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Sassafrass, Cypress and Indigo
Ntokaze Shange's Most Beloved Novel, Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo, is the story of three "colored girls," three sisters and their mama from Charleston, South Carolina: Sassafrass, the oldest, a poet and a weaver like her mother, gone north to college, living with other artists in Los Angeles and trying to weave a life out of her work, her man, her memories and dreams; Cypress, the dancer, who leaves home to find new ways of moving and easing the contractions of her soul; Indigo, the youngest, still a child of Charleston - "too much of the south in her" - who lives in poetry, can talk to her dolls, and has a great gift of seeing the obvious magic of the world.
224 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1976
223 people are currently reading
8366 people want to read
About the author
Ntozake Shange
78 books791 followersNtozake Shange (pronounced En-toe-ZAHK-kay SHONG-gay) was an African-American playwright, performance artist, and writer who is best known for her Obie Award winning play for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf.
Among her honors and awards are fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, and a Pushcart Prize.
Among her honors and awards are fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, and a Pushcart Prize.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 292 reviews
June 13, 2016
“Streets in Charleston wind the way old ladies’ fingers crochet as they unravel the memories of their girlhoods. One thing about a Charlestonian female is her way with little things. The delicacy of her manner. The force of ritual in her daily undertakings. So what is most ordinary is made extraordinary. What is hard seems simple.”- Ntozake Shange; Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo
What a beautiful, lyrical book. A tribute to black women trying to find themselves, black women who are trying to live outside the box, clearly not an easy feat.It’s a very honest book about three sisters, Sassafrass, Cypress, and Indigo from Charleston, South Carolina. The book seems to be a patchwork of all sorts of things, such as poems, journal entries, letters from the traditional mother with unconventional daughters whose life trajectories end up being so different from hers, and even some great recipes. The inclusions of all these things made the book into a very sensory, rich experience.
My favourite sister was Indigo, the youngest, whom we unfortunately only meet at the beginning of the book. Indigo talks and communicates with her dolls. She’s a reminder of those people who see the world in a different way, who are perhaps misunderstood by others because of it. I found her to be a very beautiful spirit:
“The South in her, the land and salt-winds, moved her through Charleston’s streets as if she were a mobile sapling, with the gait of a well-loved colored woman whose lover was the horizon in any direction. Indigo imagined tough winding branches growing from her braids, deep green leaves rustling by her ears, doves and macaws flirting above the nests they’d fashioned in the secret, protected niches way high up in her headdress. When she wore this Carolinian costume, she knew the cobblestone streets were really polished oyster shells, covered with pine needles and cotton flowers. She made herself, her world from all that she came from.”
The other sisters, who are older and living away from home, have a lot more than Indigo to contend with, it seems. Sassafrass is a weaver and a writer who is in a very tumultuous relationship with her boyfriend, Mitch.Reading the part about weaving gave me an a-ha moment of sorts:
“…because when women make cloth, they have time to think…So Sassafrass was certain of the necessity of her skill for the well-being of women everywhere, as well as for her own. As she passed the shuttle through the claret cotton warp, Sassafrass conjured images of women weaving from all time and all places…”
One of my favourite sections regarding Sassafrass was when Billie Holliday’s ghost comes to talk to her about the blues and to encourage her to keep writing:
“Who do you love among us, Sassafrass? Ma Rainey, Mamie Smith, Big Mama Thornton, Freddie Washington, Josephine, Carmen Miranda? Don’t you know we is all sad ladies because we got the blues, and joyful women because we got our songs?”
The last sister, Cypress, is a dancer. Her story seemed to be the most complex to me:
“Cypress was always smiling. She had made amends with her living, and thoroughly expected everything to happen to her, given time and the way her luck ran. She was round and sturdy, but elastic like a gathering of sunflowers in a balmy night. Cypress liked sweet wine, cocaine, and lots of men: musicians, painters, poets, sculptors…photographers, filmmakers, airplane pilots.”
The book contained lots of conversation about art and black spirituality. The art discussion in particular was interesting, given the eurocentrism of art, and the microaggressions in the art world ( “You don’t need all that ethnic flourish, Leroy, you are too good to work in the Negro idiom." )
I don’t think I can write a review that does this book any justice without a reread but I will say that as a black woman this touched me deeply, and it showed me how difficult it is sometimes to live outside of the box particularly when so much is expected of you. I think this book respects individuality and honours our journeys into becoming the women we were meant to be. I’ve been reading a lot of books by black women and the commonality is that they present us with multifaceted black women with deep thought lives who have to struggle more than most, but manage to do so. The exploration into the lives of these women was wonderful. This is a book I’ll definitely be rereading.
“Where there is a woman there is magic. If there is a moon falling from her mouth, she is a woman who knows her magic, who can share or not share her powers. A woman with a moon falling from her mouth, roses between her legs and tiaras of Spanish moss, this woman is a consort of the spirits.”
What a beautiful, lyrical book. A tribute to black women trying to find themselves, black women who are trying to live outside the box, clearly not an easy feat.It’s a very honest book about three sisters, Sassafrass, Cypress, and Indigo from Charleston, South Carolina. The book seems to be a patchwork of all sorts of things, such as poems, journal entries, letters from the traditional mother with unconventional daughters whose life trajectories end up being so different from hers, and even some great recipes. The inclusions of all these things made the book into a very sensory, rich experience.
My favourite sister was Indigo, the youngest, whom we unfortunately only meet at the beginning of the book. Indigo talks and communicates with her dolls. She’s a reminder of those people who see the world in a different way, who are perhaps misunderstood by others because of it. I found her to be a very beautiful spirit:
“The South in her, the land and salt-winds, moved her through Charleston’s streets as if she were a mobile sapling, with the gait of a well-loved colored woman whose lover was the horizon in any direction. Indigo imagined tough winding branches growing from her braids, deep green leaves rustling by her ears, doves and macaws flirting above the nests they’d fashioned in the secret, protected niches way high up in her headdress. When she wore this Carolinian costume, she knew the cobblestone streets were really polished oyster shells, covered with pine needles and cotton flowers. She made herself, her world from all that she came from.”
The other sisters, who are older and living away from home, have a lot more than Indigo to contend with, it seems. Sassafrass is a weaver and a writer who is in a very tumultuous relationship with her boyfriend, Mitch.Reading the part about weaving gave me an a-ha moment of sorts:
“…because when women make cloth, they have time to think…So Sassafrass was certain of the necessity of her skill for the well-being of women everywhere, as well as for her own. As she passed the shuttle through the claret cotton warp, Sassafrass conjured images of women weaving from all time and all places…”
One of my favourite sections regarding Sassafrass was when Billie Holliday’s ghost comes to talk to her about the blues and to encourage her to keep writing:
“Who do you love among us, Sassafrass? Ma Rainey, Mamie Smith, Big Mama Thornton, Freddie Washington, Josephine, Carmen Miranda? Don’t you know we is all sad ladies because we got the blues, and joyful women because we got our songs?”
The last sister, Cypress, is a dancer. Her story seemed to be the most complex to me:
“Cypress was always smiling. She had made amends with her living, and thoroughly expected everything to happen to her, given time and the way her luck ran. She was round and sturdy, but elastic like a gathering of sunflowers in a balmy night. Cypress liked sweet wine, cocaine, and lots of men: musicians, painters, poets, sculptors…photographers, filmmakers, airplane pilots.”
The book contained lots of conversation about art and black spirituality. The art discussion in particular was interesting, given the eurocentrism of art, and the microaggressions in the art world ( “You don’t need all that ethnic flourish, Leroy, you are too good to work in the Negro idiom." )
I don’t think I can write a review that does this book any justice without a reread but I will say that as a black woman this touched me deeply, and it showed me how difficult it is sometimes to live outside of the box particularly when so much is expected of you. I think this book respects individuality and honours our journeys into becoming the women we were meant to be. I’ve been reading a lot of books by black women and the commonality is that they present us with multifaceted black women with deep thought lives who have to struggle more than most, but manage to do so. The exploration into the lives of these women was wonderful. This is a book I’ll definitely be rereading.
“Where there is a woman there is magic. If there is a moon falling from her mouth, she is a woman who knows her magic, who can share or not share her powers. A woman with a moon falling from her mouth, roses between her legs and tiaras of Spanish moss, this woman is a consort of the spirits.”
June 11, 2007
"So Cypress learned to see other people as themselves, and not as threats to her person."
This line, and this novel, changed the way I conceptualize relationships. I'm still learning.
This line, and this novel, changed the way I conceptualize relationships. I'm still learning.
April 30, 2018
This was very different. Magical realism? Fantasy elements to the story for sure. I thoroughly enjoyed this very different look at the lives of these women.
November 19, 2018
“There wasn’t enough for Indigo in the world she’d been born to, so she made up what she needed. What she thought the black people needed.”
Steeped in sensuality, this is all about the magic of womanhood. We’re given the distinctive characters of the varyingly wild sisters Sassafrass, Cypress, Indigo, and they appear in stark contrast with their sensible mother. We see what makes them unique and what ties them together. It’s about self and about family.
You feel as you read the story. You feel what it is to be a black woman, you feel Charleston, New York and Los Angeles, you feel the 1960’s and the 1970’s. You become a musician, a weaver, a dancer. You experience the highs and lows of creativity and family life.
It didn’t always hold together for me. Some parts seemed too long about one sister, too short about another; too much detail in this place and not enough in that one. But I loved the style--the use of narrative as well as letters and lists and journal entries and even some mouthwatering recipes.
In this book of many truths, what rang the most true for me was Mama, how her voice continues through the novel--in person, in memories, and in letters. Our mama’s voices are like that. We never stop hearing them, and they always seem to call us home.
“So, as I was saying, if you are in trouble, you just come right on home, quick as you can.”
Steeped in sensuality, this is all about the magic of womanhood. We’re given the distinctive characters of the varyingly wild sisters Sassafrass, Cypress, Indigo, and they appear in stark contrast with their sensible mother. We see what makes them unique and what ties them together. It’s about self and about family.
You feel as you read the story. You feel what it is to be a black woman, you feel Charleston, New York and Los Angeles, you feel the 1960’s and the 1970’s. You become a musician, a weaver, a dancer. You experience the highs and lows of creativity and family life.
It didn’t always hold together for me. Some parts seemed too long about one sister, too short about another; too much detail in this place and not enough in that one. But I loved the style--the use of narrative as well as letters and lists and journal entries and even some mouthwatering recipes.
In this book of many truths, what rang the most true for me was Mama, how her voice continues through the novel--in person, in memories, and in letters. Our mama’s voices are like that. We never stop hearing them, and they always seem to call us home.
“So, as I was saying, if you are in trouble, you just come right on home, quick as you can.”
April 24, 2007
Three sisters grow up in South Carolina during the 1970s. The chapters are interspersed with letters from their mother, recipes, poetry, journal entries, etc. Black power and female power are common themes. Recommended by a fellow librarian.
February 13, 2023
this is like a quilt. Shange brings just about every literary form into play and its quite the spectacle.
September 17, 2013
I picked this book up as part of a Treasure Hunt challenge, to fit the category of "Titles containing any shade of purple". This is exactly what I was hoping to get from the challenge - the discovery of a great book that I otherwise would never have chosen for myself.
SC&I tells the story of three African-American sisters from the deep South, with the legacy of slavery still very much present in everything that surrounds them. Set in the 60s-80s, the story follows each sister as they grow from girls to women, their doting (if pragmatic) mother the glue that binds them.
Ugh. See THIS is why I would never have picked the book up.
I'll try again.
SC&I is beautifully, whimsically written, containing snippets of recipes, song lyrics and spells. The book follows three highly spiritual and spirited African-American sisters, as they grow from girls to women, finding their sexuality and their place in the world post-slavery....
Blurgh. I think that might actually be worse.
Whichever way I try to describe this book, it sounds hopelessly cheesy, hopelessly middle-aged-womany. But it isn't. Or it is, but that's okay. It's so easy to fall under this book's spell.
Tell you what - why don't you just read it? It's very short, very easy reading. It's light, despite the subject matter - oppression, institutional racism, cultural re-awakening.... sigh.
Just read it. You'll like it.
SC&I tells the story of three African-American sisters from the deep South, with the legacy of slavery still very much present in everything that surrounds them. Set in the 60s-80s, the story follows each sister as they grow from girls to women, their doting (if pragmatic) mother the glue that binds them.
Ugh. See THIS is why I would never have picked the book up.
I'll try again.
SC&I is beautifully, whimsically written, containing snippets of recipes, song lyrics and spells. The book follows three highly spiritual and spirited African-American sisters, as they grow from girls to women, finding their sexuality and their place in the world post-slavery....
Blurgh. I think that might actually be worse.
Whichever way I try to describe this book, it sounds hopelessly cheesy, hopelessly middle-aged-womany. But it isn't. Or it is, but that's okay. It's so easy to fall under this book's spell.
Tell you what - why don't you just read it? It's very short, very easy reading. It's light, despite the subject matter - oppression, institutional racism, cultural re-awakening.... sigh.
Just read it. You'll like it.
April 3, 2020
3.5 stars. Sensual, with some beautiful imagery and fantastical details as the author describes the lives of three sisters, Sassafras, Cypress and Indigo, as they figure who they are and what they want, against a backdrop of the 60s: racism, civil rights, misogyny, etc. I liked the way food figured in the story, as well as family rituals and finding one’s own direction.
December 3, 2018
Not at all what I expected and I absolutely loved this book! I loved the recipes, journal entries, spells and letters. There were hints of magical realism and at time you had to slow down and figure out the puzzles. I don't always like that, but Ntozake made it makes sense. I loved reading about Cypress the most! I want to know what happens with these beautiful sisters.
April 8, 2025
Love is a certain form of magic, and this book was pure love.
The love between three Charleston, SC sisters: Oldest Sassafrass, middle Cypress, and youngest Indigo. They are the descendants of the Gullah Geechee people, those forcibly taken from West and Central Africa and brought to the Carolinas and Florida enslaved. As they navigate the same land their ancestors toiled upon as modern women, they're surrounded by the heady, enchanting culture they were still able to establish there.
And as the sisters take their separate paths in life, each in the arts, the roots of their home alternately inspire them, chide them, and urge them back home.
Love between a mother and her three girls; their mother Hilda, where all the roots lead. Throughout the book, she writes letters to her two oldest girls, who ventured off to Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York, and comments on the strange courses of their lives with her down-home wisdom. While old-fashioned, it is a role white culture relegated a woman of her time to be. She is a seamstress for a white family, a necessary occupation of the limited ones afforded her so that her daughters could chase further freedoms.
Love of the arts. Sassafras, Cypress & Indigo is a time capsule of BAM, the Black Arts Movement of the '60s, '70s and '80s, the very one author Ntozake Shange herself was part of. Each of the book's sisters is an artist, Sassafras an aspiring poet, Cypress a dancer, and Indigo on the fiddle.
At every turn, the sisters are impelled toward the acceptable Eurocentric forms of their art, and little Indigo is the first to reject this. Her fiddle was gifted to her by Uncle John, a local Geechee gang leader and eccentric, so she could connect to magic even as she grew up. He tells her of music's importance, for it was the instruments that spoke for the enslaved when the white men stole their voices.
And when Indigo plays, she invokes magic. Her sounds are raw, and as they tell her things as she plays, her mother and neighbors consider it a racket. They implore her to get lessons, but Indigo doesn't play for proficiency. She plays for the magic of her inheritance.
Cypress trains in ballet, historically exclusionary, but is rejected for her physique. She bounds from coast to coast, trying to find her footing in dance that will accept her. But the dance world is exacting. It is predatory, and she often has to get by through seamy means. But never will she return to ballet again.
Love of love. The romances the older two sisters find themselves in are passionate. They're shocking. They're all-encompassing. The effects of love impact Sassafras' art most of all.
Stuck in the cycle of abuse with her beloved Mitch, a jazz musician with addiction issues, Sassafras barely knows from one day to the next what he wants from her, much less himself. He wants her to make them a home, but dismisses her ability to stitch and weave like her seamstress mother. Like the many Gullah Geechee women before her. He gets angry when she spends her day homemaking and not writing. He wants them to save money to move to an artist compound in Louisiana, but spends everything they have to pay off dealers.
He wants her love, but he beats her.
When they finally get to Louisiana, she has her breakthrough via the Santería faith. There, she finds true love and truer love still in someone or something she can love more than Mitch. And much more than he could ever love her.
And it brings her back home. Back to Cypress. Back to Indigo. Back to Hilda. Back to herself.
A book of love, and I loved it.
The love between three Charleston, SC sisters: Oldest Sassafrass, middle Cypress, and youngest Indigo. They are the descendants of the Gullah Geechee people, those forcibly taken from West and Central Africa and brought to the Carolinas and Florida enslaved. As they navigate the same land their ancestors toiled upon as modern women, they're surrounded by the heady, enchanting culture they were still able to establish there.
And as the sisters take their separate paths in life, each in the arts, the roots of their home alternately inspire them, chide them, and urge them back home.
Love between a mother and her three girls; their mother Hilda, where all the roots lead. Throughout the book, she writes letters to her two oldest girls, who ventured off to Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York, and comments on the strange courses of their lives with her down-home wisdom. While old-fashioned, it is a role white culture relegated a woman of her time to be. She is a seamstress for a white family, a necessary occupation of the limited ones afforded her so that her daughters could chase further freedoms.
Love of the arts. Sassafras, Cypress & Indigo is a time capsule of BAM, the Black Arts Movement of the '60s, '70s and '80s, the very one author Ntozake Shange herself was part of. Each of the book's sisters is an artist, Sassafras an aspiring poet, Cypress a dancer, and Indigo on the fiddle.
At every turn, the sisters are impelled toward the acceptable Eurocentric forms of their art, and little Indigo is the first to reject this. Her fiddle was gifted to her by Uncle John, a local Geechee gang leader and eccentric, so she could connect to magic even as she grew up. He tells her of music's importance, for it was the instruments that spoke for the enslaved when the white men stole their voices.
And when Indigo plays, she invokes magic. Her sounds are raw, and as they tell her things as she plays, her mother and neighbors consider it a racket. They implore her to get lessons, but Indigo doesn't play for proficiency. She plays for the magic of her inheritance.
Cypress trains in ballet, historically exclusionary, but is rejected for her physique. She bounds from coast to coast, trying to find her footing in dance that will accept her. But the dance world is exacting. It is predatory, and she often has to get by through seamy means. But never will she return to ballet again.
Love of love. The romances the older two sisters find themselves in are passionate. They're shocking. They're all-encompassing. The effects of love impact Sassafras' art most of all.
Stuck in the cycle of abuse with her beloved Mitch, a jazz musician with addiction issues, Sassafras barely knows from one day to the next what he wants from her, much less himself. He wants her to make them a home, but dismisses her ability to stitch and weave like her seamstress mother. Like the many Gullah Geechee women before her. He gets angry when she spends her day homemaking and not writing. He wants them to save money to move to an artist compound in Louisiana, but spends everything they have to pay off dealers.
He wants her love, but he beats her.
When they finally get to Louisiana, she has her breakthrough via the Santería faith. There, she finds true love and truer love still in someone or something she can love more than Mitch. And much more than he could ever love her.
And it brings her back home. Back to Cypress. Back to Indigo. Back to Hilda. Back to herself.
A book of love, and I loved it.
August 21, 2016
Part of the reason I'm giving this book 3 stars is because I just can't get into magical realism. I struggled through "One Hundred Years of Solitude" for a week before giving up on it in frustration with only 100 pages left. I liked "Like Water for Chocolate" but the magic still felt awkward and arbitrary. My distaste for that genre is odd, since I enjoy fantasy books so much.
"Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo" confused me at least 1/4 of the time and I frequently had to go back and re-read sentences to understand what was going on. The prose was kind of disjointed and the sentences were sometimes shortened in a confusing manner. Regardless of all that though, this book held my interest from beginning to end. It's a quick read but it packs a punch- it really is a beautiful piece of literature. I felt for the characters, rooted for them in their struggles, and wished for them to get some damn sense when it came to their relationships. I only wish we could've had a bigger focus on Indigo, it felt like her story was cut too short.
"Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo" confused me at least 1/4 of the time and I frequently had to go back and re-read sentences to understand what was going on. The prose was kind of disjointed and the sentences were sometimes shortened in a confusing manner. Regardless of all that though, this book held my interest from beginning to end. It's a quick read but it packs a punch- it really is a beautiful piece of literature. I felt for the characters, rooted for them in their struggles, and wished for them to get some damn sense when it came to their relationships. I only wish we could've had a bigger focus on Indigo, it felt like her story was cut too short.
May 17, 2017
Fill a glass that sparkles in sunlight with pure spring water. Place one sprig of fresh mint in the water, and a mouthful of honey. Take your middle finger gently round the curve of your lips as you imagine your beloved might. Kiss the edges of the finger. Take a breath so deep your groin senses it. Hold your breath while envisioning your beloved’s face. Release the breath still picturing your beloved. Then with the kissed finger, make a circle round the rim of the glass 12 times, each time repeating your beloved’s name. Each time seeing your beloved filled with joy. Close your eyes. Let your beloved fill your heart. Bring the glass to your lips. Drink the gladness that shall be yours.
October 30, 2007
This book was awesome. Not always what I expected. The book is vibrant with descriptions. I also got a kick out of the letters written by the mother, Hilda Effania. I think many of us know someone like that.
February 22, 2013
I really didn't like it. Very disappointed. I liked the beginning with Indigo and then it went downhill. The rest of the novel focused more on Sassafrass and Cyprus. I most definatly won't be picking up one of Ms. Shange's novels again.
February 14, 2019
A friend recommended the poetry of this author and when I couldn't find that readily, I thought I might as well try a novel.
I have never been happier to come across something unknown. This is an utterly delightful book of family, finding yourself, and the magic of womanhood. Love suffuses every line--love for Blackness, for women, for humanity, for art. Even the difficult parts, the ugly parts are explored with compassion and grace. The words themselves sing.
Shange manages to make a world that is alive, and speaks of cultural, generational pain that cannot overwhelm the hope for the future. We start the story charmingly in the kitchen these sisters grew up in, set in Charleston South Carolina and follow them as they travel the country and the energy of the Black Power era.
Highly, highly recommended for those looking for a slice of life that uplifts, but does not gloss over the parts of life that send us low enough to need that pick me up.
CONTENT WARNING: (no actual spoilers, just a list of topics)
Added note, I listened to this on audiobook and thought the narrator did a fantastic job.
I have never been happier to come across something unknown. This is an utterly delightful book of family, finding yourself, and the magic of womanhood. Love suffuses every line--love for Blackness, for women, for humanity, for art. Even the difficult parts, the ugly parts are explored with compassion and grace. The words themselves sing.
Shange manages to make a world that is alive, and speaks of cultural, generational pain that cannot overwhelm the hope for the future. We start the story charmingly in the kitchen these sisters grew up in, set in Charleston South Carolina and follow them as they travel the country and the energy of the Black Power era.
Highly, highly recommended for those looking for a slice of life that uplifts, but does not gloss over the parts of life that send us low enough to need that pick me up.
CONTENT WARNING: (no actual spoilers, just a list of topics)
Added note, I listened to this on audiobook and thought the narrator did a fantastic job.
October 19, 2021
I listened to this book on Audible, because I was looking for a new read and honestly, I loved the title -- I was intrigued! I'd only known Ms. Shange from her play, so wanted to give it a try.
Published in 1982, this book is the story of three sisters and their mother and the people in their lives, told in three parts, one for each sister. Throughout, the sisters make recommendations about what to eat and drink, and how to treat oneself in holistic ways based on what one needs or is experiencing. These recipes and directions are included in the book, which I found charming -- sort of Like Water for Chocolate way before that book was published.
The first section was Indigo's, and that was by far my favorite. A young adolescent who liked her dolls "better than most real folk," she had a deep wisdom to her combined with an innocence of child even younger than she was. Indigo was pure joy and imagination and creativity, a wonderful character about whom I would've liked to have read an entire book.
Sassafrass and Cypress intersect in the book in the section that's really about Sassafrass. I was thinking and hoping I'd like Cypress' section, especially because I love dance and lived in NYC and recognize some of the dancers and companies she refers to. In the end, however, the longer the book went on, the more Ms. Shange lost me -- I'd go back and forth between being engaged and lost, connected and confused.
There are many powerful messages throughout the book -- about women, even about women-loving-women, and above all, about Black power and Black creativity and artistic expression. I think my overall experience of it was just that it was inconsistent -- which could have as much to do with my identity as a white woman as it does with my experience of the book.
Published in 1982, this book is the story of three sisters and their mother and the people in their lives, told in three parts, one for each sister. Throughout, the sisters make recommendations about what to eat and drink, and how to treat oneself in holistic ways based on what one needs or is experiencing. These recipes and directions are included in the book, which I found charming -- sort of Like Water for Chocolate way before that book was published.
The first section was Indigo's, and that was by far my favorite. A young adolescent who liked her dolls "better than most real folk," she had a deep wisdom to her combined with an innocence of child even younger than she was. Indigo was pure joy and imagination and creativity, a wonderful character about whom I would've liked to have read an entire book.
Sassafrass and Cypress intersect in the book in the section that's really about Sassafrass. I was thinking and hoping I'd like Cypress' section, especially because I love dance and lived in NYC and recognize some of the dancers and companies she refers to. In the end, however, the longer the book went on, the more Ms. Shange lost me -- I'd go back and forth between being engaged and lost, connected and confused.
There are many powerful messages throughout the book -- about women, even about women-loving-women, and above all, about Black power and Black creativity and artistic expression. I think my overall experience of it was just that it was inconsistent -- which could have as much to do with my identity as a white woman as it does with my experience of the book.
April 15, 2013
Picking through the lives of 3 sisters and their mother in Charleston, South Carolina, the author has chosen to focus on a specific period in each of the three sisters. Their father has since passed so we don't get a good sense of the person he was. But it is through the sisters' stories that we see the woman who has guided and molded them, a mother's love and wisdom, and a mother who tries to keep their father involved for a little bit in their lives at Christmas she hides a gift for each daughter from their father, another from her and then one from Santa.
The author uses recipes, music and poetry to share the scents, tastes and sounds that surround the artistic sisters. Indigo is the youngest, communicating with dolls she makes and who sees the magic around us. Cypress moves to New York to learn dance and in the process, what resides in her soul. Sassafrass is the eldest, a skilled weaver, writer-to-be and the one who seems to have the hardest time putting down roots. Love binds them and while their mother understands they must each find their own way in life, she also makes it clear to them that no matter what they do or have done, they can always come home.
Beautiful, it's just a beautiful story.
The author uses recipes, music and poetry to share the scents, tastes and sounds that surround the artistic sisters. Indigo is the youngest, communicating with dolls she makes and who sees the magic around us. Cypress moves to New York to learn dance and in the process, what resides in her soul. Sassafrass is the eldest, a skilled weaver, writer-to-be and the one who seems to have the hardest time putting down roots. Love binds them and while their mother understands they must each find their own way in life, she also makes it clear to them that no matter what they do or have done, they can always come home.
Beautiful, it's just a beautiful story.
April 5, 2007
This is one of my most favorite books ever. This book transformed me. There's a passage about a flock of wild red birds that is forever stamped in my memory ...
July 14, 2015
Didn't really care for it when I read it years ago. Giving the audio version a try to see if that makes a difference.
March 18, 2018
Excellent coming of age story telling by Shange. Delicious recipes included, and vegan-izable.
July 6, 2014
"Where there is woman there is magic." How could I not love a book that begins with that sentence? I've been drawn to Shange's work for a very long time since I first read "for colored girls" more than a decade ago and I love her blending of poetry and narrative. I'm generally drawn to the writing from women who came of age during the 60s and crafted their art during the 70s. I love the sensibility from which Shange develops the sisters Sassafras, Cypress and Indigo. One of the more fascinating aspects of the story is that the bulk takes place during the Civil Rights Movement, but that seminal era in American history isn't very much of a backdrop. Instead, she focuses on the women who cope with the world around them through art. They find their way through music, dance and sex. All the while, their mother stays grounded in the respectability politics that informs so much of our culture. I love this work because it's not just about getting to know these characters for me. I can see myself in them and see so much of what I know about my experience as a black woman in it. That's always a good sign that I will enjoy a book. Shange definitely didn't disappoint with this classic.
April 16, 2019
If you've ever asked yourself what lyrical prose looks like, this is it.
Love the incorporation of recipes (I might try to actually make some?). Cypress and Sassafrass seem real and relatable but also way, way cooler than me. I really wanted to see more of Indigo (and of the sisters together), so I docked a star for that and for the fact that I wish the narrative was a little more cohesive. One of the most poetic aspects of the novel is how at once beautifully naive Cypress and Sassafrass are, how much growth they experience, and how they experience both drastic changes as well as lots of forward and backward movement between relationships that I related to. The world Shange paints is also so specific, dramatic, free, and oppressive all at the same time. This book is a celebration of blackness, but also of being a woman, and I really felt that throughout my reading.
Love the incorporation of recipes (I might try to actually make some?). Cypress and Sassafrass seem real and relatable but also way, way cooler than me. I really wanted to see more of Indigo (and of the sisters together), so I docked a star for that and for the fact that I wish the narrative was a little more cohesive. One of the most poetic aspects of the novel is how at once beautifully naive Cypress and Sassafrass are, how much growth they experience, and how they experience both drastic changes as well as lots of forward and backward movement between relationships that I related to. The world Shange paints is also so specific, dramatic, free, and oppressive all at the same time. This book is a celebration of blackness, but also of being a woman, and I really felt that throughout my reading.
June 21, 2022
I was most pleased with the description of Cypress, the dancing sister. Indigo and Sassafras are too ethereal and stupid, respectively, for my taste. I don't like reading about women making dumb decisions to stay with abusive men (Sassafras).
I liked the mother's letters to her daughters. Full of country folk wisdom and love for her children.
Otherwise, this book was tedious. It took as long to read as something by Proust and wasn't half as analytical as it was experimental.
Update: I think what I disliked about this book was the uneven development of the characters. There were elements that were quite evocative, but overall the story seemed to focus on Cypress and could have been written about her and her mother, producing a much more enjoyable read.
I liked the mother's letters to her daughters. Full of country folk wisdom and love for her children.
Otherwise, this book was tedious. It took as long to read as something by Proust and wasn't half as analytical as it was experimental.
Update: I think what I disliked about this book was the uneven development of the characters. There were elements that were quite evocative, but overall the story seemed to focus on Cypress and could have been written about her and her mother, producing a much more enjoyable read.
December 7, 2018
I listened to this in two parts because my original library hold expired.
It was a hard read for me. I’m not super into poetry and it’s verybpoetic. I’m not fond of writing about music or art and this is basically all about those things.
But the stories of the sisters (and their mother) were interesting and it certainly was worth the time it took to read.
It was a hard read for me. I’m not super into poetry and it’s verybpoetic. I’m not fond of writing about music or art and this is basically all about those things.
But the stories of the sisters (and their mother) were interesting and it certainly was worth the time it took to read.
October 4, 2015
I really wanted to like this--African American female characters, sisters. But I think I've been spoiled by Toni Morrison. The story has mysticism/magic in it, & I'm a mystic, but this didn't engage me much. It felt formulaic somehow. Sigh.
June 22, 2025
the first line made me pick up this book- “when there is a woman, there is magic…” and i don’t regret it! i loved the incorporation of recipes, letters, and poetry :)
however i do wish we saw more of indigos character, she was only in the beginning and very end :( i also wish we got more about the sisters together. the story in it’s entirety was not very cohesive but had a lot of good moments- 3 stars
however i do wish we saw more of indigos character, she was only in the beginning and very end :( i also wish we got more about the sisters together. the story in it’s entirety was not very cohesive but had a lot of good moments- 3 stars
July 18, 2023
a beautiful literally work that feels like it transcends the word book? It was honestly hard for me to truly understand in some ways, but the way that she blended poetry and prose was incredibly beautiful! I want to come back and read it again in a few months to understand more.
August 23, 2014
"Where there is a woman, there is magic." This is the opening sentence and one of the overarching themes of this powerful novel. Ntozake Shange shows five of many possible enchanting art forms - fibers, dancing, music, cooking and the white magic women of many cultures, races and ethnicities practice - that women around the world have been passing from one generation to the next for hundreds, probably thousands, of years. And she also reminds us that some men, men who were most likely raised (almost) exclusively by women, are also gifted with one or more of these arts.
I read for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf when I was in college and was powerfully moved. Sassafras, Cypress & Indigo touched my heart, soul and mind just as much, but in different ways. I found it in a thrift store one morning, came home, read it with a pot of coffee and finished it that evening because I couldn't tear myself away from Ms. Shange's beautiful and complex story and her poetic entwining of words. My Grandmother, the only kind adult in my life as a child and adolescent, gave me the gifts of making art, creating fiber arts, cooking alchemy and opened my mind to explore Paganism (one of the White Magics), so I feel a very deep connection to this book. And like one of the characters, I too often retreat into a fantasy world for protection from memories and the cacophony outside of my head.
The family Ms. Shange writes of lived in Charleston, South Carolina. The mother (Mama and still in Charleston) is a hard-working cloth weaver, seamstress and tailor, who has to create her exquisite fashions for the rich white and mostly mixed ancestry (read: light-skinned) black families of the island. Mama's three daughters are each named after a botanical species of the South: Sassafras and Cypress are trees, strong and long-living; Indigo is a plant, less permanent, though it is a perennial, but has historically left its mark when used as a dye and even a medicinal. In fact, both cypress and sassafras trees have been used in medicinal preparations, as well. Yet, in almost every other way the three daughters are rather different from one another, at least on the surface.
Sassafras is the oldest, a poet and a weaver, and cooks amazing meals, like her mother. She moved up North to attend college, then to LA and currently lives with a shiftless boyfriend who is completely undeserving of all of her amazing qualities and talents. Sassafras doesn't have the money to buy into what she truly dreams of doing and that has a terrible hold on her soul. Cypress is a dancer who leaves to find new training, new ways to move, new ways to express herself and a new place to do so. She surrounds herself with people, yet she is alone. She cooks as well, practices Magic/religion of the area of the South she's from or of an area of Africa (I am drawing a blank as to which) and has another secret
that she reveals to someone close to her. Indigo is a conundrum. She lives in a fantastical, magical world that she shares only minute portions of with others, as she must protect her world from those who would take it away. Mama wants her to start to "grow up", neighbors want her to conform, even her playmates misunderstand her. Only the amazing dolls she's made and one other person, a person who lives with magic in his own mind and maybe a "tiara of Spanish moss", understand Indigo. If a particular Aunt were still in the picture, she would probably "get her", but that Aunt seems to be gone. The majority of the book focuses on Indigo, as if her dye has permeated the entire novel, but she is a lovely wild creature, a girl on the cusp of a tender adolescence, then womanhood, that could be filled with wonders or madness, or most likely, both.
This book introduces so many ideas and concepts and focuses a keen eye on the roles women, particularly Black women, play in family, in society, with one another, with men, in the arts, in commerce, when touched by possible mental illness, even if only briefly, and to themselves. Much can be reflected upon personally, as part of the canon of Black Women's literature as it relates to american society, and learned by many, many women and men, regardless of race, ethnicity, creed, etc.
(I'm making an educated guess on the date I finished reading this book.)
As a side note, I earned a degree in Women's Studies and a minor in Literature, after two go-rounds, one in the 90s and one in the 2000s, and not a single book by Ntozake Shange was included on any mandatory or suggested reading list for any of my classes. And I took so many classes on Women's Literature, writings, poetry, journaling and memoirs. I find it deplorable that her writing, as well as the writings of SO MANY other Women of Color has been ignored, even at he college level in a fairly liberal program and diverse city. We have so far to go as people.
I read for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf when I was in college and was powerfully moved. Sassafras, Cypress & Indigo touched my heart, soul and mind just as much, but in different ways. I found it in a thrift store one morning, came home, read it with a pot of coffee and finished it that evening because I couldn't tear myself away from Ms. Shange's beautiful and complex story and her poetic entwining of words. My Grandmother, the only kind adult in my life as a child and adolescent, gave me the gifts of making art, creating fiber arts, cooking alchemy and opened my mind to explore Paganism (one of the White Magics), so I feel a very deep connection to this book. And like one of the characters, I too often retreat into a fantasy world for protection from memories and the cacophony outside of my head.
The family Ms. Shange writes of lived in Charleston, South Carolina. The mother (Mama and still in Charleston) is a hard-working cloth weaver, seamstress and tailor, who has to create her exquisite fashions for the rich white and mostly mixed ancestry (read: light-skinned) black families of the island. Mama's three daughters are each named after a botanical species of the South: Sassafras and Cypress are trees, strong and long-living; Indigo is a plant, less permanent, though it is a perennial, but has historically left its mark when used as a dye and even a medicinal. In fact, both cypress and sassafras trees have been used in medicinal preparations, as well. Yet, in almost every other way the three daughters are rather different from one another, at least on the surface.
Sassafras is the oldest, a poet and a weaver, and cooks amazing meals, like her mother. She moved up North to attend college, then to LA and currently lives with a shiftless boyfriend who is completely undeserving of all of her amazing qualities and talents. Sassafras doesn't have the money to buy into what she truly dreams of doing and that has a terrible hold on her soul. Cypress is a dancer who leaves to find new training, new ways to move, new ways to express herself and a new place to do so. She surrounds herself with people, yet she is alone. She cooks as well, practices Magic/religion of the area of the South she's from or of an area of Africa (I am drawing a blank as to which) and has another secret
that she reveals to someone close to her. Indigo is a conundrum. She lives in a fantastical, magical world that she shares only minute portions of with others, as she must protect her world from those who would take it away. Mama wants her to start to "grow up", neighbors want her to conform, even her playmates misunderstand her. Only the amazing dolls she's made and one other person, a person who lives with magic in his own mind and maybe a "tiara of Spanish moss", understand Indigo. If a particular Aunt were still in the picture, she would probably "get her", but that Aunt seems to be gone. The majority of the book focuses on Indigo, as if her dye has permeated the entire novel, but she is a lovely wild creature, a girl on the cusp of a tender adolescence, then womanhood, that could be filled with wonders or madness, or most likely, both.
This book introduces so many ideas and concepts and focuses a keen eye on the roles women, particularly Black women, play in family, in society, with one another, with men, in the arts, in commerce, when touched by possible mental illness, even if only briefly, and to themselves. Much can be reflected upon personally, as part of the canon of Black Women's literature as it relates to american society, and learned by many, many women and men, regardless of race, ethnicity, creed, etc.
(I'm making an educated guess on the date I finished reading this book.)
As a side note, I earned a degree in Women's Studies and a minor in Literature, after two go-rounds, one in the 90s and one in the 2000s, and not a single book by Ntozake Shange was included on any mandatory or suggested reading list for any of my classes. And I took so many classes on Women's Literature, writings, poetry, journaling and memoirs. I find it deplorable that her writing, as well as the writings of SO MANY other Women of Color has been ignored, even at he college level in a fairly liberal program and diverse city. We have so far to go as people.
January 28, 2023
I liked how the story flowed and always loved Ntozake. She never got the credit she deserved. This book provided a some gems such as recipes for certain things. I didn’t think I would like the book based on the title but I truly enjoyed it.
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