A novel that harbors an intelligent revolutionary politics and a compassionate, penetrating humanism is an event in any time. If the time is now, if the revolution is black, if the compassion transcends race, it is a freak or a miracle, depending on whether or not you trust it. I trust "The Chosen Place, the Timeless People." I think it is an important and moving book. And Paule Marshall seems to me as wise as she is bold, for in compromising neither her politics nor her understanding of people, she makes better sense of both….

I was surprised at the quiet of this novel's reception until I discovered how difficult it is to write about. In many ways that matter to me, it is not extraordinary, but in two months I haven't stopped recommending it and—daily—thinking about it. Its form is in no way original, but...