欧宝娱乐

Back in 1910 a black man defeated a white man in a fair fight and the black people who鈥檇 laid bets on the result were understandably elated. Soon afterwards, a girl called Easter, who already had plenty of reasons for hatred in her life, wrote that one word HATE on a piece of paper, crumpled it up, and buried it.

Easter wrote many other words too as she grew older in a world of radical unfairness and unthinking cruelty. Glorious, by Bernice McFadden, is her tale. Reading how a pregnant black cook is murdered because a total stranger, unfortunately also black, has committed a crime, then watching the slaughter of her unborn child, leaves the reader sickened and saddened for all those others whose stories have not been, and surely should be told. But Easter buries her hate and herself and moves on.

The novel introduces a fascinating cast of characters, some larger than life, some smaller, some real and some imagined. But all the lives are gloriously genuine and so powerfully told. I even found myself searching for author E.V. Gibbs on the internet, to see if she really existed. But I鈥檝e read Their Eyes were watching God, so I know Zora Neale Hurston was real.

The story progresses from Georgia to railroad tracks to Harlem and high-class apartments in New York. Through waves of powerful emotions, innocent errors and devastating betrayals, it all ends back where it began, in the small town of Waycross, Georgia. Years have passed and it鈥檚 now 1961. The world is changing, but hasn鈥檛 changed enough. And the reader learns where Easter鈥檚 wonderful mind and words have led her. It could be tragic, but instead it鈥檚 powerfully hopeful, beautiful and moving. And the quote from Zora Neale Hurston on the final page鈥斺€淕od balances the sheet in time鈥濃€攔ings gloriously true in the reader鈥檚 mind.