The Sea Birds Are Still Alive by Toni Cade Bambara


The Sea Birds Are Still Alive
Title : The Sea Birds Are Still Alive
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 0394711769
ISBN-10 : 9780394711768
Language : English
Format Type : Paperback
Number of Pages : 220
Publication : First published January 1, 1977

Ten stories of Black life written with Ms. Bambara's characteristic vigor, sensibility and winning irony. The stories range from the timid and bumbling confusion of a novice community worker in "The Apprentice" to the love-versus-politics crisis of an organizers wife, to the dark and bright notes of the title story about the passengers on a refugee ship from a war-torn Asian nation.

Young girls, weary men, lovers, frauds and revolutionaries -- Toni Cade Bambara handles them all the expertise, passion and huge talent. As the Chicago Daily News said, "Ms. Bambara grabs you by the throat...she dazzles, she charms."

The Sea Birds Are Still Alive Reviews

  • Miles

    Again, I cannot believe it took me this long to find this woman's work. I struggle to think of very many writers who do the short story better; there are no writers who do a better job writing short stories about young Black people. Part of what I appreciated in the difference between Sea Birds and, say, Gorilla, My Love, is the turned attention to other Black peoples of the world. This collection felt more international than GML, though each are heavily invested in centering the Black experience.

    My incredibly minor critique is I wish the last short story was, well, longer.

  • Carrie Laben

    Published in 1977, this book is not only still relevant in terms of content (most of the stories center around Black women active in community/political life) but glorious in its celebration of language and non-linear form.

  • KL

    Slice of life stories about really well-realized characters. Really good. Often sad. As timely today as it was when it first came out.

  • Erssie

    A must for enjoyable and educational reading
    I read this when I did a newspaper article on the Women's Press fiction.