The Book of Color
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Book Overview
In the late 19th century, an English missionary arrives on a remote island in the Indian Ocean, intent on wiping out fornication among the natives. Instead he incurs a curse that strikes first his dark-skinned wife, then his son and grandson. But is the curse supernatural--or a white man's guilty fascination with an alien new world? "A hypnotic, cryptic, haunting exploration of the power of memory."
--The Boston Globe
--The Boston Globe
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0679758372
ISBN13:9780679758372
Release Date:August 1996
Publisher:Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Length:192 Pages
Weight:2.10 lbs.
Dimensions:0.6" x 5.2" x 8.0"
Customer Reviews
2 ratings
A poetic and profound meditation on history and race
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 15 years ago
Julia Blackburn is wonderful. Old Man Goya was one of the best books about an artist I've ever read. The Book of Color is in the lineage of Genesis, of Shakespeare, and of Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea. Although it is heavily reminiscent of the latter, it does not seem derivative; Blackburn has her own, strong voice. The motifs of the book, its scenes and metaphors, encapsulate the process of its writing. The author is haunted, and tries to follow her ghosts to their origins; you could call this a ghost story. Its understanding of the pathologies of racism and misogyny is deep, yet no character is a one-sided villain. I've read this book twice, and found it hypnotically beautiful both times.
Hypnotic
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 24 years ago
This strange & hypnotic novel is told in a dreamlike state and lures the reader into a seamless stream of vivid images. Haunting.
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