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Relocations of the Spirit: Collected Essays
In this collection's opening autobiographical essay entitled "In the Light of Likeness - Transformed", Leon Forrest tells us that he came from a lower-middle-class Negro household on the South Side of Chicago. My father was a bartender on the Santa Fe Railroad and Daddy would read to me and my mother when he was at home. My mother read to me constantly. My great-grandmother lived with us until I was ten, and I used to read the Bible to her, mainly the Old Testament". Leon Forrest's lifetime love of words shines forth in the essays, articles, and book reviews that comprise this volume. We share his fine-tuned, careful perceptions in essays on the moment of epiphany in the black Baptist church, on Michael Jordan, on Toni Morrison's novel, Sula, on William Faulkner, on Billie Holiday, on the sculptor Richard Hunt, among many others. Book reviews address James Baldwin's Just Above My Head, Joyce Carol Oates' Son of the Morning, Rita Mae Brown's Six on One, and The Book of Sand by Jorge Luis Borges. In each, we learn something new, about literature, about life, about ourselves. The pieces in Relocation of the Spirit traverse twenty years in American culture. Leon Forrest was there as witness - and we are wiser for his observations.
- GenresEssaysNonfiction
403 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 1994
82 people want to read
About the author
Leon Forrest
8 books48 followersLeon Richard Forrest was an African-American novelist. His novels concerned mythology, history, and Chicago.
His first novel, There is a Tree More Ancient than Eden, was published in 1973, and included an introduction from Ralph Ellison. Nobel Prize Laureate Toni Morrison served as publisher's editor for There is a Tree More Ancient than Eden, and his next two novels The Bloodworth Orphans, and Two Wings to Veil My Face. These three novels were known as the Forest County Trilogy. He cited Charlie Parker, Dylan Thomas, William Faulkner, Eugene O'Neill, Ralph Ellison, and his parents' religions as inspiration.
His first novel, There is a Tree More Ancient than Eden, was published in 1973, and included an introduction from Ralph Ellison. Nobel Prize Laureate Toni Morrison served as publisher's editor for There is a Tree More Ancient than Eden, and his next two novels The Bloodworth Orphans, and Two Wings to Veil My Face. These three novels were known as the Forest County Trilogy. He cited Charlie Parker, Dylan Thomas, William Faulkner, Eugene O'Neill, Ralph Ellison, and his parents' religions as inspiration.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 28, 2016
Whether or not you read his novels, any of you remotely interested in nuanced, sophisticated, complex essays, beautifully written, on issues such as: the influence of african-american sermons on black lit; the writings of Ralph Ellison, Baldwin, Faulkner, Melville and others; the legacy of Elijah Mohammed; and reflections on a childhood in Chicago (amongst much more), should get hold of these and give them a read.
Publishers Weekly review
This rich collection of 27 essays and reviews reflects the deep engagement in culture, especially African American culture, by novelist Forrest, author of the recently heralded Divine Days and chair of the African American Studies department at Northwestern University. An autobiographical piece invokes the varied strands of the complex ``Negro-American culture'' and Forrest's desire to re-create that complexity in fiction. He examines his literary influences, especially Ralph Ellison and William Faulkner, and, in an address to a university convocation, expresses his recognition of the ways blacks and whites have transformed one another. Forrest was one of the non-Muslim editors of the Chicago-based Black Muslim newspaper Muhammad Speaks in the late '60s and early '70s, and several interesting articles here, including a long reflection on Elijah Muhammad, date from that period. Other entries are reprinted from newspapers and literary magazines; some, including a luminous exposition on basketball superstar Michael Jordan, are previously unpublished. Forrest's sinuous and assured style makes this reading consistently interesting.
Publishers Weekly review
This rich collection of 27 essays and reviews reflects the deep engagement in culture, especially African American culture, by novelist Forrest, author of the recently heralded Divine Days and chair of the African American Studies department at Northwestern University. An autobiographical piece invokes the varied strands of the complex ``Negro-American culture'' and Forrest's desire to re-create that complexity in fiction. He examines his literary influences, especially Ralph Ellison and William Faulkner, and, in an address to a university convocation, expresses his recognition of the ways blacks and whites have transformed one another. Forrest was one of the non-Muslim editors of the Chicago-based Black Muslim newspaper Muhammad Speaks in the late '60s and early '70s, and several interesting articles here, including a long reflection on Elijah Muhammad, date from that period. Other entries are reprinted from newspapers and literary magazines; some, including a luminous exposition on basketball superstar Michael Jordan, are previously unpublished. Forrest's sinuous and assured style makes this reading consistently interesting.
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February 7, 2016A very sound collection of the essays and reviews of Leon Forrest. These very likely to be of interest to those even not interested in Forrest’s own novels (no one is!), but interested in Baldwin, Faulkner, in Melville (and Homer and Shakespeare, all over Forrest’s reading), in Billie Holiday and Michael Jordan (let’s name our Leon, Air Forrest!), in Elijah Mohammed, in Black Baptist spirituality, in Chicago. If you like me find some pretty nice stuff in the essays of Gass, you’ll be reading this by Forrest too. Please.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews