Daddy Was A Number Runner (Virago Modern Classics) - Softcover

Meriwether, Louise

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1860492320 ISBN 13: 9781860492327

Publisher: Virago Press Ltd, 1997

Synopsis

The prospects for a 12-year-old girl growing up in Harlem in the 1930s are somewhat limited. As Francie Coffin learns, you either sell your body, wash other people's clothes, run poker games or have a baby every year. This is the story of her triumph of integrity in the world of ghetto life.

About this title

Review

"The novel s greatest achievement lies in the strong sense of black life that it conveys: the vitality and force behind the despair. It celebrates the positive values of the black experience: the tenderness and love that often underlie the abrasive surface of relationships . . . the humor that has long been an important part of the black survival kit, and the heroism of ordinary folk. . . . A most important novel."
Paule Marshall, "The New York Times Book Review"
""Daddy Was a Number Runner" is not sugar-coated or show. It is truth lived in the vernaculara Black girl's humor and empathy as she comes to understand Harlem's dreams and tragedies . . . from inside out. Louise Meriwether's voice is the Black feminist novelist's equivalent of the Blues. If you like modern classics by Naylor, Morrison, and Marshall, you will love this. . . . You will not be able to put it down or forget Francie, one of my all-time favorite characters."
Mary Libertin, "Belles Lettres"
"A tough, tender, bitter novel of a black girl struggling towards womanhood and survival."
"Publishers Weekly""

"The novel's greatest achievement lies in the strong sense of black life that it conveys: the vitality and force behind the despair. It celebrates the positive values of the black experience: the tenderness and love that often underlie the abrasive surface of relationships . . . the humor that has long been an important part of the black survival kit, and the heroism of ordinary folk. . . . A most important novel."
--Paule Marshall, The New York Times Book Review
"Daddy Was a Number Runner is not sugar-coated or show. It is truth lived in the vernacular--a Black girl's humor and empathy as she comes to understand Harlem's dreams and tragedies . . . from inside out. Louise Meriwether's voice is the Black feminist novelist's equivalent of the Blues. If you like modern classics by Naylor, Morrison, and Marshall, you will love this. . . . You will not be able to put it down or forget Francie, one of my all-time favorite characters."
--Mary Libertin, Belles Lettres
"A tough, tender, bitter novel of a black girl struggling towards womanhood and survival."
--Publishers Weekly

Edition details

• Publisher: Virago Press Ltd
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1860492320
• ISBN 13: 9781860492327
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208