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Cameron Hillmann cameron123 — Like other reviewers, I found this book impossible to put down. Boyd's biography of Zora Neale Hurston beautifully represents Hurston in all her complexity: novelist, playwright, anthropologist, folklorist, raconteur, individualist. Hurston emerges as an flawed, deeply gifted, experienced woman who lived her life according to her own terms, in the midst of societal constraints that limited her financial resources, but never her autonomy. Valerie Boyd mentions that one of her goals in writing this biography was to have Zora Neale Hurston's voice come alive. Through extensive quotations from Hurston's letters and other sources, she accomplishes that, and more. The biography provides a rich depiction of Hurston's life through her eyes and the eyes of her friends, associates, and (sometimes) enemies. Wrapped in Rainbows also provides illuminating contextual information, particularly about the Harlem Renaissance, African American cultural politics, the Depression, and life in the 20th-century South. Boyd provides detailed discussions of Hurston's short stories, plays, novels, and anthropological/folklore texts, including a careful reading of Hurston's autobiography Dust Tracks on a Road against the politics of publishing and Hurston's own motivations in masking some parts of her life. Boyd reveals in detail how difficult Hurston's life was, as she struggled to support herself solely through her writing, a feat that few other African American writers could replicate at the time. She also develops a clear discussion of the complex differences between Hurston and other black writers of the Harlem Renaissance and after, who questioned Hurston's commitment to racial equality because of her refusal to write fiction with an overt political message. A triumph of the biography is that Boyd represents Hurston with all her flaws and all her gifts - Hurston emerges clearly as an individual who deserves our respect for her commitment to honoring her gifts and living her life on her own terms. Through her humor, her humanity, her energy and her love of life, Hurston drew around her a circle of friends and admirers; in many ways, Boyd's biography creates one last party for Hurston to shine in.

I Max _ax_tudio — The last short story collection I read - each story stood completely on its own. Some were frustratingly realistic, others fantastical, and some were haunting, but they each kept me in suspense until the very end and made me think about the contradictions and sequence of events long after I was done. No easy outs were taken in wrapping up these stories.

D Valdez dvezzy — I first read this at school aged about 13 so I welcomed the chance to re-read it some 30 years later. Most of it, read during English lessons had faded completely from my mind. I had remembered the details about the two old women ('er up atop' and 'er down below') and the last-but-one chapter, where I had finally realised why the book was called what it was. So death and sex lasted... the rest didn't really sink in to a 13yo student. I enjoyed learning again about the family, the village life, the passage of changes of the seasons and larger events.

Adam Adam adamgajdzik034a — Mansfield Park is the second Jane Austen book I have read (Emma the other) so I don’t pretend to be an expert on her. And I am not even familiar with the other stories that much. (keep in mind I am a boy so I was not raised on Austen) I have mixed feelings about Mansfield Park. There were things I liked a lot and other things I found disagreeable. I mostly liked Fanny. I think I liked her more than Emma. But I know Austen’s intent was to create Emma to unlikeable. I had Cinderella’s sympathy for Fanny, being bossed by cousins and aunts. But I also see her partly to blame for her circumstance, she is too timid too often. But maybe I am not remembering how little power a female had at the time. The book muddled down for me in the play section. First trying to decide on a play, then arguing over its production. Ugg. I realize it was the chunk of the book where the characters were flushed out and their interactions unfolded, but really it was a dull stretch. I am not sure if I bought the actions of the sisters Bertram. They seem so insistent on being proper and seem to pressure Fanny into acting “appropriately” but then they both run off at the end and act so inappropriate. Mary Crawford was very enigmatic too. I never quite knew if she was sincere in all her well wishing or if it was an act. At times she seemed fake, but there is no indication from Austen that she was anything but sincere. Maybe the lens of 2011 has jaded me from believing in Ms. Crawford. And I don’t know how to take Fanny and Edmund ending together. It seems to be the theme of Austen that love is often right under our noses if we are willing to re-evaluate our lives. Is Fanny just a rebound relationship for Edmund? At what point does your first cousin, raised like a sibling, become creepy? I was struck by the contrast of Austen’s treatment of the poor and Dickens. Dickens writes roughly 25 years later and seems to uplift the poor and want to show those better off that the poor are people too and should be treated as such. In Fanny’s episode in Portsmouth, the poverty of her family (which is far from true poverty) is seen as an obstacle and a shameful mark. It would seem that Fanny might have even changed her mind and her moral conviction about Henry Crawford just to be rescued from her plight in Portsmouth had enough time passed and had the shit not all hit the fan. I don’t mean to be overly harsh on Austen. She is telling a story and to understand the haves, the poor must be seen through their eyes. For all I know Austen could have done much in her life to assist the needy. I’ll continue to read Austen through my long rotation of authors. Torn on my rating, 2 1/2 stars is what I want to give it, but will settle for 3.

Gemma Youngman gemmayoungman — Great characters, vivid settings, excellent and genuine slice-of-life story.