-known poet, has written a beautiful and touching memoir on his mother's story. Although African American, Inez realized she could pass as a white woman with her light skin and was determined to not let Jim Crow laws hinder on her life. She embarks on a double identity in order to help her family. In the end, this sacrifice leads to self-discovery and offers readers an important look at racial challenges in our recent history.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
A compelling memoir of a unique life
15 Sep 2004
Format:Hardcover
I've never read anything else by Clarence Major but he does a splendid job of sharing his mother's compelling life as a light-skinned African-American in the days of segregation. Inez's voice is intimate but honest about what she had to do to survive an abusive husband while keeping her childen safe. Inez's eventual move to Chicago to make a better life for herself and her children is full of rich detail. It is during this time she passes herself off as white in order to get good jobs. Inez's unique perspective as a black woman living in a white world is well worth reading. I was also struck by her continuing goal to bring her children to Chicago and also improve her own life. It is a hard book to put down and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Loved it
23 Aug 2002
Format:Hardcover
I read this book within a day, and I enjoyed it. Really. I used to feel contempt for those who passed for white, but in order for one to do better economically and have a more comfortable life, you had to do it. In this book, you have a woman born to a white father and black woman, who survives a difficult marriage and goes to Chicago to make a better life for her and her children. Read it and enjoy.
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