The view that many Christians have is that, after this life, our souls go to heaven and we walk streets of gold, wearing white robes and singing hymns for eternity. What Marshall does is show that our eternal destiny may in fact look a bit more like our current earthly existence than we realize.

Marshall correctly brings out the biblical teaching that the created order is basically good, and therefore it can be embraced. Sin is not the essence of the creation, sin is an imposter.

Because many Christians have wrongly interpreted Biblical passages on the world and worldliness we have adopted an attitude that sees this world as something evil at worst, or unnecessary at best. Either way, this world and this earth and this creation are to be avoided or endured until the time when we will be freed from all of it.

However, Marshall shows very well that sin is to be removed from the creation, the creation itself is not destined to perish. He demonstrates that this creation is destined for renewal, not eradication. Eternity will be spent in a new heavens and a new earth.

Such a view has implications for how we live now. Our work, our rest, our play, our culture, our politics, and all human activity has value. We are to embrace our earthly callings. He makes the comment that all honest work is pleasing to God. Paul tells us - wheter we eat or drink, do all to the glory of God.

All of life can be and should be done to the glory of God.

One weakness of the book is that he does go overboard on showing that this earth is our home. I once had a professor who said that when a ship is listing badly to the right, you don't jump up and down in the center to get it straightened out. You jump up and down on the left. I think this is what Marshall has done here - he has seen how the church has overdone it on the otherworldliness and is trying to get us back on course about our responsibilities in the here and now. As such, he doesn't deal adequately with the verses that speak of our identity as pilgrims, strangers, aliens, etc..

With this minor weakness I still have no problem giving the book 5 stars. It is a beneficial and necessary read for Christians.

Jeffrey Ian Ross

Alas, I suspect Penguin is simply engaging in good marketing here. Yuppies buy most of the books, and this one is a perfect ego-stroke to yuppies. It lets you say you know something about MLK, without having your basic worldview challenged by a truthful presentation of his real meaning. Imagine Dr. King living to challenge our economic and political elites over several more decades. If you're smug and dumb enough to believe this wouldn't have mattered, you'll be happy to have Frady's tropes.

The book is a serious miseducation.

Mr. Frady was one of those reporters assigned to interpret and bring some sense of clarity to the public about the rising civil rights movement and its major leader, King. As a young reporter, he carried out his mission and now as an older statesman of the press he gives us another view about King, his work and his impact on the national scene.

Martin Luther King, Jr. focuses on the success, failures and conflicts of a leader caught in a movement that swept him up into the pinacles of history. We see another dimension of King who is vain, unorganized, guilt ridden and a womanizer. His lieutenants are egotistical, mystical, self-serving and dedicated to the cause of freedom. King's genius in keepint these varied personalities in check for a greater cause is a testament to his genius.

Frady really doesn't tell the reader anything new about King that hasn't been said before. He merely encapsulates previous information into a format that is readily accessible to those who want to get a brief history of King and the movement but can't endure reading works of countless pages of information. In this Frady excels and does a fine job of being brief but doesn't offer the reader in better insights about the man.

I would recommend this book to those who want to get a brief snapshot of King from the perspective of a white southerner. Otherwise I would encourage readers to explore other books that give a more in depth look at the complex life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr.

A theme of this book is how Dr. King's moral vision and achievement emerged from moral conflict. Dr King spent most of his career walking a difficult path between extremes. At the beginning of his career, he was criticized by the more conservative black establishment which preferred to use the courts rather than demonstrations as a means to promote racial equality. Indeed, Frady tells us, the Mongomery bus boycott of 1955, which catapaulted Dr. King into national prominence, did not end the segregation of the city's bus system -- a court decision did.

Towards the end of his career, black leaders such as Malcolm X and Stokely Charmichael pressured Dr. King to abandon his philosophy of nonviolence. He did not do so. But Frady shows us how Dr. King and Malcolm X near the end of their lives each learned something from the other.

King's most difficult moral struggle was with himself. Frady gives us a convincing picture of how Dr. King, whose appeal rested upon an ability to convey moral and religous principle, struggled (unsuccessfully) with sexuality. A myriad of affairs followed him and his mission from beginning to end. Frady has insightful things to say about the relationship between Dr. King's tortured, complex personal life and his public mission.

Frady also describes how near the end of his career with segregation on the decline in the South, Dr. King tried to expand his mission by opposing the war in Vietnam and by his "poor peoples campaign" which Dr. King saw as an attack on the materialism, impersonality, and greed that he found pervaded American life. In so expanding his mission, Dr. King alienated many of his followers. His lasting achievement does not rest upon these later activities, according to Frady, but rather upon the idealism and moral committment with which he was able to infuse American life during a few short years.

Frady gives us an eloquent discussion of Dr. King's "I have a dream" speech in Washington D.C. Later in his career, Dr King set forth his vision for America by speaking in terms of a "Beloved Community", a phrase adopted from the early 20th Century American philosopher, Josiah Royce. Dr King said (p. 183) "When I talk about power and the need for power, I'm talking in terms of the need for power to bring about ... the creation of the Beloved Community." Our nation is still trying to recover something of Dr. King's idealism and of the best of his vision.

This book encourages us to think about and to formulate for ourselves the vision of America as a "Beloved Community" by reflecting on the life and achievement of a complex man.

On a Caribbean cruise, Avey Johnson begins to have symptoms of both mental and physical illness. Driven by needs she doesn't understand, she leaves the cruise and finds herself adrift in a tide of Patois-speaking islanders, who are all intent on a cultural pilgrimage to a neighboring island. Her meeting with an island patriarch draws her into the pilgrimage as well. There, she learns that this is the culture she abandoned at the same time she abandoned her working-class roots.

The flashbacks to her life with her husband Jay not only chronicle her life preceding the cruise but also give a greater understanding of Avey as she throws herself headlong into a mysterious journey of self-discovery. The greater familiarity with the character is one of the book's strongest points.

The reason the book only rates four stars is that its symbolism makes it inaccessible when simply read for pleasure. This is not an offense worthy of a whole star, so my actual rating is four and a half stars, or 90%.

The symbolism sprinkled throughout the book does provide constant rewards, though- like Shakespeare, you can never finish gaining new insight through re-reading.

I feel confident in recommending this book to anyone who enjoys character-driven fiction. The symbolism was made apparent to me, as I read the book as part of a writing course. With that in mind, use only as directed.

The Harlem Renaissance poet Countee Cullen speaks of a creature of leisure in his short poem, "For a Lady I Know"--the type of person who expects those of an African-American heritage to handle matters of work even unto death. Jerome Johnson, the husband of the staid protagonist of Paule Marshall's _Praisesong for the Widow,_ Avey Johnson, lives the reality of Cullen's words. The industrious Jerome labors beneath an Irish supervisor who allows Jerome to do all the work in the department store they both work in, while the supervisor takes the credit. Jerome expresses his dismay about this in an argument he has with Avey one evening, in which she accuses him of cheating on her in the long hours he spends away from the home. He cries: "Okay, you go take my job at the store then! Go on. Go on down there and see how you like working for some red-faced Irishman who sits on his can all day laughing to himself at the colored boy he's got doing everything" (105)

When Jerome is young, newly married to Avey and living on Halsey Street, he is aware of the pressures of race working at the department store in the shipping room. Not only does he organize the store's floor so that it is efficiently run during its opened hours, he also stays after work late, slaving in the storeroom to ensure that the store will be smoothly operating during the next day. Jerome's supervisor realizes that Jerome runs shipping and receiving, although "[Jerome has] to be careful not to make it appear so" (92). This truth is known throughout the store, even to the salesgirls who secretly admire Jerome's work ethic and charm. The pretenses of the supervisor's work are just a formality, something that is probably meant to soothe the supervisor's ego and to keep Jerome's job in the Caucasian-dominated store safe.

In working as endlessly as he does, allowing another person to take the credit, Jerome is succumbing to the sway of oppression. He is aware of the sacrifices he is making and how they strip pieces of his dignity away from him, even if he does not outwardly acknowledge it often. When he does speak of it, it is in the privacy of his apartment, and only to his wife. He downplays the seriousness of what he is allowing to happen to him in order to survive in a business that favors light-skinned people. He says to Avey, trying to laugh it off: "Two jobs for the salary of one. They really got themselves a good thing in me" (92).

Jerome's attempt to find levity in the bad business practices of his supervisor seems to be his way of coping with what would otherwise fill him with anger and despair. Hints of the passion and rage burning beneath his civilized façade emerge during his lovemaking with Avey, a time when he is able to surrender from the pressures of race that are a force during his working hours and also, when he returns home. During these stolen times with Avey, Jerome alternates between an almost blind need to possess her and a desire to cleanse himself of the sins of the day. During one interlude, he cries to her, like a man stripped of his dignity and bared to the marrow: "Take it from me, Avey! Just take it from me" (129). Marshall likens the emotion of the moment to, "a burden he wanted rid of. Like a leg-iron which slowed him in the course he had set for himself" (129).

The impassioned Jerome speaks beneath the surface of their sexual liaisons and perhaps hints at the shame he feels at having to present himself a certain way for the benefit of his Caucasian coworkers. Jerome neatly grooms his mustache with oil and carefully presses his clothes, trying to affect an air of appeal and trust amongst his coworkers. He secretly takes pride in the fact that they do not regard him the way they do most African-Americans. Many African-Americans refer to this readiness to appease Caucasians as "the Uncle Tom syndrome," which relates to the title character of Harriet Beecher Stowe's _Uncle Tom's Cabin_, first published on March 20, 1852. Certainly Jerome "Jay" Johnson does not do these things for any other reason but survival. Instinctually, he realizes that he must play a certain game to move further at the store.

Later in Marshall's novel, after Jerome has scaled the proverbial ladder of success, he becomes disparaging of the African-Americans who are not as successful as he is. On one of his tirades to Avey, he shouts:

The trouble with half these Negroes out here is that they spend all their time blaming the white man for everything. He won't give 'em a job. Won't let 'em in his schools. Won't let 'em in his neighborhood. Just won't give 'em a break. He's the one keeping 'em down. When the problem really is most of 'em don't want to hear the word 'work.' If they'd just cut out all the good-timing and get down to some hard work, put their minds to something, they'd get somewhere (135).

Avey gently reminds him that he was turned away from jobs because of his colour and also overworked so another could take his credit; Jerome is not moved, showing that the strain of the past has taken quite a toll on him. Clearly, he has changed from the young, ambitious man he used to be. Where he once eagerly returned home from work to dance to his favorite records by "Coleman Hawkins, the Count, Lester Young (old Prez himself), The Duke--along with the singers he loved: Mr. B., Lady Day, Lil Green, Ella" (94), he now returns home sans his mustache, proud of his accomplishments in a world that had once denied him. Jerome fails to realize that in discovering success in the Caucasian world by pretending to be something other than himself, he has left a piece of himself behind. The burden of colour is now the mask he wears, a mask that has become his face until even Avey mourns the loss of the man he once was, compared to the man she sees before her in the final years before Jerome Johnson's death.

Written by Jewel Welter

The stupid step, out Written by Harry Allad, was the funniest book I have ever read. Stanley Q Stupid had an idea. He called all stupid and said 'we are stepping out's they took a bath. Petunia asked way there wasn't water. The reason was that with water they would get their clothes wet. They got in the car and went to their grandparents house. The grandpa didn't know who they were. 'Where is grandma? Asked buster. In the closet, said grandpa. Then they left. They saw themselves in the mirror. 'Don't stare at those people, kids " they said. Then they went to eat and then they went home. They got ready for bed and thanked god for a nice day liked it because it was funny and it had a kid's sense of humor like when the dog drove the car. I recommend this book to people who like to laugh and be silly. You should read this book it is great!

Norton's three fights with Ali are covered in great detail, as these fights brought him into the public's consciousness. But once again the emphasis was on the blow by blow coverage instead of anecdotes and recollections about the fights. He expresses his bitter feelings about his third fight with Ali in which he feels he should have been given the decision. Having trained so tremendously hard for this fight and then having the decision go against him, Norton relates how this heart went out of boxing at this point. Although he becomes the Heavyweight Championship of the World title two years later when Ali retires, Norton is unable to retain te title in his first defense against Larry Holmes. He blames his failure to defend the title on his lack of dedication to boxing after the last Ali match. His heart was just not in it. I can't help but think Norton would have received the professional recognition and justification he so craved had he defeated Holmes. Their match was an exciting battle that culminated in perhaps one of the greatest rounds of boxing ever. Had Norton pulled out the decision, he would have probably been rematched with Ali one final time and had his best chance to defeat his nemesis decisively. However, history and fate turned a different direction, one that did not include a prominant role for Ken Norton.

Norton's private and then public feud with his son, Ken Norton Jr., make up a complete chapter in the book but this held little interest to me, a boxing fan.

Ken Norton is a decent man who had an interesting career, being both a boxer and a fighter. His experience acting as the characters "Mandingo" and "Drum" are only briefly mentioned. Again, there are few interesting stories or revelations about this time of his life. I would have liked to hear more.

Norton's book is a quick and easy read, as there are no major character controveries, conflicts, or issues to digest. I did not find it compelling in any regard. It was an easy book to put down. I had hoped for much more. As far as boxing books go, I have to rate it sub-par.

Jim Koenig

kens a funny guy to listen to, but his humour doesn't really come across well in this book. overall it's a relatively interesting read, but does not draw you in the way the books of george foreman, joe frazier, larry holmes, and quick tillis do.

unless you really love kenny, i'd give this one a miss.