Close to My Heart: An Autobiography

Ms. Sterling writes about her life as a gifted child, a socialist/communist in the 1930s, raising her children with the ideals of socialism and the consequences of that in her life. I was moved by her idealism and that of her friends during that time. She tempers that with disappointment when she later learns about what things were truly like under Stalin. Her writing career seemed to be much of being in the right place at the right time, but also because of her idealism she was able to point out injustices. I thought she was wonderfully creative in learning to tell the stories of African Americans from their points of view. And also sensitive to her place when she chose to move on to write the story of white abolitionists instead. However, I was disappointed in places where she seems to give herself credit for the outcomes of certain events when she played a very minor role. For example, at the end she tells about a property dispute involving two different groups on Cape Cod. Her part in this was to write a couple of letters to the editor while the two groups fought it out in court. Yet, it is written as if she is the reason for the success of the "underdog" group. She lived a very long, productive and creative life and this book illustrates some of that. I was sad to note that she died on December 1, 2008.