Makeda - Paperback

by Randall Robinson (Author)

"Eloquent and erudite, Robinson's oft-times mystical coming-of-age saga teems with rich and evocative historical insights." --Booklist

"Robinson writes with erudition about strange and wonderful matters." --Kirkus Reviews

A selection of the Open Lens imprint.

Makeda Gee Florida Harris March is a proud and graceful matriarch, the anchor and emotional bellwether who holds together a hard-working African American family living in 1950s Richmond, Virginia. Embattled by the social ills of the day and the deferred dreams of Makeda's son David and his wife, the hopes of the March family are pinned on their elder son Gordon and the seedlings of change that will grow into the Civil Rights Movement. Lost in the shadows is Gordon's younger brother Gray, who is also bright and perceptive, but doesn't quite measure up in his own eyes, or in the eyes of his father.

While struggling to survive the emotional vacuum of his household, Gray escapes into the safe and magical world of his grandmother Makeda's tiny parlor. Makeda, a woman blind since birth but who has always dreamed in color, begins to confide in Gray the things she "sees" and remembers from her dream state, and an increasingly detailed story emerges that is layered with historical accuracy beyond the scope of Makeda's limited education. Gradually, Gray begins to make a connection between his grandmother's dreams and the epic life of an African queen described in the Bible . . .

Part coming-of-age story, part spiritual journey, and part love story, Makeda is a universal tale of family, heritage, and the ties that bind. It is about the people who help to shape and mold us, and lead us into the light. Appealing to the deepest sense of who we are, Robinson plumbs the hearts of Makeda and Gray, and summons our collective blood memories, taking the reader on an unforgettable journey of the soul that will linger long after the last page has been turned.

Front Jacket

"In Robinson's majestic prose and sweeping historical vision, the tongues of Virginia Woolf, Gabriel Garc? M疵quez, and Toni Morrison blend to remind us that we can renew our souls in the eyes of ancestors who return to us in whatever way our lives demand."--Michael Eric Dyson, author of Know What I Mean?

"Rich and detailed . . . Makeda is a lively and irresistible story about family and the coming-of-age of an intelligent black man in twentieth-century America. At once tender, intellectually daring, and emotionally unsettling, Makeda joins that short list of great American novels."
--Kwame Dawes, award-winning author of She's Gone

"I have always loved Randall Robinson, and with Makeda I love him more."
--Bertice Berry, author of Redemption Song

"Above all is Robinson's way with language; his development of characters who float mythically through a story of epic proportions."
--Herb Boyd, author of Baldwin's Harlem

Author Biography

Randall Robinson is the author of An Unbroken Agony and the national best sellers The Debt, The Reckoning, and Defending the Spirit. He is also founder and past president of TransAfrica, the African-American organization he established to promote enlightened, constructive U.S. policies toward Africa and the Caribbean. In 1984, Robinson established the Free South Africa Movement, which pushed successfully for the imposition of sanctions against apartheid South Africa; and in 1994, his public advocacy, including a 27-day hunger strike, led to the UN multinational operation that restored Haiti's first democratically elected government to power. Mr. Robinson lives with his wife and daughter in St. Kitts.