["Praisesong for the Widow"] rings with the same music and some of the same lilting Barbadian speech [as "Brown Girl, Brownstones"], but it is a firmer book, obviously the product of a more experienced writer. It lacks the soft spots of the earlier work. From the first paragraph, it moves purposefully and knowledgeably toward its final realization. The widow of the title is Avey Johnson, black and middle aged, decorous to a fault in her tasteful dress, her long-line girdle and he...

Rarely has a first novel come to hand which has the poignant appeal and the fresh, fierce emotion of "Brown Girl, Brownstones."… Racial conflict and the anger and frustration it nurtures are part of this tale, but equally, if not more, important are the personal conflicts of men and women making roots in a new land, of men and women caught in duels of love and hate, of ambition, envy and failure.

When Mrs. Marshall writes about those she truly loves, she cannot be resisted. Her singularly talented first novel ["Brown Girl, Brownstones"] describes the childhood and adolescence of a Brooklyn girl whose parents, both Barbadian immigrants, share an unhappy marriage and a memory of their native island…. To Selina's mother, Silla, the island represents poverty, oppression, and a poetry and beauty that she misses and despises. To her father, Deighton, the island is his heart�...