The Temple of My Familiar »

In her highly praised fiction and her wide-ranging nonfiction, Pulitzer-winning author Alice Walker often concerns herself with various types of violence toward women. Her stories are often painful to read, but she uncovers insights about race, gender and human resilience along the way.

First published in 1990, The Temple of My Familiar, Alice Walker’s follow-up novel to her iconic The Color Purple, spent more than four months on the New York Times Bestseller list and was hailed by critics as a “major achievement” (Chicago Tribune).

Described by the author as “a romance of the last 500,000 years,” The Temple of My Familiar

follows a cast of interrelated characters, most of African descent, and each representing a different ethnic strain—ranging from diverse African tribes to the mixed bloods of Latin America—that contribute to the black experience in America.  

Publishers Weekly

Part love story, part fable, part feminist manifesto, part political statement, Walker's novel follows a cast of interrelated characters, most of them black. and each representing a differ ent ethnic strain that contributes to the black experience in America. Marred by didacticism, theorizing and pontificating, ``the book never achieves the narrative power of The Color Purple ,'' noted PW . (May)