Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart

by Alice Walker

BY Walker, Alice ( Author ) [{ Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart By Walker, Alice ( Author ) Mar - 29- 2005 ( Paperback ) } ]

Genres: Fiction, African American, Spirituality, Feminism, Audiobook, Novels, Contemporary

Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Noted American writer Alice Walker won a Pulitzer Prize for her stance against racism and sexism in such novels as The Color Purple (1982).

People awarded this preeminent author of stories, essays, and poetry of the United States. In 1983, this first African woman for fiction also received the national book award. Her other books include The Third Life of Grange Copeland , Meridian , The Temple of My Familiar , and Possessing the Secret of Joy . In public life, Walker worked to address problems of injustice, inequality, and poverty as an activist, teacher, and public intellectual.

Reviews

[Rowena · Rating 5 out of 5]

“For months he’d felt, every time he held her, a kind of humming coming from her body. A buzzing. Energy being amassed,stored, building to the bursting point.”- Alice Walker, Now is the Time to Open Your Heart

An intriguing tale which I’m not sure everyone will like as much as Walker’s other books, but one I felt I came across at the right time.

This story follows the journeys of middle-aged lovers Kate and Yolo, who go on separate trips to the Amazonian rainforest and Hawaii respectively, trips on which they hope to reconnect with themselves and others. Kate has had several unfulfilling marriages, and I followed her story a lot more closely than Yolo’s. Kate meets with a shaman who helps her through her issues, a major one being the fear of aging in a world that values youth:

“Gray, said Cheryl. Gray had such terrible associations, I used to think. It was the color of blandness, dullness. Lifelessness. But then I began to notice stones and water, and gray skies, not to complain about but to appreciate. If you’ve ever lived through a drought you appreciate grey skies. Rain. Rain is gray, she said.”

Walker often puts my thoughts in words. Recently the news has been full of Ferguson, the Human Zoo (http://www.theguardian.com/culture/20...), and other negative news facing marginalized communities. As such, I am grateful to Walker for touching on many themes such as colonialism, exotification, the legacy of slavery, and racism, things a lot of people don’t like to talk about. Like I’ve been saying to anyone who will listen, Walker is one of the most honest, authentic writers I’ve ever come across. You can feel her desire to tell the blunt truth and to give a voice to people who might not have it. Saartje (Sara) Baartman (http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/sa...) is one of those who she gave a voice to, the “Hottentot Venus” from South Africa who was paraded around Europe while people ogled her “exotic” body.

In Walker’s words you can feel her love of the world and her desire for women to embrace themselves and heal from abuse. As in the other Walker books I’ve read, I learned a lot of history. Walker educates us on the plights affecting Native populations all around the world; Hawaii and Australia in particular. Alice Walker preaches being in touch with oneself, with others, and with the land.

Beautiful writing, tough, visceral subject matter at times; ethereal characters. Walker’s fiction illuminates reality.

Despite the hippyish vibe, I am giving it 5 stars.

[Alison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alice Walker is a sage. She is pain, love, beauty and soul. If I could have one wish it would be just to have a conversation with her over tea. She makes me see myself all old and tattered one minute and all new and shiny the next, and I love her and myself all the more for it.

[sjams · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had such great timing, like I couldn't believe. I picked it up at a used bookstore a few months ago, thinking, "Alice Walker is a good author, I bet I'd like this..." and nothing more. When I picked it up to begin reading I couldn't believe the timing. It was about exactly the kind of things I'm interested in at the moment: how to serve the planet and the great spirit all around us, but from a fictional viewpoint.

This book is hardly the book for everyone. It jumps back and forth in time, switches between characters, sometimes uses dialogue tags and sometimes doesn't. If you want a good plot and a pace that pushes along, this book isn't for you. If you like books which explore human character and spirituality, this book is for you. It takes its time telling its story of love and healing and relating to the Earth and the beings on it.

What can I say? I really liked it, and am going to look for more recent Alice Walker books.

[Cheryl Klein · Rating 2 out of 5]

As I read this book, I kept thinking, "Wait, Alice Walker is one of our great American writers, right? What am I missing?" To the extent that there's a plot, it's about a couple who take separate vacations: she to an Amazonian meditation retreat where everyone takes some kind of hallucinogen they call "Grandmother"; he to Hawaii, where he lands in a consciousness-raising circle that raises his consciousness about everything from processed food to the history of transgender shamans. My tolerance for New Age anything is fairly low, and for all the factoids about oppressed peoples that Walker tosses in, her main characters are well-adjusted Americans who live off their art, can afford fancy retreats and don't have any problems that aren't solved immediately.

The latter was my real issue with this novel: Every character has an epiphany on pretty much every page. The protagonist learns in a dream that she's afraid of growing old, and that she shouldn't be. Except she'd been prancing around loving her gray hair up until that point, so it was hardly rewarding to see a resolution to a problem I didn't know existed. I'm sure it's really eye-opening and life-changing to go on a rain forest retreat. Not so much to read about one.

[Eba · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really needed this book. I read it at just the right time of my life. Parts of it are really out there, and the ending was disappointing, but the quest for spiritual (re)awakening that happens in this book almost moved me to tears.

This book was very well-written, and though I wanted to read it all in one sitting, I found it is much better to read it in bits and to slowly digest it. Amazing.

[Emma · Rating 1 out of 5]

Starts off mildly engaging but soon becomes a self-indulgently dull trek through spiritual mumbo-jumbo, devoid of insight into its own hypocrisy as two groups of mostly wealthy, spoilt people try to find themselves and solve the world's problems, mainly by vomiting copiously under the influence of hallucinogens and holidaying in Hawaii, before doing absolutely nothing practical to better the universe. Contains discomforting inverted racism, sweeping generalisations about drug addicts and bulimics and the most ludicrous passage on aliens that I have ever read (apparently we're safe from invasion because Earth is blue and so is space so aliens can't see us on their monitors; yes, it's that stupid).
Terrible.

[Donna D'Angelo Struck · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought I would love, love this book but I had so much trouble getting through it. I made it about a third of the way through on audio and, as another reviewed noted, "I just don't get it". I think Walker's writing is beautiful; it's just that her style is not my cup of tea. I had so much trouble following the chronology and found myself constantly going back to re-listen to parts in an attempt to understand where she was going.

This is my first of her books so I may have to give her another chance and/or pick up this in book form at some future time.

[Celia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this book on Audio CD. Read by Alfre Woodard, it was a rare gem.

The book reads like short stories but they are linked by the spiritual encounters and thoughts of Kate. I loved listening to it.

It was a great book for February as it satisfied two February themes: love and Black History Month.

Alice Walker has a beautiful way with words and expressing ideas. I recommend this book for the romantic in you.

4 stars

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart off the library shelf because I liked the title, then decided I definitely wanted to read it after finding a child's drawing inside as a bookmark. (Improvised bookmark left by previous borrowers are always a sweet moment of connection with another reader - in the past I've found train tickets, receipts, and even the card from someone's funeral.) It also occurred to me that I hadn't read an Alice Walker novel for about twenty years. Her writing is beautiful in this tale of personal exploration and healing through travel, human connection, and psychedelics. I particularly enjoyed the evocative descriptions of journeys to Hawaii and into South American rainforests. The protagonist Kate reflects upon her life and relationships from the comfort of middle age, although her narrative and that of her boyfriend also examine racism, colonialism, and other collective traumas:

We are very old, our people. Not many could have suffered as we have and survived. We have had many lifetimes as human beings to learn of the many, many ways we do not wish to be.
But we are human, she said, and therefore we already are every way there is.
That's true, he said, but there is still a bit of room for choice. Which is why it is worthwhile to remain in contact with your ancestors.
They were now walking on the same road, side by side. A pale, full moon was setting.
Did you realise ancestors have jobs? he asked.
I bet the slaves who died don't want to hear that! she said, and laughed.
He smiled, and a bit of blood dripped in the red dirt.
Do you think when a tree dies all its work is finished? Of course not. It then has the work of decomposing, of becoming soil in which other trees grow. It is very careful to do this, left to itself, and not hauled off into a lumberyard. If it is hauled off to a lumberyard and if nothing is left to decompose and nurture the young trees coming up... Disaster!

I read Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart in one sitting, as it's an involving and insightful story of spiritual exploration and emotional healing. The title is certainly apropos.

[Jennifer James · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't finish this book. I had trouble following the chronology -- I got halfway through the book and still couldn't tell if the action was taking place before or after the first chapter. The characters' values and thought processes were so foreign to me that I had trouble following the action and dialog. That's an unusual experience for me, since I cut my teeth on speculative fiction. I usually like Alice Walker, which is why I picked this book up, but this one was just a little weird for me. Maybe I'll come back to it in 10 years or so and see if it makes any more sense to me.

[Carmen Barcelona- Leverone · Rating 5 out of 5]

I tend to be good at picking up books that pertain to my life experience and desires of the moment. My absolute favorite book of Alice Walker is Temple of my familiar because the stories are elaborate and almost mythical. This novel is pretty straight forward its about a woman around her 50s who has reached a stagnant point her life and seeks inspiration, self and love for life through travel. From as far as I've read she's braved the Colorado river and is now in a jungle somewhere in South America with some fellow travelers and a Shaman.... So far so good

[Eliza]

No rating/DNF and I feel so terrible about it because Alice Walker is my literary hero.

But this book? Ma'am.

The couple, Kate and Yolo, had me in the beginning. I was vibing off of their relationship (I do love me an older woman/younger man trope). I loved that they went on separate self-exploration vacations. However, it seemed like life was happening to them instead of them actively recovering from their own internal traumas. I found myself uninvested in them both about 60% in and I stopped. LOVE Alice Walker but this was a miss for me.

[Miranda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly a mini spiritual handbook. I thoroughly enjoyed this read. Lessons woven into and out of each story, and each character, is so mindfully done. I felt as though I was sitting on my grandmother's lap, taking in stories I won't understand until I am an adult myself.

If you are looking for inspiration to connect to your wild side, this is one of them. If you need a push to be or to become who you are, this is one of them. I promise. This book will leave you curious, quiet, and aware. Alice Walker, this is beautiful.

[Smitha Murthy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strange metaphoric journey - that’s what ‘Now Is The Time To Open Your Heart’ turned out to be. There is no discernible plot. Rather, Alice Walker moves you in a languid stream-of-consciousness style through the twin journeys of Kate and her lover Yolo.

It’s Kate’s journey as she seeks peace, understanding, and meaning through Shamanic rituals that made for the more interesting part of the book. This is not the sort of book to be read if you are looking for a ‘light’ read. It’s more a dream rather than a book. A series of journeys rather than a book. A metaphor and symbol, words and no-words - it’s difficult to describe and hard to recommend unless I know that you are in the mood for a dreamy journey.

[Dominique McAlister · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is going to make you want to take strange drugs with shamans in the jungle. After repeatedly dreaming of dry rivers, Kate Talkingtree, a 57 year old author, leaves her lover, Yolo, to go on a spiritual journey. She starts at the Colorado River and ends up in an Amazonian jungle, while Yolo goes on his own adventure in Hawaii.

If you are looking for a book with a traditional plot…a beginning, middle and end… this isn’t it. Believe it or not, none of that matters. This book is timeless and transformative because Alice Walker intentionally wrote it to read the way water flows. (I listened to the soothing voice of Alfre Woodard via audible.)The story sounds like stream of consciousness that sweeps the reader in and out of each character’s thoughts and memories. Walker even gives a voice to trees, snakes, the land and the dead.

Kate inevitably deals with her fear of growing old and Yolo finds himself on his journey as well. I give this book a 10/10 for its ability to tackle healing from abuse, aging, self actualization, colonialism, racism exotification, classism, minimalism, gender dissonance, NativeAmerican, Hawaiian and Australian history, culture, and tradition, marriage divorce, celibacy, addiction, consumerism, humanbonds, hallucinogens, ancestor connectedness, environmentalism, activism (and more I’m sure) from a womanist perspective.

[Labmom · Rating 1 out of 5]

If this book were not written by Alice Walker, who is a fantastic storyteller ususally, I would have stopped after the description of the main character's altar (Jesus next to Che). Apparently she writes menopausal, new age, soul-searching tripe now. Next time I want to read Walker, I'll go back to "The Color Purple" or "The Temple of my Familiar."

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely story, beautifully written, just kind of boring.

[BookChampions · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading the works of Alice Walker is nothing short of transformative. When I first began to read her books, I was an awkward and shy 18 year-old; her generous vision of the world and of humanity changed me forever. It really doesn't matter which of her books I pick up to read and reread; the fictional space I enter is vast, hopeful, uplifting, progressive, and nonjudgmental. There is welcoming room for women and men of all sizes, and for all races. Everyone can rewrite their story, revise their life, and regain a connection to others and the greater world.

Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart is a book about two middle-aged lovers, Kate and Yolo, who go on personal journeys (one to the Amazonian jungle and one to lesser-populated Hawaiian island) in order to become closer to themselves, closer to stronger and healthier versions of themselves. Although Kate and Yolo are at a different stage in their lives than I am (even more so when I first read this book in 2004), I can't help when I read this book but want to change my life, too!

Walker's prose is prophetic, often sage-like, and at times I feel I'm reading the reflections of a Buddhist monk or a spiritual shaman. Walker is certainly concerned with the spiritual pulse of the Earth, but she is also concerned with relationships between family members, feminist issues and environmental needs. All of these get addressed over the course of this short novel, and when I finish it, I'm left with this feeling that I should do something more to help the world be a better place. I am a more compassionate human being because of her work.

Alice Walker is a generous writer. Her activist and passionate love for humanity and the Earth is palpable in her prose, and for that hopefulness, I will consider her a personal treasure.

[Khulud Khamis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book came to me at the right time, when my activism is taking a different path. A path towards healing our world. Alice Walker is a sage. This is book of one woman's spiritual journey. It is slow and deep and beautiful. It's about the importance of a supportive community, and respecting mother earth and our ancestors.

A couple of quotes that resonated strongly with me:

"When you are caught up in the world that you did not design as support for your life and the life of earth and people, it is like being caught up in someone else's dream or nightmare."

"The world was almost at the point of forgetting what a fine time people can have helping one another. That people like to work together and to kick back after work and share their expansiveness. What would happen if our foreign policy centered on the cultivation of joy rather than pain?"

Alice Walker is the author of The Color Purple, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize.

[Danielle Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is everything short of amazing. I blindly purchased this book at a used book store several months ago and it patiently collected dust on my book shelf until recently. I am so thankful that I pulled it off of the shelf and indulged in it. This book is exactly what I needed.....a transformation on many levels and permission to seek out these opportunities!

Alice Walker has a beautiful way of pulling you into each of her poignant characters and launching you on a journey with each of them; to the point that I lost track of what was fiction and what was merely fragments of my own journey or that which I feel I am being led to. My spirit resonates in both Yolo and Kate, and though this was a novel, they still continue to dwell in my mind.

[Marne Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a novel, this book isn’t very successful at all. It tells the story of a year in the life of a woman named Kate as she travels the world visiting various gurus and healers. The plot is not nearly as important as the many revelations she has during her journey. Although a lot of them are really out there, Walker relates them in such a calm, peaceful manner that I always felt safe and intrigued. Like a lot of other reviewers here, I feel that I was drawn to this book at just the right time to ponder its mysteries. Maybe one day you will be, too, but until you are, it probably won’t do much for you as a narrative.

[Amanda · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Color Purple is one of my all-time favorite books, so I was beyond excited to find this book and I couldn't wait to start reading it. I struggled through almost half of it, and gave up because I just couldn't put myself through it any more. I was bored out of my mind. I suppose if you're interested in all that "finding me" stuff, you might be able to enjoy this, but for me, it just felt like it was rambling on about pretty much nothing.

[Iván Mahoney · Rating 1 out of 5]

So so so bad. Maybe I caught this book in the wrong frame of mind, but I had such high expectations for it after loving ‘The Color Purple’. There was nothing in it that did anything for me, and I was just bored reading it. I think Walker was trying to go for some spirituality type musings, but this really didn’t hit the mark for me.

[Karson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written by The Color Purple lady! It's a spiritual journey that an older woman takes. It was really pleasurable. I have a qoute from this book on my wall "opening beyond where i am afraid to go will be the medicine for my cure."

[Brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book to be very healing and such a relaxing read. Like sitting in the sun with an old friend, listening to them reflect on their life and troubles. A tale of self revelation and preservation, this story takes you on a journey to your own self discovery along with the characters

[Glenetta · Rating 1 out of 5]

Now is the time to read a different book.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each time I read this book I feel something new. I love how accessible Alice walkers writing is, and still earthdeep with meaning and wisdom. This is in my top 5 favorite books of all time.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Profound and gorgeous. A rich tale of interconnection and spirituality, the wisdom of which resonates long after you finish reading.

[Judy King · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alice Walker has a list of memorable books and been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, yet for this book she drew on the depths of her skill and talent to record an evocative personal story and spiritual journey.

Maybe the truths in the book rang so clear because the book centers on the searches of a woman of age trying to resolve her youth, her relationships, her joys and her fears in order to move fearlessly into, as the Mexicans call it, her "Third Age."

At moments the spirit guides, shamans and curanderos in the story brought to mind other masters of spirit in story form: Carlos Castaneda, Richard Bach, Clarissa Pinkola Estes and Marianne Williams as the storytellers served up knowledge and wisdom of the ages along with quotes from the Dali Lama parables and children's stories.

Reading this book in 2017, it was surprising and strangely eerie to discover that a book that so aptly described many of today's international problems and the distress within the U.S. was written and published in 2004.

Walker has outdone herself this time. The lessons she shares are not new, nor are the experiences of the principle characters. Still, the expert way she presents them create a moving story while giving the reader food for thought for days and weeks to come.

[shandy⚡️ · Rating 5 out of 5]

a transformational journey that the main character Kate undergoes within her life. She encounters people on her path to heal during a ayahuasca trip in Peru. People of all different walks of life, all past lives coming together under the shamanic trance to understand themselves. Coming to understand that the universe is a soul and spirit , coming to understand how our suffering descends from our ancestors. We then can look to them (nature and animals) as guidance. Indigenous culture seem to universally attribute nature as the creator and protecting it, the multi faceted gender and sexualities we have, the love that we contain. Kate understands the context within what we live in regarding a soulless colonial structure but allows herself to live in spirit. She allows herself to be free.