Women and Power, the Confounding of Gender, Race and Class

Paule Marshall's canon, Daughters represents an apothesis in her writing and her thinking. In this, her fifth book, I believe she has arrived at place in her work that she has been reaching at for long time. She has joined her craft and her thoughts into near ideal marriage, with delightful results. 1 first became acquainted with Paule Marshall's work in Brown Girl Brownstones, (henceforth BGBS), and wrote review of it for The Black Scholar (Vol 3, No. 9, 1972). (BGBS had been published by Random House in 1959, praised but not bought; died, but was resurrected by Avon whose edition I reviewed.) A lot of what I said then has remained relevant throughout her career and is especially relevant to Daughters. I noted that her strengths were her attention to craft (So much wretched writing going she said, that she wanted no part of); character delineation and development; and her ability to tell good story. Silla the Mother in BGBSwas described by Marshall as a complex of actions, feelings and attitudes who was best understood in relations with those whom she loved and hated

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