Ntozake Shange Critical Essay | Critical Review by Valerie Sayers

SOURCE: "A Life in Collage," in New York Times, Vol. CXLIV, No. 49, 928, January 1, 1995, p. 6.

In the following review of Liliane, Sayers praises the collage structure of the narrative which combines conversations between Liliane and her psychotherapist with a first-person narrative by Liliane, her friends, and her lovers.

Liliane Lincoln, "anybody's colored child, anybody's daughter," is raised among her mother's orchids, and her story is told in hothouse prose: Ntozake Shange's new novel, "Liliane: Resurrection of the Daughter," is warm, damp and bright. The portrait of a post-modern artist whose works are political and conceptual, the novel is driven by an esthetic that seems more firmly rooted in modernism: its lush metaphors are akin to Jean Toomer's; its puckish delight in sexual imagery has a Man Ray feel.

As it happens, I'm big on Jean Toomer and Man Ray, and as a reviewer I suppose I...
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