The Book of Light

February 1, 1993
Clifton's ( Quilting ) latest collection clearly demonstrates why she was twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. These poems contain all the simplicity and grace readers have come to expect from her work. The first few pages set the title in a larger perspective at the same time that they announce the book's premise: ``woman, i am / lucille, which stands for light.'' This is a feminist version of Roots , charged with outrage at the sins done to women of previous generations. There are the typical heroes and anti-heroes: Atlas, Sisyphus, Leda, biblical women--but even these tired figures are given a new, often comic, twist: Naomi, for example, doesn't want Ruth's devotion, just to be left alone to ``grieve in peace''; several poems are addressed to Clark Kent as the speaker comes to terms with the realization that he doesn't have the power to save her after all. And what do today's women have instead of superheroes? Jesse Helms; fathers who ``burned us all.'' Though it is based more or less in traditional Christianity, the poetry also is concerned with how spirituality can be personal. Low key and poignant, poem after poem takes the form of a conversation, whether woman to her dead parents, Lucifer to God, or poet to reader.

April 1, 1997
A 1996 National Book Award nominee for The Terrible Stories, African American poet Clifton writes with "the passion of a born survivor" (The Book of Light, LJ 2/15/93).

February 15, 1993
Her first name means "light," and this book is Clifton's lavish improvisation on that theme. In her signature short poems, Clifton continues her exploration of what it means to be "born in Babylon / both nonwhite and woman," finding a fierce joy in her very survival: "come celebrate / with me that everyday / something has tried to kill me / and has failed." In this book there is the light of fires, including the firebombing that destroyed the Philadelphia Move House in 1985 and the "smart" bombing of Baghdad; there is the fire that sparks wild and loving eyes; there is the fire of passion and of fury. In its sweep, its consistency, and its power, this is one of Clifton's finest works. ((Reviewed Feb 15, 1993))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1993, American Library Association.)