Three wrers at the top of their game—Deha Philyaw; Jason Reynolds and Angela Flournoy—give praise for what Gayl Jon' work has given.
Contents:
- PALMAR BY GAYL JON REVIEW – A LONG-AWAED VISN OF EEDOM
- AFTER 22 YEARS, GAYL JON RETURNS
- PALMAR BY GAYL JON REVIEW – AN ENSLAVED CHILD’S SEARCH FOR UTOPIA
- FICTN: GAYL JON’S ‘PALMAR’ REVIEW
- PALMAR: BOOK SUMMARY AND REVIEWS OF PALMAR BY GAYL JON
- GAYL JON’S EPIC OF LIBERATN
- GAYL JON WROTE THE FUTURE
- FIRST GAYL JON NOVEL 20 YEARS IS COMG THIS FALL
PALMAR BY GAYL JON REVIEW – A LONG-AWAED VISN OF EEDOM
In search of Gayl Jon, whose new novel breaks 22 years of silence. * gayl jones palmares *
Gayl Jon is a lerary legend. Source photograph by Thomas search of Gayl Jon, whose new novel breaks 22 years of by PS Spencer. Source photograph by Thomas 17, 2021I knew om the begng that I would not meet Gayl see a recent photograph of her.
Lucille, her mother, read stori she herself had wrten to Gayl and Frankl Jr.
Gayl started wrg around send gra. Wh Gayl’s support, Lucille Jon published stori and novels late life, and Lucille’s wrg we n see how much the dghter mt have learned om the mother: They each e vernacular language, along wh the Southern gothic tradn, as the raw stuff of art.
AFTER 22 YEARS, GAYL JON RETURNS
When her first novels were published, the mid-1970s, Gayl Jon’s talent was hailed by wrers om Jam Baldw to John Updike. Then she disappeared. * gayl jones palmares *
They were peers, and Gayl’s life has been a harvt of and homage to Lucille’s. Gayl Jon would achieve great regnn yet follow directly her mother’s footsteps: a quiet terr geni. She told me that childhood neighbors scribe Gayl and her brother as never playg wh the other kids, though they sometim passed a ball over the fence between the Jon home and theirs.
PALMAR BY GAYL JON REVIEW – AN ENSLAVED CHILD’S SEARCH FOR UTOPIA
Gayl Jon’s long-awaed return—an epic novel of slavery and liberatn, set 17th-century lonial Brazil and blendg mythology, history, and magic. * gayl jones palmares *
Gayl Jon vised her grandmother there often and benefed om both a formally ted muny and a rich body of fay lore, cludg stori about a great-grandfather who found a settlement after Renstctn bearg his name, Warthumtown. When me to high school, however, Lucille sent Gayl and her brother to be among the handful of Black stunts at Henry Clay High School. There, acrdg to an English teacher, Sue Anne Allen, Gayl was a iendls stunt of exceptnal tellect.
Her Spanish teacher and mentor, Anna Dodd, alerted the tablished wrer and Lexgton native Elizabeth Hardwick about Gayl. Hardwick turn facilated Gayl’s admissn to the small, ele Connecticut College, where she studied wh the distguished poets William Meredh and Robert Hayn. This is what I me to know, too, as I pored over fdg aids of multiple librari, lookg for Gayl Jon.
I found through the Connecticut College special llectns that Jon rrpond regularly wh Meredh, and found that he, a gay whe Frost scholar, was a part of a Black lerary muny. ” My first enunter wh Gayl Jon was through “Corregidora.
FICTN: GAYL JON’S ‘PALMAR’ REVIEW
* gayl jones palmares *
Gayl Jon answered back: Hope won’t get out of the funk of history that we live wh today.
” Gayl Jon was not jt shy, but her shyns ma her difficult his ey. As Tarana Burke, the founr of #MeToo and thor of the newly released memoir “UnBound, ” said, “Like Ntozake Shange and Maya Angelou, Gayl Jon mak you s the realy of sexual vlence the liv of Black women, not jt the moment but the nflictg emotns, the guilt, the shame, and even the attachment survivors n feel to those who have harmed them.
She highlighted what was, her view, the “very real, upsettg acplishment of Gayl Jon this, her send novel: sister misrmatn about women — about women, general, about black women particular, and pecially about young black girls forced to al wh the sexual, moltg vlatns of their mds and bodi by their fathers, their mothers’ boyiends, their s and uncl. Gayl Jon met her partner, Bob Higgs, when she was an assistant profsor at the Universy of Michigan the late 1970s.
PALMAR: BOOK SUMMARY AND REVIEWS OF PALMAR BY GAYL JON
But they moved to her mother’s hoe after Gayl’s father died.
GAYL JON’S EPIC OF LIBERATN
Bob and Gayl red for her.
Gayl ntued to wre but ma virtually no public appearanc.
Gayl wrote them as Lucille was dyg of throat ncer.
GAYL JON WROTE THE FUTURE
He and Gayl were outraged that a lol hospal claimed medil guardianship over Lucille. Attuned to the history of medil racism, Gayl and Bob held the hospal rponsible when Lucille died on March 20, 1997, believg that Lucille had been neglected.
Gayl was taken to ctody for several days. I was thrilled and also felt a b of disbelief at havg bee someone who would be asked to pronounce on a new Gayl Jon book.
A versn of this article appears prt on, Page 48 of the Sunday Magaze wh the headle: Searchg for Gayl Jon. Lerally any samba school Brazil and you would get more of an accurate history lson than whatever Gayl Jon do this book.
FIRST GAYL JON NOVEL 20 YEARS IS COMG THIS FALL
Newton, Toni Ca Bambara and Gayl Jon, whom she disvered the 1970s. 2, 936 reviews1, 963 followersNovember 13, 2022Lyril wrg, explorg the roots of Inty, an exoticized "Brazilian" settg that the thor herself acknowledg is merely lled Brazilian whout eply explorg Brazil or s extremely plex 's been a lot of stick wield at Author Gayl for this latter cisn. Another part of me is slightly impatient wh Author Gayl for brgg such fully warranted cricism on a story that, at s heart, is about the roots of inty memory, a notorly unreliable source of any sort of tth or fact.
I want to read stori, always; I ually prefer them to be te to the source that spired them, but even that is has a very direct and personal relatnship to me, an olr gay man, bee so! About gay men relatnships are wrten by straight women.
But I'm not gog to say they were wrong for "appropriatg" my inty as a gay man bee they didn't. My pot, and I do have one, is that I took on board the upset rpons of actual Brazilians to the way Author Gayl ed their history as a lnchg pad for this lyril and flowg exploratn of Amerin Black slave inti, and still found much to admire and enjoy the way the thor told her unique, wholly fictnal story.