No Crystal Stair

by Eva Rutland

Growing up in Atlanta during the 1920s and 1930s as a member of the black privileged class, Ann Elizabeth Carter, the daughter of a doctor and granddaughter of a slave, comes face to face with the realities of prejudice and segregation when she marries Robert Metcalf, a black pilot stationed at Tuskegee, Alabama. Reprint.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, African American

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Lynn Pribus · Rating 5 out of 5]

How could I not give 5 stars to this labor of love by my writer friend Eva? I was in a critique group with her for many years when she was writing what she termed her "boody books" various light and Regency romances.

But always, always, she was working on this largely autobiographical book which was always her love. She worked on it for years with the huge disadvantage of being blind.

That is Eva on the cover of the book, by the way.

[Cilla Savary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellently written. The author reminds us that there is no universal experience for anyone in any culture or time. She tells this story masterfully of a woman who grew up in a sheltered peaceful community at the beginning of the worst of the violence in the 1960s. Her characters are fully developed. Her plot is fully laid out. I read this book because I read a review that said she was a masterful writer who is mostly unknown. I concur. This book, and this author are well worth reading.

[Cheryl S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. An interesting look into the 20th century from the perspective of a black family in America. Anyone who read "The Help" and enjoyed it would probably like this book.

[Fran Baxter-Guigli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This important novel should be required reading by anyone majoring in US History. It is an unabashed romance, but it also covers the critical years in Black history from WWII through the Civil Rights Movement, Black Power, and afterward. As a child, I spent summers in the segregated south where my mother grew up, and reading the dialogue and situations that Eva Rutland brilliantly created was a shameful reminder of overt racism but also the more subtle and pervasive prejudice outside of the deep south. Eva Rutland lets her characters prevail to pursue and achieve happiness.

(I was able to look beyond the typos in this edition, which says a lot considering I used to proofread professionally.)

[Doreen Simms Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

first edition much better

I was truly dismayed over the amount of grammatical errors in this addition. I read the first edition years ago. Overall the content was good and it displayed what happen to Sadie and Dan at the end of their lives.

[Christy]

Wonderful story.

[Kevyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

No Crystal Stair takes place in the years between the 1940's and the 1970's. it is about an uppper class black family living a high class life in segregated Atlanta, Georgia. In the spring of 1942,Dr. Dan Trent proposes to the main character, Ann Elizabeth. Ann Elizabeth likes Dr. Dan Trent but she is not sure that she loves him, so she puts off the proposal. Meanwhile, Ann Elizabeth's mother wanted her to marry him because she see's that as an oppurtunity.

I did not this book at all. It has no real plot, it is just all of the little events that happen in the characters lives over a 30 year time period. This book is nothing but a timeline of little events over a whole period of time. I like books with a definate story and a climax. This book doesnt have either of those.

[Virginia Brace · Rating 4 out of 5]

So glad I read this book and added its point of view to what I am learning about the period I lived through in the 1950's. This story begins before WW II, but gives the picture of a well-to-do black family and the experiences of educated Negroes during the war and after when they were beginning to enter the business world as professionals. It won't make a block buster movie, but it was very well told.

[Nix · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best book I've ever read... : )

[Juliana Philippa · Rating 5 out of 5]