A memoir of ideas and perceptions, Bone Back shows the unfolding of
female creativity and one strong-spirited child's journey toward
becoming a writer. She learns early on the roles women and men play in
society, as well as the impotence of children, especially black female
children. She sheds new light on a society that beholds the joys of
marriage for men and condemns anything more than silence for women. In
this world, too, black is a woman's color - worn when earned - daughters
and daddy are strangers under the same roof, and crying children are
often given something to cry about. In school, hooks sees that
integration most resembles corralling, with black children herded,
prodded, and pushed like cattle. And the learning agenda is to teach
these children to forget their history and the injustices done to them
and to embrace the ways of white folk. hooks finds comfort in solitude,
good company in books. She also discovers, in the motionless body of
misunderstanding, that writing is the most vital breath. She is taught
by an elder that quilting is the way a woman learns patience. And
hooks's patience, coupled with the insight and bravery that readers have
come to expect from her, is rewarded with the strength to keep in touch
with the wounded parts of herself and to grow beyond the scars by
stretching the confines of history, tradition, and family to encompass
her expansive spirit.
