Long Walks and Intimate Talks: Stories, Poems and Paintings

by Grace Paley

This first collaboration of two longtime feminist and antiwar activists melds word and image to create a powerful call for world peace. Paley’s poems and short fiction and Williams’s watercolors depict the dignity of ordinary lives from El Salvador to the Bronx, from New Hampshire to Vietnam. Scenes and stories of domestic life, solitude, and nature are interspersed with images of protest, joyous and defiant.

Genres: Poetry, Short Stories, Art

80 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Grace Paley was an American short story writer, poet, and political activist whose work won a number of awards.

Reviews

[Stephanie Barko · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was recommended to me by a Michener MFA who was one of my first creative writing coaches. She was terrific at leading writing circles, and I devoured some of the books she had me read but not this one.

What I did like in Grace Paley's writing was the way she could turn a phrase every once in a while in her poetry, like

"His head is full of the letters that words are looking for"

"...bathed in the clouds of Chernobyl last night on the evening news we heard how nightingales blowing north from Poland folded their wings fell over the border and died in Germany"

Some strong writing sprinkled in a not so strong volume.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tonic for the soul in these troubled times, with some deeply disturbing images along the way.

[Kerfe · Rating 4 out of 5]

The interaction of Grace Paley's words and Vera Williams' beautiful illustrations is informed by the work of both as peace and human rights activists.

Even the world of 1991, just 25 years ago, seems innocent and uncorrupted compared to the oceans of sorrow and rage engulfing the world now.

Williams and Paley are optimistic, gentle, persistent. They want to bring peace and social justice to the world--they will!--in a direct, non-violent way.

I too once thought: "Suppose they gave a war and nobody came?" Easy.

But now things seem so muddy and complex to me. If you do A, you cannot depend on B. You sometimes can't even imagine what A will bring. You can't trust the motivations of even the most good-intentioned. You don't know what they really believe, or what they will actually do when push comes to shove.

I am cynical and uneasy, sometimes afraid.

Williams and Paley seem pure and certain in their vision of what to do to Change the World. It's a beautiful vision, a truthful vision, a hopeful vision.

But it seems to belong in a different universe from the one I inhabit in 2015.