Four Spirits: A Novel (P.S.)
by Sena Jeter Naslund
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Book Summary Information
Author: Sena Jeter NaslundEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-09-07
ISBN: 006093669X
Number of pages: 560
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Book Reviews of Four Spirits: A Novel (P.S.)
Book Review: Naslund extols uncommon courage during civil rights movement
Summary: 4 Stars
"Four Spirits," Sena Jeter Naslund's majestic, reflective and somber recreation of a pivotal period during the civil rights movement, reminds us that once upon a time, unknown moral giants lived amongst us. While inspirational giants such as Martin Luther King, Jr., served as our national moral compass, anonymous men, women and children -- some of whom would become martyrs to the cause of racial justice -- transformed King's lofty rhetoric to concrete reality. Their individual acts of conscience placed them at enormous risk, yet they summoned, from the depths of their personal convictions, the courage to act on principled belief.
Naslund's novel interweaves the lives of the foot soldiers of the movement; she unflinchingly exposes their fears, ambivalences and doubts about personal valor, the efficacy of non-violence and the possibility of creating a society based on racial egalitarianism. Each character has an integrity and a wholeness, a core set of values, which make them not only understandable to us, but believable. "Four Spirits," therefore, is a work that is much greater than the sum of its parts. At its best, the novel is an evocation of the spirit of possibility that animated African-American and white men, women and children to sacrifice everything for an idea whose very nature exemplifies our national purpose. As the characters grapple with their own demons, ranging from profound personal loss to serious character weakness, Naslund effects a gripping narrative of a city, Birmingham, Alabama, locked in the grip of the greatest social movement for change in the twentieth century.
Stella, who survived a horrific childhood automobile accident that claimed the lives of her family, describes herself as "somebody who wanted to change...to live more fully." She longs for a "broader" scope for her life and discovers it in the movement. She befriends the wheelchair bound Cat Cartwright, who in turn finds the inner resolve to become a freedom fighter. These two college-aged white women become colleagues with the defiant Christine, a single-mother of three, who eagerly seizes the opportunity to teach citizenship classes in the evening at an African-American college experimenting with an integrated staff. Their leader, the charismatic Lionel Parish, unsuccessfully attempts to exorcise his sexual appetite while calmly exercising leadership under the most extreme circumstances. All share an unspoken idealism; each discovers the strength to resist evil non-violently.
"Four Spirits" is far from a flawless work. A talented writer, Naslund often permits her admiration of a neatly turned phrase to interfere with her narrative; the novel suffers tends to be overwritten. Some pivotal characters, such as the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, have important roles early on and then inexplicably disappear. Other characters, especially the nefarious Klansman Ryder Jones, are caricatures. The semi-illiterate Jones, for example, not only violently abuses his wife but is a bungling bomber. His evil is lessened by his abject stupidity. Naslund also permits one of her characters (a child during the movement) to reflect on the early 1960s as an adult. This unwelcomed change of tense disrupts the narrative and unfairly gives us access to only one character's subsequent evaluation of the period.
Nonetheless, "Four Spirits" demands attention. Its uncompromising perception of racism and its equally stirring remembrance of uncommon courage remind readers that the genuine giants of the civil rights movement were regular citizens, who, for reasons both personal and political, felt as if the entire history of the nation would pivot on their actions. Their linkage of thought and deed, of conscience and commitment, in Naslund's sure hands, are moving tributes to what the United States should be.
Summary of Four Spirits: A Novel (P.S.)
Weaving together the lives of blacks and whites, racists and civil rights advocates, and the events of peaceful protest and violent repression, Sena Jeter Naslund creates a tapestry of American social transformation at once intimate and epic.
In Birmingham, Alabama, twenty-year-old Stella Silver, an idealistic white college student, is sent reeling off her measured path by events of 1963. Combining political activism with single parenting and night-school teaching, African American Christine Taylor discovers she must heal her own bruised heart to actualize meaningful social change. Inspired by the courage and commitment of the civil rights movement, the child Edmund Powers embodies hope for future change. In this novel of maturation and growth, Naslund makes vital the intersection of spiritual, political, and moral forces that have redefined America.
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