A lost masterpiece of American literature about the creative evolution of a young Black woman in California and her intense relationship with an indie filmmaker Alison Mills Newman’s innovative, genre-bending novel has long been out of print and impossible to find. A “fluently funky mix of standard and nonstandard English,” as the poet and scholar Harryette Mullen once put it, Francisco is the first-person account of a young actress and musician and her growing disillusionment with her success in Hollywood. Her wildly original and vivid voice chronicles a free-spirited life with her filmmaker lover, visiting friends and family up and down California, as well as her involvement in the 1970s Black Arts Movement. Love and friendship, long, meaningful conversations, parties and dancing—Francisco celebrates, as she improvises in the book, “the workings of a positive alive life that is good value, quality, carin, truth … the gift of art for the survival of the human heart.”
Author Alison Mills Newman reveals a rare vision of intersections between the lives of upper middle class African Americans, cutting edge multicultural bi-coastal artists, Pentecostal Christians, and revolutionary black political activists in her second novel, MAGGIE 3. Readers will witness "a rare thing," as Nobel prize winning author Toni Morrison said of Ms. Newman's first novel, Francisco, for here is a gifted storyteller who writes "with beauty, power and purity about a woman." MAGGIE 3 chronicles the life of the main character Maggie, as she struggles to be sincere and true to the loves of her life and their quests to shape a life consistent with the highest spiritual and moral demands of their times. Moving between Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City and back to Los Angeles, the author--who has herself lived and worked within all of these worlds--is never less than searingly honest in expressing Maggie's passions, personal difficulties and even antagonisms with aspects of these life choices. Through Maggie's eyes as a young artist who comes of age in the 1960s, the reader can experience the daily life consequences of her evolving commitments--to be the sweetheart and wife of a black Christian evangelical minister and mother to their two children. The novel's stunning portrayal of this woman's inner thoughts reveals great joys even while she fights to overcome the harsh realities of life. Similar in style to the author's debut novel, it is "a novel in the form of a diary (or possibly a diary published as a novel)," as noted in Publishers Weekly. MAGGIE 3 is published by Ishmael Reed Publishing Company, a small independent press that for over thirty years has published distinguished writing luminaries. The company is proud to utilize the print-on-demand technology of Xlibris to continue to bring more writers to more readers.
The initial reaction after reading this book is to feel sorry for Judy Carol, a little 5 year old black child growing up in the mountains under very challenging circumstances. She is a product of her environment. Her role models in life were not quitters. Money was very scarce. Yet when something ailed them, they got out the ole “home-remedy” playbook( rub down with this or that and then take a spoon full of castor oil) and then you continued what you were doing. Judy Carol displayed a tremendous amount of strength, determination, vision, and responsibility. In spite of the mystery and questions surrounding her constant pain episodes, she never gave up... in spite of.. her accomplishments were many. Throughout her childhood, she had one trusted friend, her sister Linda (18 months her senior) who became her friend, her playmate, her mother, and her protector. The important lesson learned is that when faced with an obstacle, find another solution.
A lost masterpiece of American literature about the creative evolution of a young Black woman in California and her intense relationship with an indie filmmaker Alison Mills Newman’s innovative, genre-bending novel has long been out of print and impossible to find. A “fluently funky mix of standard and nonstandard English,” as the poet and scholar Harryette Mullen once put it, Francisco is the first-person account of a young actress and musician and her growing disillusionment with her success in Hollywood. Her wildly original and vivid voice chronicles a free-spirited life with her filmmaker lover, visiting friends and family up and down California, as well as her involvement in the 1970s Black Arts Movement. Love and friendship, long, meaningful conversations, parties and dancing—Francisco celebrates, as she improvises in the book, “the workings of a positive alive life that is good value, quality, carin, truth … the gift of art for the survival of the human heart.”
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