The Cushion in the Road

February 4, 2013
In linking meditation to wandering, the distinguished and prolific Walker, whose books include the Pulitzer Prize– and National Book Award–winning The Color Purple, produces a meandering assortment of her ideas and musings between 2008 and 2012 about matters spiritual, political, and personal. Figuring in her diverse and self-absorbed ruminations are, among others, Obama, Hilary Clinton, Dennis Banks, Cicely Tyson, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Julian Assange, Bradley Manning, and John Lennon. The mélange includes her reflections on her favorite films and audiobooks, her officiating at a gay marriage, her own “marriage”—to her cat and dog, her imagining Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera’s response to the drug cartels, along with her public letters to, among others, Aung San Suu Kyi and Nawal El Saadawi. She notes that her “mentor and teacher” include the Dalai Lama and Amma, Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Castro and Mandela. The section “On Palestine”—where Walker recounts her journey to Gaza with Code Pink, her participation in the Freedom Flotilla, and argues for a “one-state settlement”—will likely attract the most attention. Walker’s concern for the state of humanity and the planet comes through as impassioned and genuine, as does her view of the place of meditation in her personal life. Agent: Wendy Weil, the Wendy Weil Agency.

February 15, 2013
In a new collection, Walker (The Chicken Chronicles, 2012, etc.) once again shows herself to be a deep and compassionate participant in global humanitarian efforts. Beginning with a meditation on the promise wrought by the first inauguration of Barack Obama, the author's essays, poems and letters are infused with a quiet grace and gentle resolve to act responsibly. Although now in her 60s and looking forward to a time to "withdraw from the worldly fray," Walker was prodded off her meditation "cushion" in Mexico by world events and sent flying to far-flung places in the world that required her keen, writerly eyewitness. For example, one essay was inspired by finding herself in Cape Town, South Africa, as a juror at the Russell Tribunal on Palestine. She also headed to Gaza with CODEPINK and the Freedom Flotilla II, and she composed another essay about her "overcoming speechlessness" after the horrors witnessed in Rwanda and Eastern Congo. Brave, resilient and upbeat, Walker offers unbending meditations on injustice wherever she has met it. The "womanist" author explains why she supported Obama over "Mrs. Clinton" ("if he wins the presidency we will have not one but three black women in the White House...none of them carrying the washing in and out of the back door") and offers reflections on her early teacher Howard Zinn and her early work for the freedom movement in Mississippi. Walker's "recipe[s] for difficult times" provide a heartfelt response to a new generation's yearning for public service.

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March 1, 2013
Walker's declaration, I have been a political, social, and spiritual activist for most of my life, and feel connected to peoples and struggles all over the world, sets the tone and focus of her latest, poem-laced essay collection, as does her characterization of herself as a person of three colors (African, Native American, European). Walker traces the roots of these trinities of vocation and identity to her mid-twentieth-century childhood in overtly racist Georgia as she writes of her devotion to gardening and meditation and her remarkable global journeys as an intrepid advocate for peace and justice. Although the book begins with dated, oddly awkward essays about President Obama's first term, Walker's compassion, courage, and humor gain strength and eloquence essay by essay. She shares her openhearted views on love; condemns torture and war; offers distinctive perspectives on Cuba, South Africa, and Gaza; pays homage to her heroes, from Howard Zinn to Aung San Suu Kyi, John Lennon, and Julian Assange; critiques books, which she calls lifeboats; and assures us that we can all help bring about change for the communal good. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Media attention will surge for this provocative collection by Walker, a revered writer of conscience.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)