Austin, Doris Jean

New York. 1987. July 1987. New American Library. 1st Printing. A Few Small Marks On Side Edge,Otherwise Very Good in Dustjacket. 0453005381. 324 pages. hardcover. Jacket illustration by Jacqueline Schuman. keywords: Literature Black America Women. FROM THE PUBLISHER - This brilliantly imagined, achingly alive novel about the pain and joy of a black woman's life captures the textures and tensions, love and rage, of the black experience in America. The urban North is the setting of AFTER THE GARDEN: jersey City, New Jersey, where the beautiful but inwardly divided heroine, Elzina Tompkins, learns the lessons of life and love in 1940s and ‘50s. Elzina's search for happiness and fulfillment is a journey on a tightrope stretched to the breaking point between two opposing poles. One is that of the woman who has raised her, her grandmother Rosalie, strong, proud, fiercely righteous, for whom any weakness is an unpardonable sin. The other is that of the exquisitely graceful, handsome, and free-spirited high school athlete, Jesse James, who becomes Elzina's husband and great love. Elzina, loving her husband for the very qualities she has been taught to condemn, is a superbly complex, heartbreakingly real creation. Unforgettable too, is Jesse, who, wild as his namesake, cannot understand the core of resistance in Elzina that his charm and passion cannot melt. As Elzina and Jesse struggle to balance the strength of their love against the weight of their differences, their emotional fallout reaches an explosive intensity in their son, Charles. Finally only Elzina can heal the wounds of her family as she overcomes conflict, abandonment, heartbreak, and near-madness to emerge into stunning and triumphant womanhood. Probing relationships seared and ignited by love and sacrifice, joy and despair, this emotionally charged novel brings to life a cast of wonderful characters whose individuality and strength give them a special, tough beauty. Doris Jean Austin, prize-winning writer, tells us a fascinating story that vibrates with power and daring. inventory #10435 ISBN: 0453005381.