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561 reviews for:
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf
Ntozake Shange
4.29 AVERAGE
561 reviews for:
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf
Ntozake Shange
4.29 AVERAGE
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The arc choreopoem found a deep pain within me that I didn't know I was holding onto; that I didn't even know was possessing me. And now, I have to nurture and heal that part of me.
Several sections gave me chills, some gave me headaches. Acout 20% awesome, 40% tedious/offensive, and 40% middle-ground.
Worthwhile overall for several effective sections, the 1-page abortion one being my favorite (mice). I'd have preferred to see it on stage, but isn't that always how it goes?
Worthwhile overall for several effective sections, the 1-page abortion one being my favorite (mice). I'd have preferred to see it on stage, but isn't that always how it goes?
I've seen this performed and it's transcendent. On the page, it just kind of lays there.
This book wasn't for me, the composition was too chaotic. However I can appreciate the book's sentiment.
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Now I'm probably the last person reading this who could speak to its "authenticity," but this is the word that demands foregrounding. If there isn't always an aesthetic beauty to the words, the beauty comes from the raw experience, the natural tellings, the incantatory moments of recollection--let the aesthetics fall to the staging and dance.
Shange's stage production offers only the barest hints of what the staging might be--she lets the ensemble make decisions where it will--which is also a strength for the production and a minor weakness in the reading: we cannot see what is fully 1/3 or more of the production's meaning dramatized; nor do the words, obviously intended for oral performance, easily represent what a fine performer will do with them. The answer is simple enough: see it performed, and by more than one troupe. (This is easily done, btw, via YouTube for many smaller theaters; then, if you wish, watch the big-budget major-stars performance which is clearly beyond this book's original conception.)
Yes, the work is now more than 50 years old (how did that happen?), but for all of that, the truth of its stories changes--sadly--not at all. Shange has gone back from time to time and tweaked or added something to make it more contemporary (AIDS, for instance), but the experience of these black women--of black women--is openly timeless: as represented by the character Sechita, a goddess-like figure who resonates an idealized power though even she can be reduced to object for spectacle.
This is not a work for black women only, however. Despite the controversy some black men have raised about a "stereotypically brutal and sexist portrayal," the poems are for them as well, and for all women, and for anyone who looks upon a "colored girl" and too quickly . . . decides.
Shange's stage production offers only the barest hints of what the staging might be--she lets the ensemble make decisions where it will--which is also a strength for the production and a minor weakness in the reading: we cannot see what is fully 1/3 or more of the production's meaning dramatized; nor do the words, obviously intended for oral performance, easily represent what a fine performer will do with them. The answer is simple enough: see it performed, and by more than one troupe. (This is easily done, btw, via YouTube for many smaller theaters; then, if you wish, watch the big-budget major-stars performance which is clearly beyond this book's original conception.)
Yes, the work is now more than 50 years old (how did that happen?), but for all of that, the truth of its stories changes--sadly--not at all. Shange has gone back from time to time and tweaked or added something to make it more contemporary (AIDS, for instance), but the experience of these black women--of black women--is openly timeless: as represented by the character Sechita, a goddess-like figure who resonates an idealized power though even she can be reduced to object for spectacle.
This is not a work for black women only, however. Despite the controversy some black men have raised about a "stereotypically brutal and sexist portrayal," the poems are for them as well, and for all women, and for anyone who looks upon a "colored girl" and too quickly . . . decides.
This doesn't fit into any of my genres.
I'm glad I read it, I think? It's difficult, despite being short.
I'm glad I read it, I think? It's difficult, despite being short.
Powerful, heartbreaking, painful, and lovely, this should be required reading for those interested in American poetry or theater.
I really liked this book--which is actually a play written in prose form. It's historically relevant, and I can imagine it did a lot of great things for Black women through the decades since its writing and production. The only reason I did not give it five stars was because I think something like this is best consumed in the way it is meant, and in this case, that is on a stage. I think it missed a crucial element only being able to read the words. I'm planning to watch the television/movie adaptations soon!