Possessing the Secret of Joy

New York: Pocket, 1993. Paperback. Very Good. A peripheral character in The Color Purple and The Temple of My Familiar ( LJ 3/15/88), Tashi becomes the focus of this welcome new work. Tashi, who m arries Celie's son Adam, submits to female circumcision partially out of lo yalty to the threatened tribal customs of her people, the Olinka. As a resu lt, she endures physical pain and long-lasting emotional trauma. Not a symp athetically drawn victim, the tortured Tashi stretches to bridge two contin ents and to understand why women must undergo this torture, even at the han ds of their mothers, for the pleasure of men. Though she often succumbs to madness, Tashi eventually takes possession of the secret of joy. Her compel ling story is every Eve's account of those "whose chastity belt was made of leather, or of silk and diamonds, or of fear and not of our own 'flesh.' " This is not a sequel to Walker's previous novels, but it easily equals, if not surpasses, their excellence.