I hate those allegorical beginnings of so many books by black authors. But I suffered through this one and was richly rewarded, until I wasn't. The first half to two-thirds of this book is pretty good. Interesting weave of characters through history and interesting backdrop of Charleston (a city I don't know much about). After the early nineteen hundreds, though, the book goes off the rails and becomes merely a survey of black music through the twentieth century. Now whether this was due to two authors writing or the fact that Shange had a series of strokes during the writing, I don't know, but the book could have ended hundreds of pages earlier and would have been a masterpiece.

My other problems with the book? Every time someone gets raped, they get pregnant. What happened to Lizzie's dad? His disappearance drove me nuts. Oh, and particular to the book on tape version - there were errors. I got to hear the reader start reading, clear her throat, correct herself and ask for another take, not ONCE but TWICE. So sloppy!