In Love & Trouble: Stories of Black Women Paperback – May 19, 2003

Alice Walker is the author of ”The Color Purple” for which she won the National Book Award for fiction, as well as a Pulitzer Prize in 1983. She was the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize in fiction.Walker has also published a number of successful novels as well as collections of poetry, essays, and short stories. She has been an activist in the civil rights movement, as well as an outstanding writer.“In Love & Trouble”, a collection of short stories, is her first short story collection and was published in 1973, 10 years before she won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.The stories portray the poverty, depression, and hopelessness in the lives of Black women. The exception is “To Hell With Dying”, a story that is bittersweet but more uplifting. It also has a strong role for a male character although it is seen through the eyes of a little girl and later from her perspective as a grown woman.Alice Walker’s brilliance is apparent, but many of the stories are either depressing or really gruesome and hard to read. I cannot recommend all of the stories, only some of them. “Entertaining God” is disturbing but well written. “The Flowers” is also a powerful story. “To Hell With Dying” is exquisite.My favorite story is “To Hell with Dying” which tells the story of Mr. Sweet and his relationship to a little girl and her siblings. The little girl (as her older brother did before her) brought him back from death many times by tickling and kissing him. Mr. Sweet was the little girl’s first love. This endearing old man played with her and her siblings when they were children. He was often drunk but lucid at the same time. He smelled of liquor and tobacco and had thick curly white hair and a white beard. He played a steel guitar and sang songs such as “Sweet Georgia Brown”. This story was such a relief from the stories of pain, suffering, and hopelessness.

These were typical of the writing of Alice Walker: the prose was not overwhelming with unnecessary adjectives, but fully captured the essence of the events, the characters and the times. The short story format allowed the reader to pause after each vignette and think about what was being told and how the story related to events in their own life and understanding of the times. It was not my favorite Alice Walker book, but I never see her name as author without knowing the words she has written will be worthwhile and adding the book to my collection.

Really enjoyed these stories. Some were hard to read, some had great twists in them. Each one had surprises (one of those things I like about short stories). All of them were very human, reminding us that everything we do does affect others, even those things we think are hidden. Alice Walker has always had a knack for uncovering this in her stories — how important our lives are to the larger world around us.

Bought this as a gift for my friend.

As normal, Alice Walker weaves tales that are engaging from beginning to end. She does not strictly adhere to the standard formatting of the short story. Often she takes poetic liberties and blends across genres.

The stories are short and powerful. The endings are sad. The characters are full, not flat. Took awhile to read due to the intensity.

This is such a great read!! Love the short story format.

Great stories about women, complex and interesting. ALWAYS A GREAT READ FROM A GREAT WRITER.

The media could not be loaded.  Bet you didn’t know she was graded short stories too! Her ability to write short stories is so fascinating. As well as the ability to make the reader visualize, hear, smell, touch, experience, and certainly empathize with each and every character…It’s truly amazing

Really enjoyed this, incredible writing and very thought provoking

Excellent book.

Alice is a great writer.

One of my favourite American Authors. This book consists of shorts stories about the lives and challenges of Black women.Well worth reading